Campaigners agree landmark deal in battle to save Kensal Rise Library

 
“Outrage”: the protest against All Souls after the pop-up library was taken down (Pi
Alex Lentati
25 March 2014

Campaigners have come to a landmark agreement with developers that could save Kensal Rise Library.

The historic library — opened in 1900 by Mark Twain — has been empty since 2011 when Brent council decided to close it, along with five others, to save more than £3 million.

The council handed the building back to its owners, Oxford’s All Souls college, which sold the site to a developer on the understanding part would be kept for non-commercial or residential use.

Now, following lengthy negotiations, all parties have agreed a plan to allow campaigners to turn about two thirds of the building’s ground floor into a volunteer-run community library.

If the plans are approved, they will open the new library, currently operating as a pop-up in a nearby café, once the building has been redeveloped.

Friends of Kensal Rise Library had lost two court cases against council bosses and had their former pop-up library closed.

Margaret Bailey, chairwoman of the group, said the new proposal “seems like the best compromise”.

She said: “We started with nothing. The council gave the building back to the college and we had absolutely nothing.

“Although the ideal would have been the whole building, what’s paramount for us is that we have a part of that ... We got two thirds of the ground floor and that’s some achievement. Compromises have been made but we were determined to have a library in that building.”

Supporters of the library include writers such as Zadie Smith, Alan Bennett and Philip Pullman.

Councillor Roxanne Mashari, Brent council’s lead member for libraries, said: “With the council losing 50 per cent of its grant funding from central government ... I believe that this case has demonstrated how we can work in partnership with the community to maintain and continue services in spite of the onslaught.”

All Souls made the decision to sell the building to Andrew Gillick, of Kensal Properties Ltd, in December 2012, with the understanding that the new owner would make space available to All Souls so it could be allocated to the community for D1 — non-residential or non-commercial — use.

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An All Souls spokesman said it was always their intention to reserve part of the building for the Friends of Kensal Rise Library, saying: “We’re delighted.”

A spokesman added: “Now it’s between the developer and Friends of Kensal Rise Library.” Gillick did not respond to requests for comment.

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