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Welcome to

Kensal Rise Library

Opened by Mark Twain in 1900. Closed by cuts in 2011. Re-opened by the community in 2019. Now operates independently of Brent Council. We depend on donations and volunteers to remain open.

Join the library

Join your community library - it belongs to all of us!
Complete the membership form online via the link, or during your next library visit.
Collect your card with proof of address and photo ID.
You can then borrow books and use the computers.


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Latest News

Library Stars in NHS Commercial

Filming of an NHS commercial recently took place inside the library. An historic first! Our smaller...

Library news • 14 March 2022

Autumn Library Jabs

First autumn vaccine session big success – more in October A steady stream of locals took the ...

Well-being • 23 September 2022

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Our Catalogue

Explore our catalogue →
1900
2019

Our Story

This is the story of how a community rescued its library

The community re-opened Kensal Rise Library on September 27th 2019, eight years after the library was closed by cuts - and exactly 119 years after it was originally opened by American writer, Mark Twain.

We had campaigned against closure for years, even taking the Council to the High Court. The Council closed the library anyway, despite mass protest and national - and international! -media coverage.

We continued to fight to regain what had become a void building from the freeholder and developer. Against the odds, we eventually won back most of the ground floor, which otherwise would have been out of community hands forever.

We then raised hundreds of thousands of pounds from donations, fundraising events and grants to refurbish and equip what had become an empty shell - creating the beautiful public space Kensal Rise Community Library is today.

The library is run by volunteers and the Library Manager, wholly independently of Brent Council.

For more details of this extraordinary story, go to About Us/Our History.

Find out more about our remarkable history →

Get Involved

We need your help. We are dependent on donations and volunteers to keep going.

Donate

It costs £100 a day to run the library. Please help keep the library open.

Volunteer

Our volunteers are essential to keeping a library at the heart of our neighbourhood. They give their valuable time to provide free access to books and computers, assisting the Library Manager during shifts, at events and in many other capacities.

Volunteer →
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