OUR FOUR-WHEELED, BOOK-CARRYING, BEHEMOTHS… The final in our series of articles for National Libraries Week 2020, celebrating the history of the Leeds Library Service – a short history of Mobile Libraries in Leeds… ***** It’s not everywhere that we can build a branch library, and even if we could not everyone would be able to…
Tag: public libraries
National Libraries Week 2020: The Staff of the Central Library
The penultimate piece in our week of articles celebrating the history of the Leeds Library Service – this time, taking a light-hearted look at anecdotes from staff who have called the Central Library home… ***** Library (noun) – ‘A place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (such as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films)…
National Libraries Week 2020: Headingley, Hunslet and Middleton Libraries
Headingley Library We continue our celebration of the local libraries across Leeds, with a trip to the north of the city. There has been a library presence in Headingley since 1884 when the first branch library opened on an evening in Bennett Road Board School (1882, now the Headingley Heart Community Centre), In 1892 it…
National Libraries Week 2020: Compton Road, Crossgates and Garforth Libraries
PESKY KIDS, ESCAPES FROM TINY TERRACES AND ECHOING FOOTSTEPS… Compton Road Library Compton Road Library opened in 1927 at a cost of £11,332 most of this met with money from the Carnegie Trust, and just like Bramley it has a very similar layout and was built with identical materials. The building was designed to adapt…
National Libraries Week 2020: Armley, Beeston and Bramley Libraries
CLEAN HANDS, A LOVE OF STAMPS, AND ONE FUTURE PRIME MINISTER… Armley Library To begin our celebration of local Leeds Libraries during National Libraries Week, we need to go back to 1868 when the Public Libraries act was adopted by Leeds; it didn’t take long to get organised and by 1870 branch libraries began opening…
National Libraries Week 2020
It’s National Libraries Week 2020 so we decided to celebrate ourselves and the libraries we have provided all the way back to the 1870s when our first ones opened. Local Libraries hold a soft spot in the hearts of their borrowers (no, not the short folk living behind the skirting from Mary Norton’s classic work…
A Partial History of Leeds Central Library
This last Wednesday, to mark National Libraries Week, four of our Local and Family History team, plus one intrepid volunteer, delivered a talk offering a brief history of Leeds Central Library, primarily derived from material found in several volumes of news-cuttings covering public libraries in Leeds. So, this week on the Secret Library we offer…
The Secret Library | Leeds Libraries Heritage Blog 