London libraries #9: Northcote Road, SW11

In the time it’s taken me to get around to writing this one, the old library has been demolished (I took the photo, below, for the purpose of this blog, in 2012) and a flash new one built across the road from it. The new Northcote library, built in 2023, has lots of facilities (I love the quaint way that ‘printing’ is top of their list of facilites available at the library. I mean, who prints nowadays? Next they’ll be promoting books…), including room hire, workspaces and computers.

Local residents opposed the building for various reasons, partly its size, as it blocked out the sun of the houses behind it. But overall it looks pretty swanky and modern, though of course I was fond of the almost-brutalist old one, and an Edwardian building, Chatham Hall, had to be demolished to make way for the new one.