Our History

How We Got Started

There was a library at the bottom of Olive Road from 1926, when land was gifted by All Souls College. When the library started to look under threat in the 1980s, a group of concerned residents got together to champion its cause. When the library was finally closed in 2011, we carried on campaigning and secured the use of the ground floor of the new purpose-built block that stands on the site of the old library at 152 Olive Road.

Our Mission

We aim to be an innovative, mixed use community hub which will include adult and children’s library facilities, which will also deliver a range of services and function as a centre of activity for all the community.

The vision is to re-establish a secular meeting place for the diverse local community which can provide book loans and other literary experiences for children including homework clubs, and to develop services further to include IT training, pre-employment training, local history centre, space for local groups to use and a community cafe where people can meet.