The Kurilpa Library is a two-storey brick building with a projecting central clock tower and addresses the main street in the inner Brisbane suburb of West End.

Previously, Schools of Arts and privately owned reading rooms provided books for loan by subscription.

At the time there were no public libraries and books were expensive, so that providing access to them for a moderate subscription was an important educational and recreational service.

The South Brisbane Council urgently requested that its scheme for building a library at West End be progressed.

They had been approached by the committee of the West End School of Arts for £2,000 in order to erect a new library with accommodation for a caretaker.

[1] The Kurilpa War Memorial Committee provided funding for a clock tower to commemorate the soldiers from the district.

Alfred Herbert Foster was an articled pupil of noted architect George Henry Male Addison.

He trained and worked in London for six years before returning to Brisbane and forming the practice of Stanley and Foster in 1902.

During his time as City Architect he designed several well-known municipal buildings including the Fortitude Valley Baths.

[1] The clock and chimes were unveiled by James Porter Fry, Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Kurilpa on 21 April 1929.

[1] Although purpose-built as a library, the building was also referred to as the West End School of Arts in newspaper articles sometimes.

Plain pilasters run to either side of recesses from a heavily moulded base to a crisp cornice line.

[1] The front fence is designed to match the building, having pillars with moulded tops incorporating rosettes.

The base of the fence is brick with a capping mould above, which is an iron railing of crosspieces with central circles similar to that of the entry balustrade.

The quality of the building and its prominent position illustrate the importance given to encouraging literacy and to reading as a recreation in the early 20th century It is important for its association with the development of the West End district, and is evidence for the provision of civic amenities in response to its growth in the early 20th century.

[1] The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.