London public libraries

Hello!  I am well aware I’ve been on the quiet side recently, more so than I was anticipating.  This is because work has been a bit more sporadic than I’d hoped – I’m a temp, so stability can’t be expected.  This means I have a bit less cash for outings, but I think I’ve been keeping reasonably busy on a budget for the past couple of weeks.  Hence the topic of this post – libraries.

I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about public libraries since coming over to London.  I’m not overly keen on investing in too many books while I’m here; this is as a result of the inital cost, but more importantly because I’m not here long-term and so anything I buy will have to be brought home at some stage, which also costs money.  I also believe that we should really make use of public amenities if they’re to be kept up to any kind of decent standard, and so have been trying to put my money where my mouth is for the past six weeks.  This has turned out to be more difficult than I’d thought, however.

Forest Hill library

My first port of call was Forest Hill library as it’s my local one.  I had thought before my first visit that I’d got lucky in having this as my local library as there was much talk on their website of a new refurbishment and recent investment in stock.  While they have done it up nicely with a great deal of natural light, it’s a small library with correspondingly little floor space for books.  I have to say I was quite disappointed on my first visit to find that their non-fiction section was really quite tiny, with a couple of three- or four-foot tall bookcases for the entire subject of history.  However, through further use I’ve found it’s not a complete write-off – while there may not be fantastic choice on-site, you are very easily able to reserve books online and request items from other libraries in the borough for collection at the library of your choice, and I think their self-service computers for borrowing and returning books (the equivalent of the self-service tills in supermarkets) are pretty nifty when they work.  Also, a revelation for me, they open on Sundays.

However, not quite satisfied, I was advised to try out the main library in my borough if I was after a more comprehensive choice, so I took myself off to unlovely Lewisham’s unlovely Lewisham library.  While this did indeed have a better selection than Forest Hill spread over a number of floors, that’s not really saying much (Forest Hill is all on one level).  And the Lewisham building is unrelentingly grim – low ceilings, poor lighting, lack of seating, industrial shelving, confusing layout, etc.  I don’t advise a visit to Lewisham library if it can be helped.  Same goes for Lewisham, really.

Venturing out of my own borough, I stopped by the Islington South library when I was out there last Saturday on an errand.  This was most dispiriting, as I’d thought it stood a fighting chance of fulfilling my idea of a good library (lots and lots of books) as it is situated in a part of London where people are more likely to make more of a noise about public amenities than in Lewisham.  Wrong.  A trend that I’d noticed in the other libraries was taken to a farcical extreme in this library – more DVDs and CDs on show than books: I got the distinct impression that I had wandered into a Blockbuster Video which happened to have a few books at the back.  Another oddity I’ve noticed over here is that one pays to borrow DVDs and CDs.  In Ireland, at least in the public libraries I know well, there is a much smaller selection of multimedia than I’ve seen over here in any of the places I’ve mentioned, but they’re completely free, just like the books.  The London libraries ask for only a small payment (about £2 for a recently released DVD for three nights, for instance) but the very idea that you ought to give money to a library for anything other than a late fee is anathema to me.

Beginning to despair of finding a really good single library, I acted on another recommendation and took myself oop north to Swiss Cottage, where I finally found something to my liking.

Swiss Cottage library

This one seems to have everything I want – lots of space and light and full of books.  There are plenty of other services, too, with a large selection of DVDs, a smaller rack of CDs and plenty of computers for booking, but the main business of this place is clearly the printed word.  The only drawback is that I have a train and then a Tube journey to get to this one, a round trip of a couple of hours at least.  I’m still on the lookout for better facilities south of the river, so if anyone has any recommendations (or warnings), please do leave a comment.  I’ve heard good things of Peckham, so that may well be next on my list.