Everton Library 1998
Everton Library and Mere Bank public house, 1975
Liverpool has too many good building at risk and it is particularly sad when they belong to the City Council. The news last week that Everton Library is on track to receive a major renovation is very welcome news.
Libraries have had a very difficult time in recent years. Nationally, local authorities have been closing them down as spending cuts squeeze their budgets, citing declining use and the need to protect more essential services.
I am of a generation brought up to use and value libraries and their essential role in education. For many, they have been a source of inspiration, a treasure trove of learning that they could never afford themselves. Everton Library, in the heart of a deprived community, provided a priceless resource for adults and children alike. Designed by a very talented City Surveyor, Thomas Shelmerdine (who was also responsible for Kensington, Toxteth and Garston Libraries amongst other works)and opened in 1896, it is one of Liverpool’s finest art nouveau buildings.
More on Shelmerdine in the next blog but the hope is that, in 2016, a completely refurbished library and community meeting place will reopen to serve its community for generations to come.
A brief mention for Mere Bank public house, a splendid half-timbered pub standing next to the library and opposite St George’s church. Quentin Hughes was particularly fond of the proportions and craftsmanship displayed and included it in his Liverpool: City of Architecture as the building to kick-off the twentieth century (it opened c1900). The last time I passed it, it was closed and up for sale. Another sad reflection of our times.
I agree! Libraries have a place close to my heart too. I remember as a child and teenager often visiting Wallasey Central library – another fine old building. What really go me was the smell of all those books. I have it to this day and love it!
I hope the pub survives too!
regards
Charles
Excellent news that the library is to be saved and given a new lease of life – with the pub and the church there is a real core to this part of Everton which in many other ways is a blighted part of the city with far too many good buildings lost. The city council needs a pro-active approach to urban regeneration in these poorer areas of the city, which are never going to attract the big money that the waterfront can. Why not use these old village patterns as a way of cementing community to an area, and defining the suburbs as urban ‘villages’?
The first library I remember was in Lodge Lane. I’ve no idea if this building still exists. I hope it does and that some child somewhere is reaping the reward from the book shelves.
There was a cake shop nearby, and sometimes (usually when the books were due back and I was low on motivation) I would be bribed with some money for a cake, if I walked to the library with my books.
I spent many hours in Everton Library when I was a child. It gave me a love of books and reading that has never left me. It’s a beautiful building deserves to be saved, especially considering the architectural vandalism that went on under the banner of progress in the ’60s and ’70s in Everton.
Julie Freeman asks if Lodge Lane still exists and I’m happy to give an answer in the affirmative although I have to say I prefer it the way it used to be. I say that because, well, the old shelving that so many of us were familiar with may have been replaced by new shelving and, as is the way with many libraries, the shelving arrangements may have changed.
Speaking for myself, I stopped going the library about six years ago because I have my own library of books, many of which are copies of books I borrowed from the library on a regular basis. Not just that, but I have no time for going the library these days but for those who haven’t got the money to buy books (or indeed the space), well, libraries are a like another blood supply.