Croydon Central Library is Croydon's main

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

, located inside the

Croydon Clocktower Croydon Clocktower is an arts and museum complex located on Katharine Street in Croydon, London. History The venue, which forms part of the 19th-century Town Hall, was opened as an arts and museum complex by Queen Elizabeth II Elizabe ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

, south London. It is owned by the

London Borough of Croydon The London Borough of Croydon () is a London borough, borough in South London, part of Outer London. It covers an area of and had a population of 397,741 as of mid-2023, making it the most populous London borough. It is London's southernmost ...

on behalf of

Croydon Council Croydon London Borough Council, which styles itself Croydon Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Croydon in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. Croydon is divided into 28 wards, elect ...

. The library is located on four floors inside the building. There are also children's rhymetime sessions. Croydon's first central library was at 100-106 North End. The library moved to the Croydon Clocktower buildings when they first opened in May 1896, the library was located in a central wooden panelled room (later used as a local studies library and now used as the David Lean Cinema), it was then notable opening with a large collection of over 100,000 volumes and for being one of the first public libraries at the time with open access shelves. An extension was built to the Clocktower municipal buildings in the early 1990s with a new four floor library space opening in November 1993. One notable chief librarian

W. C. Berwick Sayers William Charles Berwick Sayers (1881–1960) was a British librarian and teacher. He was one of a "small but remarkable" group of librarians involved in public libraries in the early 20th century and was President of the Library Association in the ...

was instrumental in advancements in library classification and children's librarianship. It was the third-most-used public library in the UK in 2010. Croydon Libraries is part of The Library

Consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

(TLC) shared catalogue. The Rainbow Reading Group (run in conjunction with the Croydon Area Gay Society (CAGS) meets at the library monthly. The group reads LGBTQI+ books and has been running since 2011.

References

External links

Croydon Central Library Webpage
{{Authority control Public libraries in London Libraries in the London Borough of Croydon