LEICESTER’S Central Library is celebrating its 120th birthday with a week of free activities for people of all ages.
From Tuesday (6 May), the Bishop Street library is inviting local families to step back in time and experience the library as it might have been in 1905, with the help of Edwardian toys, writing implements and archive materials loaned by Leicester Museums.
The exhibition of Edwardian artefacts will continue throughout the summer, so people can pop in any time when the library is open.
At 5pm on Tuesday (6 May), the library will host a discussion on the ‘Magic of Libraries’, with poetry, performance and a panel of local authors and library enthusiasts. Admission is free of charge and no booking is required.
On Wednesday (7 May), children from Hazel Community Primary School will join assistant city mayor Cllr Elaine Pantling at the library to cut a 120th birthday cake, with crafts, games and storytelling helping to take the Year 5 class back to 1905.
Also on Wednesday, there’s a lunchtime talk by crime writer John Connolly – bestselling author of the Charlie Parker Mysteries – who will read from his latest book, The Children of Eve. Please contact the library to reserve your free place.
To celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day on Thursday (8 May), the Media Archive for Central England (MACE) is bringing some rare archive footage to the library that captures life in Leicester and Leicestershire during the Second World War.
The screening of Leicester on Film: 1939-45 starts at 7pm. Admission is free of charge, but places must be reserved in advance by contacting the library.
On Friday (9 May), there’s a Toddler Time birthday party at the library at 10am and a guided walk that starts in neighbouring Town Hall Square at 12.30pm, while on Saturday (10 May) there’s a free craft session in the children’s library from 1pm-3pm.
Assistant city mayor Cllr Vi Dempster said: “Leicester’s Central Library started life as the municipal reference library in 1905, at a time when many people had no other way of accessing information.
“Today, 120 years later, it’s still a source of inspiration and information for the people of Leicester, who pop in to borrow a book, read the daily papers, use the computers to apply for jobs, or join our regular events and author talks
“I hope that the activities we’ve arranged to mark the library’s 120th birthday will bring people together, showing that the central library continues to be an important meeting place that provides a valued public service in the heart of Leicester.”
Designed by the architect Edward Burgess (1850-1929) and supported by a generous donation of £12,000 from the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), the Bishop Street reference library played a vital role in the cultural and intellectual life of Edwardian Leicester.
When it opened on 8 May 1905, it offered room for up to 100 readers in its ground floor reading room, with a separate lending library for ‘juveniles’ in the basement and a reading room exclusively for ladies on the first floor.
With the population of Leicester growing rapidly in the late 19th century, and a growing number of them able to read and write, the new library was intended to be an inspiration to all – but it also hoped to encourage Leicester’s factory workers and labourers to use their leisure time for self-improvement.
On its opening in 1905, the Leicester Daily Post wrote that it was better “that the average shoe operative, factory worker or shop assistant should spend his leisure hours with Dickens, Thackeray, Scott or George Eliot” rather than “soak in a pub” or “hang around street corners”.
Picture caption: Leicester’s municipal library in 1908, three years after it opened to the public.
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