Photographs from collection submitted to Cabinet
Brent Cabinet will be considering major plans to rectify structural problems at Kilburn Library and improve the facility at its meeting on Monday. The project will cost £765,000 of which £534,000 would come from Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy and £231,500 from an application to the Arts Council of England's Library Improvement Fund.
A dossier of photographs (see above) are submitted alongside the proposed works.
Offices explain:
This investment will:
· Upgrade the library facilities and building, including the substantial but
underused garden;
· Implement a flexible design to expand the use of the library and enable
hires outside of core opening hours;
· Improve the accessibility of the building through improved design and
signage;
· Extend the footprint of the building to create a dedicated event and
learning space which could also be used for community hire.The last refurbishment undertaken at Kilburn Library took place in 2009/10.
Structurally, the building is in a poor state. There are large cracks forming in the
structure of the building and there is concern that debris may fall. Furnishings
are mostly fixed and offer limited flexibility to develop the library offer or adapt
the space for different audiences and uses. There is no dedicated event space
despite the strong demand for cultural programmes in the area. Local
consultation for the Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022 also identified
community priorities of food growing and access to green space. Kilburn Library
has an underutilised garden and will meet this need, but it requires investment to
make it fully accessible and be used more extensively by the community.
The works would entail building an extension to the existing building and
reconfiguring the layout to create a larger more flexible space. The driver for this
is a need to increase engagement with residents in the South Kilburn area and
to meet an increased demand and need for services, with a particular focus on
digital, learning, culture and health, following the large amount of growth that is
currently taking place and expected to take place. The new spaces and design
would enable us to increase our programming in these areas and work more with
local partners to expand our reach and library usage in the area.
The increasing population of South Kilburn is cited as a further reason to improve the facility.
Costings:
The Project Plan
8 comments:
Of course this is Brent!! Give away good libraries and keep the ones that need work. Only in Brent could this happen
Kilburn Library is an important part of Brent's history.
It opened on 30 January 1894, the first of three public libraries which opened that year (the others were Harlesden and Willesden Green), following a vote by the ratepayers of Willesden to allow the Council to charge an extra penny rate, to be used specifically to fund public libraries in its district.
It was at Kilburn Library, in the 1920s, that local residents were first allowed "open access" to the bookshelves, to choose the books they wanted to borrow. Before that, they had to look through a catalogue, and ask a librarian to go and get any books they wanted to borrow from the shelves!
But why, after almost 130 years, has Kilburn Library got structural problems? Is it anywhere near where the HS2 tunnel is being built?
Good spot Philip. HS2 should pay
HS2 and Brent residents, interesting stuff, HS2 won't help invest in growing South Kilburn Public Open Space.......
or at New Harlesden Major Town Centre, spatially cross borough boundaries Brent, Hammersmith and Fulham and Ealing- "World class" biggest transport super hub in the UK building on site here, yet it is expert designed to exclude and sever not to be "World Class" Old Town Harlesden Brent.
Brent councillors AWOL, Hammersmith and Fulham and Ealing councillors on the case regarding Harlesden Major Town social and economic mega opportunity.
In segregation and severance Brent trusts.
Maybe all HS2 works suspended now further east (Euston too expensive and poor public funding value for money), will finally wake up Brent and OPDC at Brent Civic Centre?
'Welcome to Harlesden London, connections available to everywhere else in London' (The Hammersmith and Fulham part of Harlesden to become Major Town Centre is Inner London).
Where is the budget for alternative temporary premises while Kilburn Library (is it not in Queen's Park?) is closed for expansion and major repairs? How long will it be closed for?
Decant begins 16/10/23 and snagging completed 23/02/24 - so loks like closure for 4 months plus.
So expensive, I doubt the build is as suspect as some of the new blocks in SK are proving to be.
Echoes of the purpose built 1990's Job Centre (become flats) being moved out of South Kilburn near Kilburn High Road and up into Queens park for South Kilburn convenience no doubt?
In Queens Park Local Centre Victorian houses convert into shops, in South Kilburn Chippenham Gardens Victorian shops (3 in pandemic so far) are planning officer allowed to convert into flats including very dangerous basement ones (high flood risk area).
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