A little over a year ago, the Greenwich Phantom ran a piece on the uncertain future of East Greenwich library. The Heart of East Greenwich project was struggling ahead, placing the future of the listed building in doubt.
With the Heart of East Greenwich project stalled, I wondered what had become of our library. Last week I met with Terry Wheeler from the Friends of East Greenwich library to find out what had changed in a year. The pictures below describe the library's general condition better than I can:
With the Heart of East Greenwich project stalled, I wondered what had become of our library. Last week I met with Terry Wheeler from the Friends of East Greenwich library to find out what had changed in a year. The pictures below describe the library's general condition better than I can:
Terry said that a lot of the leaking was put down to the lead being stolen from the roof - he didn't know if the council had replaced it - and poor drain maintenance under the building that had caused the floors to become saturated and rotted the parquet floors. These have been removed and the library has been recarpeted, but a lot of water still seems to be getting in.
Parts of the building are derelict, including a flat above the front of the library that has been condemned. The physical library itself occupies about 1/4 of the building space, another 1/3 or so appears to be used by Greenwich Community College, while the remainder is derelict. It also has a basement area, though if the ground floor suffers from water seepage, then goodness knows what the areas below ground are like! The boiler has also been broken in the library for more than a week - perhaps by now it's been fixed?
It's a crying shame. I think this is a sad example of a place being neglected in anticipation of a new replacement library, but since that's all stalled now, they're basically stuck with a building that's got into such a poor state of repair that it's going to take a lot of investment to put it right. They've also put it into a spiral whereby the opening hours reduce, the book selection shrinks, so fewer people visit, so they can't justify keeping it open, so they reduce the opening hours... and so on.
Terry said the council had estimated putting the library back into good repair at £2.3 million. It's going to need a lot of work, but I think if you put the flat back into action and thought cleverly about the use of space, it would not just be of service to the community, but begin to start paying for itself - particularly as Terry tells me the new "heart of East Greenwich library" isn't even phase one of the development, it's going to be somewhere along phase two or three. I must confess that I have my doubts as to whether it will ever happen, and even if it does, surely Carnegie's donation to the borough should stay open for the enjoyment of the borough?
More details to follow.
Parts of the building are derelict, including a flat above the front of the library that has been condemned. The physical library itself occupies about 1/4 of the building space, another 1/3 or so appears to be used by Greenwich Community College, while the remainder is derelict. It also has a basement area, though if the ground floor suffers from water seepage, then goodness knows what the areas below ground are like! The boiler has also been broken in the library for more than a week - perhaps by now it's been fixed?
It's a crying shame. I think this is a sad example of a place being neglected in anticipation of a new replacement library, but since that's all stalled now, they're basically stuck with a building that's got into such a poor state of repair that it's going to take a lot of investment to put it right. They've also put it into a spiral whereby the opening hours reduce, the book selection shrinks, so fewer people visit, so they can't justify keeping it open, so they reduce the opening hours... and so on.
Terry said the council had estimated putting the library back into good repair at £2.3 million. It's going to need a lot of work, but I think if you put the flat back into action and thought cleverly about the use of space, it would not just be of service to the community, but begin to start paying for itself - particularly as Terry tells me the new "heart of East Greenwich library" isn't even phase one of the development, it's going to be somewhere along phase two or three. I must confess that I have my doubts as to whether it will ever happen, and even if it does, surely Carnegie's donation to the borough should stay open for the enjoyment of the borough?
More details to follow.
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