Description: The Italianate Free Library and Museum on Bird Street looking north-west with the building housing the Probate Court to the right. On the left is the entrance to the Museum Grounds, opened as a public park in 1859.
The Library was constructed in 1857-59 to the design of Bidlake & Lovatt and was described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner in his The Buildings of England: Staffordshire as 'small, of yellow brick and funny'. Just discernible in this view is the stone statue of a sailor mounted on the side of the building - he bears the inscription 'HMS POWERFUL' on his hat band. HMS Powerful was a Royal Navy cruiser launched in 1895, which played an important role in delivering troops and guns for the relief of Ladysmith during the Boer War; it is believed the statue commemorates this event.
Other features worth noting are the two tall posts in front of the building - that to the right is a flagpole, but that on the left appears to have a rather more mundane purpose as a sewer vent. The parked Bullnose Morris Cowley car (registration NU 7074) belongs to the photographer, who often included his mode of transport in his pictures.
Although the museum and library later vacated this site (the former by 1981, the latter in 1989), the building was Listed Grade II in 1993. In 2011 it was in use as the Lichfield Registration Office.
This photograph was taken by Derby-based postcard publisher F W Scarratt but it is not known what number he allocated it in his series. However, he is known to have made a photographic foray to Lichfield circa 1927 and if taken on this occasion that would place its number in the 1350s.