Nottingham Central Library opened in its brand new purpose built building last week and I went on one of their free guided tours to get a feel for the place since I’m hoping to do a lot of family tree research next year in the local studies section. I will say the building looks great, very modern, very spacious, very well thought out. It has been a long time coming though with its location at Angel Row closing in 2020 and the opening date of the new building being pushed back again, and again, and again. So the fact that it actually opened this year was something of a pleasant surprise!
They are still offering tours on their website up until around the 20th December and I presume they’ll carry on if there’s enough interest. I will say although our tour guide was lovely and gave us a good overview of the building’s facilities it wasn’t an in depth tour about the architecture of the building or the costings (UK folk may have noted that the day after the opening the city council that runs the library declared itself effectively bankrupt). I got what I needed out of the tour but I could in hindsight probably have worked most of it out just by having a wander – each area is very well signposted.
However, it’s always good to have someone on hand to answer any questions and a few of the people on my tour had very specific questions they needed answers to that our guide was able to help them with. The opening indeed did seem very popular with lots of people already setting up to work as well as have a general wander around and there is a nice looking cafe at the entrance as well if you want a hot drink with your book. There also seem to be a lot of events both seasonal and regular so they’re making a real effort to get the library to be a focal point. One nice little detail is that above some of the shelves there is this lace design, to represent Nottingham’s long history as a lace making city.
The old library was always busy and well used so hopefully the new building will prove just as popular.
Louise Jayne's Blog 
A real resource for the city, although maybe someone should have swung it so the bankruptcy news broke before the library opening. Good to end on a positive where possible ha ha! I’ve been reading up about Nottingham lately and historic links to Calais and lace making, all very interesting.
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Lol yes, it’s all a bit of a disaster. They’re now talking about having to close some of the smaller libraries around the city which were given something of a reprieve previously after a lot of campaigners worked hard to protect them from the last round of budget cuts.
It is interesting! I come from a very long line of Nottingham lace makers so I love reading about the history of it all.
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