Hawick Library is housed in the building built in 1904 in

Hawick Hawick ( ; sco, Haaick; gd, Hamhaig) is a town in the Scottish Borders council area and historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east of Selkirk. It is one o ...

and it was one of the many libraries funded by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in ...

. The library is a Category B listed building. The library, designed by J N Scott and Alexander Lorne Campbell, is a 2-storey, rectangular-plan Free Style library with a prominent corner entrance tower and round-arched gables. The library is described as ''"a good example of early-20th-century civic architecture."''

History

Hawick library 1902 drawing by John Nichol Scott

In the 1800s there had been a library in Hawick but its home was within the Town Hall. A grant of £10,000 from Andrew Carnegie enabled the construction of a purpose built building. It was one of the first design to be built by the partnership of John Nichol Scott and Alexander Lorne Campbell and Scott's design was exhibited in 1902. The new library incorporated a sculpture by

William Birnie Rhind William Birnie Rhind RSA (1853–1933) was a Scottish sculptor. Life Rhind was born in Edinburgh on 27 February 1853 as the first son of sculptor John Rhind (1828–1892), and his wife, Catherine Birnie. He was the elder brother of J. Ma ...

. The Scott and Campbell partnership had been formed in 1899 and although they won competitions their first designs that were built included St Stephens UF Church in

Comely Bank Comely Bank (; gd, Bruach Cheanalta, IPA: �pɾuəxˈçɛnəɫ̪t̪ʰə is an area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It lies southwest of Royal Botanic Garden and is situated between Stockbridge and Craigleith. It is bound on its northe ...

and Hawick Library. The building opened in 1904 and the town's celebration included a day's holiday. The library was extended in 1939 with a reading room whose stilts created a carport. The building was recognised as a listed building in 2008. In 2016 the local council agreed to transfer the running of its libraries including Hawick to a trust with an estimated saving of £400,000.

References

{{Libraries in Scotland Libraries in Scotland Listed library buildings in Scotland Hawick Carnegie libraries in Scotland