Saturday - 18 April
Carnegie Library Garden
On 31 March, 2016 Lambeth Council closed the Carnegie Library for an indefinite period, but local residents refused to leave and remained in occupation for 9 days
When they left, following a court order, they marched to Lambeth Town Hall accompanied by a thousand-plus supporters
This became national and international news
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2pm Refreshments; 3 - 4:30pm Reunion
All welcome!
If you were there, share your stories, photos and souvenirs -
if you weren't, come and find out what happened!
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Hosted by The Friends of Carnegie Library
Many thanks to all who attended (on Saturday and ten years ago)
There was laughter and there was tears and much to celebrate. We did it. We defended the ten. Ten years ago the Lambeth Council was talking seriously about closing libraries in its network and running some of them without librarians. That didn't happen. We still have ten libraries in Lambeth and they are all staffed by professional librarians. It was the "Occupation" wot done it, becoming for almost two weeks a focal point for local, national and even international news cycles.
Losses there have been. We miss the children's library in the front room (arguably once the bigliest and bestliest local children's library in the world) and the dedicated art gallery and meeting room next to it. Our librarians are under-staffed, working stretched and chaotic shifts to keep things going, and many thanks to them for that. The budget for new books has been axed (but somehow new and interesting titles keep appearing on the shelves). We miss the extra rooms, for the students to study in peace, for adult literacy groups (Ruskin Readers once used to call the Carnegie Library home), for the fabulous chess club, and our reading & wildlife garden is not what it once was, we cannot pretend otherwise. But the Carnegie Library Library is still here, there are still ten libraries in Lambeth, we still have a very talented team of professional librarians working for us, and the Council can be in no doubt of the importance of local libraries to the community.
On Saturday we also remembered Rachel Heywood, who could not be with us but sent a moving message that was read out. Rachel was the only councillor in the ruling party who acknowledged the community support for the libraries in opposition to proposed cuts. She spoke out on numerous occasions and she was there in front of the Brixton Library, speaking to and for the two thousand people reportedly who marched from the Carnegie Library to Windrush Square when the occupation ended. This ended her career in Lambeth politics.
