Library moves to art gallery while building is refurbished

AN art gallery has become the new home of Henley library while its building is refurbished, writes Emma Dodd.

The Old Fire Station Gallery in Market Place opened as a temporary library on Monday and will remain in its new form until early spring.

The gallery, which is owned by Henley Town Council, has been set up with shelving units, a seating area, a children’s reading area and a computer.

The services that will be offered include a free click-and-collect service, a limited selection of adult and children’s books, reservation services, printing and photocopying and bus pass validations as well as providing a warm space for the public to use. The remainder of the library books are being kept in storage.

The library’s permanent building in Ravenscroft Road, next to the the Waitrose car park, originally opened in 2002 and is currently undergoing an extensive refurbishment.

Once finished, the library will feature new furniture and have a revised layout, a new children’s area, dedicated workspaces and enhanced lighting for private study and work, as well as moveable shelving to enable the library space to be expanded and used for different purposes. In addition, the work will focus on improving the building’s carbon footprint with sustainable upgrades, such as double-glazed windows and a new heating system featuring a heat pump.

The refurbishment is being funded by a combination of developer funding granted by South Oxfordshire District Council and the public service decarbonisation scheme.

Keith Phillips, manager of the library, said: “It was quite busy on Monday but not as busy as usual, although that is to be expected. Unfortunately, it is a rather limited selection of what we would usually have but we feel that books available do cover quite a good range.

“We have crime, adult fiction, non-fiction books, children’s books, from toddlers to teenagers and nonfiction books for those in school.

“People can still reserve books from other libraries in the county so there is still a huge range of books that people can get. “

Mr Phillips, 39, joined the library as manager at the start of 2022. He said the library was also running a limited timetable of events but will continue to run its Rhymetime story sessions for children, book group meetings and its Thursday knitting group.

He added that he hoped that the library would soon be running a child sleep support group where parent’s of babies to children aged five could come and discuss sleep issues.

Assistant manager Peter Michalica described the library’s temporary home as “cosy”. He said: “It’s a bit of a smaller space than we had previously but I think we got all the important things in — all the printing, photocopying and validations and a nice selection of books, thanks to our librarians.

“We used to have desks and tables in the old place but due to the space limitations we have only armchairs and sofas. If people bring their own computers or something to work with that’s brilliant but we can’t really offer any desk space.”

Mr Michalica, 34, said he hoped the refurbishment of the library would enable it to continue running for future users. He said: “My personal hope is that we will future-proof the library and it’s fit for purpose for the community for decades.”

The library at the Old Fire Station Gallery will be open 10am to 8pm on Mondays, 10am to 4pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and closed Wednesday and Sunday.