Stoke Newington Library awarded £499,700 grant to improve reading, study, culture and children spaces
Hackney Council’s Library Service has successfully applied for a Government grant of £499,700 to redesign the interior of Stoke Newington Library into creative, inclusive and innovative new spaces.
The Libraries Improvement Fund award from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will help make the premises fit for modern library users while retaining the historical features of the Victorian building.
The enhanced service will provide residents with improved reading rooms, study spaces and a new children’s area as well as a cultural and digital hub which will deliver on what 8,500 residents said they wanted from their local libraries in the new Libraries Strategy. The new library will provide a new integrated space for the Community Library Service and allow for more opportunities for creativity, heritage and culture to flourish.
We are delighted to receive this investment which will help us realise our vision for Stoke Newington Library and make a huge contribution to the lives of local people. Libraries play an increasingly important role in our communities and have become much more than just places where people can borrow books. This investment in the building will help to ensure that the library is able to carry on serving its communities for years to come.
We want our libraries to be innovative and inclusive places, offering the best facilities possible for our residents, and this funding will help us achieve that. Improved reading, study and children’s spaces, better visitor flow and flexibility as well as access to improved stock, cultural activities and technology will support all library users to have an enhanced experience of the library and its services.
Stoke Newington Library is among 43 library services to receive a share of the £20.5 million Libraries Improvement Fund. The fund aims to transform public library services in England by helping them upgrade their buildings and improve their digital infrastructure so they are better placed to respond to the changing ways people use them. This is the third round of the fund, with 52 projects already benefiting from around £10 million of funding in previous rounds.
In February, Hackney Council announced that the library will close its doors to the public from Saturday 30 March for up to two years for a renovation project which includes repairs made to the roof and fabric of the community facility as part of a wider £4.4 million investment into the borough’s libraries.