page_title: Old Library, Bristol
section_title: Architecture and fittings
hierarchical_section_title: Old Library, Bristol / Architecture and fittings
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo taken in 2017 August, outside viewing of Cathay Rendezvous Chinese Restaurant from King Street, Bristol
context_page_description: The Old Library is a historic building on the north side of King Street, Bristol, England. It was built in 1738–40 and has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building.
  Until 1906 it housed the main collections of Bristol's public library, which was one of the first in England when it was founded in 1613 on the same site. Users of the library included Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey and Humphry Davy. From 1779 the building also contained one of the country's first public displays of fossils.
context_section_description: The present King Street building dates from 1738–40. It was built in the early Georgian Palladian style, with a 5-window front including a 3-window centre with a pediment. The shallow porch, which has fluted Composite columns, is unobtrusive in a similar way to other buildings of the 1730s in Bristol.
  It was probably designed by the stonemason and carver James Paty the Elder, the first in a succession of members of the Paty family prominent as builders of 18th century Bristol, although John Strahan has also been suggested as a possible architect. Another possibility that has been suggested is William Halfpenny. The imposing and disproportionately tall first storey of the Old Library was echoed in Halfpenny's designs a few years later for Clifton Court and Coopers' Hall, although this could have been imitation of Paty's design.
  It is believed that Paty did carve the building's ornamentation. Unfortunately, many of the decorative features have been lost over time and as a result of repairs. Decaying features such as a fine Bristol coat of arms on the pediment, figures of putti depicted reading books above the first floor windows, and much of the mouldings and other details, were removed in the 20th century instead of being restored. One of the putti may have survived; there is one on the wall of St Michael on the Mount Primary School on St Michael's Hill in Bristol, which may have come from the library.
  A west wing, projecting towards the street, was added in the late 18th century.
  The Old Library's reading room had contained antique furniture and fittings, including an ornate oak overmantel carved by Grinling Gibbons. These were moved to the Bristol Room of the new Central Library.
caption: The Bristol old library in 2017, which has been running as Chinese restaurant, Cathay Rendezvous, since 1986.
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