« Councillors and friends of libraries everywhere | Main | A perfect library »
April 21, 2006
Westminster Libraries
Great News from Westminster. Following my call on 15 April, an unnamed person has written this. Nameless or not, it is great to receive and certain to be true
A beautiful Library is indeed a gorgeous thing and that's why we are decorating Victoria library at this very time. This is a grand Victorian building - with many of the problems that are associated with being over 100 years old - leaking roofs and skylights and a well worn shabby air. Well the roofs have all been mended and architects have defined a 15 colour palette to emphasise the architectural aspects we are so proud of - and to show off the oak shelving by Gillow.
The excellent and indeed famous music library Tim mentions is in fact on the first floor of the library with specialist staff to help users - only the store is in the basement. This library has an amazing coverage of music and is a valuable and well used resource both for serious musicians and for those who play or make music for pleasure. We are currently applying for Heritage Lottery Funding in order to improve access to the collection for all music lovers.
Victoria closed on 3 April for redecoration and will reopen on 15 May. We recommend a visit to see this and any of the other 11 libraries in Westminster We have nearly 3 million visits a year to our library (including 200,000 to Victoria) and lend over 2 million items.
Posted by: On behalf of Westminster City Council at April 21, 2006 03:13 PM
Congratulations Westminster, can you tell us what the new book stock will be like? Opening hours? Can you be open all hours? A chance to tell everyone here. Fantastic.. Indeed can we find you some more sponsors to make it all wonderful? I think I could help with the stock-- can anyone else pitch in with funds to restore the beautiful basement. We can send this to music lovers round the world. Westminster shows the way.
Are there plans for other libraries?
Posted by Perkins at April 21, 2006 9:02 PM