Hornsey Historical Society Members received an early Christmas Bonus this year as November’s lecture featured not one, but two top notch speakers.
Both spoke about Public Libraries. Historic England’s Senior Architectural Investigator Susie Barson described the historical context of the development of public libraries in England, their finance and enabling legislation. She also referred to the philanthropic movement of the late nineteenth century and how libraries were initially reference-only before their development as borrowing libraries.
Both Susie and HHS’s Conservation officer, Ray Rogers (in his third HHS lecture this year!) illustrated their talks with some excellent images from around the UK and beyond.
Ray, explaining the history of Hornsey’s libraries referred to Crouch End’s Hornsey Library as “ … a modest triumph of the 1960s that deserves to be better known.”
About Hornsey Library
Hornsey Library replaced the outgrown library on Tottenham lane, conceived while London’s local government was reformed and Haringey born. Ray observed that the counillors of Hornsey preferred to leave a “civic legacy” rather than hand over cash and resources.
The HHS took a leading role in lobbying to have the library Grade II listed during the time when there was a thread of closure and moving it into Hornsey Town Hall.
Events Calendar
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Image Credits
Susie Barson and Ray Rogers, via Author’s collection