please empty your brain below
One good bit of news is that Canning Town Old Libraryj should be reopening this year as Newham's Heritage Centre, and apart from their archives there will be a museum!

Graeme | 29.04.26 - 7:29 a.m. | #

As a former government archivist, I should have solidarity with a fellow profession.

Instead, I find myself agreeing with you: it’s a sign of the times.

Maybe our appetite for history is now diminished.

Sad, but not yet a tragedy…

Roehamster | 29.04.26 - 7:38 a.m. | #

Seeing the fate of so many local museums, it makes me appreciate Redbridge's museum even more. Refurbished and re-opened a couple of years ago, it's a very good museum of local history. The adjacent heritage centre also provides excellent service.

Alan S | 29.04.26 - 8:18 a.m. | #

I feel that something is missing from the narrative though it is hard to tell as the display 'Carnegie to Churchill and beyond' is too low a resolution to read.

I believe the library in the 1960s was on the site of the future Churchill theatre. It then moved to a temporary library in Wigmore Road (right hand picture top row in the history panel). This I used as a schoolboy. It was exceedingly cramped and had the feeling of a temporary library but it was there for a number of years - far too long. Wigmore Road was then not easy to cross which made visiting it even worse.

The new library at Bromley was such a contrast. On occasions at matinees in the theatre I even used the interval productively to return library books.

After the move I was accused of still having a library book which I had definitely returned to the temporary library and I emphatically told them so. They accepted that and admitted there were lots of books missing after the move so they sent out a letter to the last person recorded as having borrowed it. The Churchill library was a wonderful library in its heyday.

All credit to Bromley for a complete rebuild of West Wickham library though I have not visited it.

Pedantic of Purley | 29.04.26 - 8:31 a.m. | #

The small French town I regularly visit has a year round population of around 2,500, swelling to 20,000 in summer. There are 3 banks and a post office. The public library is open for limited hours 5 days a week. In zone 2 London the nearest branch of my bank is now a train ride away. They were shocked when I told them how good banking provision was in France.

ap | 29.04.26 - 8:57 a.m. | #

The statement in today’s post that shocked me and is worthy of more discussion is “… the concrete 1970s building where the library and museum are housed is approaching end of life so they're moving out.“ Is that right? Buildings now have only a 50 year life span? Who is asserting this?

Bryn Davies | 29.04.26 - 9:00 a.m. | #

Bryn - Bromley council assert this, with regard to this one specific building, and I assume they know what they’re talking about.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 29.04.26 - 9:10 a.m. | #

To add to Graeme, Vestry House Museum too should be (re)opening later in the year. I will be interested to hear what you make of the iteration when the time comes.

Michael T | 29.04.26 - 9:29 a.m. | #

Manor House Community Library, there, standing ready to defend civic amenity with its cannon.

HTFB | 29.04.26 - 9:30 a.m. | #

The one gain from Uxbridge library's move to a smaller, less convenient location was a larger and reinvigorated museum space. It also now has walk-in access to the borough's archives, which were previously only open by appointment for very limited hours.

On the Post Office front, the standalone site from before the WHS move is currently vacant but apparently won't be reused. Bah.

Andrew S | 29.04.26 - 9:54 a.m. | #

Alan S - Thanks for the tip on Redbridge Museum, I didn't even know about it but will look it up (being my borough and all).

dg writes: review here

Aldersbrook Library is a tiny one-room affair but with amazing little team of staff and really personal service to readers; in particular serving abundant numbers of local children really well. A proper asset which I dearly hope survives for many more years.

Simeon B | 29.04.26 - 12:07 p.m. | #

Does anyone else think to themselves 'Alas, Smith & Jones' when they read about such store closures? No? Just me then!

Alas, everything though, as our quality of life is slowly being eroded and our public buildings fall into private developer hands.

Cornish Cockney | 29.04.26 - 12:12 p.m. | #

Swiss Cottage lost its Post Office (located in a branch of Smiths, closed before a Jones renaming) and eponymous public house all in the past year.
At least it retains a sizeable library, and a sub post office was hurriedly opened.

If boroughs cannot afford to display collections localy anymore, then there needs to be regional back storage of artefacts, accessible on demand, copying the model of the V&A Storehouse east. Funded with a ringfenced central budget (maybe a regional mayor responsiblity if the area has a regional mayor).

MilesT | 29.04.26 - 12:27 p.m. | #

We’re also losing our WHS post office, despite being a decent sized regional town (and that had a massive crown office until a few years ago). Tbh there should be a rule forcing PO provision, it’s become far too easy for them to allow closure. Most suburban ones have gone already so it’s not as if you can be redirected a few streets away.

Nick | 29.04.26 - 12:43 p.m. | #

The Nat West in Tooting is closing in May too. Wandsworth has a museum ("heritage") collection but no museum to display the 14,000 objects it owns. It would be an interesting FOI exercise to write to the 32 London Boroughs and ask if they have a museum collection and how many objects are in it? And then you go to small provincial towns in England (Clun, Wareham) which have thriving museums.

South London Lad | 29.04.26 - 4:29 p.m. | #

....and the loss of public toilets. You've discussed the provision of these in several posts over the years.

Bob L-S | 29.04.26 - 4:37 p.m. | #

I share Bryn's shock at reading that a relatively recent building can be deemed to be at the end of its life, but this is probably less to do with current opinion and more that the building was just not designed to last for very long. If council budgets were tight, durability wasn't likely to have featured in the architect's brief. (This is still an inexcusable act of short-termism though!)

Reggie | 29.04.26 - 7:33 p.m. | #

T G Jones are teetering on the edge of administration so they could be a lot more towns suddenly without their post office in the near future

Paul | 29.04.26 - 9:31 p.m. | #

It does seem perhaps a bit unfortunate that while councils close down local museums that had provided something unique, giant museums like the V&A can afford to open up another London branch.

Mikey C | 30.04.26 - 12:03 a.m. | #











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