Join the Library
Donate
03 Dec 2023
Adults and children
Our Story
This is the story of how a community rescued its library
We are community-run, serving Brent residents and visitors.
Our 4 Core Aims:
1. To promote literacy and lifelong learning
2. To provide free access to information
3. To support community health and well-being
4. To encourage engagement, creativity and the realisation of potential
The community re-opened Kensal Rise Library on September 27th 2019, eight years after Council closure - and exactly 119 years after the original opening by American writer, Mark Twain.
We 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.
For more details of this extraordinary story, go to About Us/Our History or press orange box below.
