The Minet Library is a public library in the

London Borough of Lambeth Lambeth () is a London borough in South London, England, which forms part of Inner London. Its name was recorded in 1062 as ''Lambehitha'' ("landing place for lambs") and in 1255 as ''Lambeth''. The geographical centre of London is at Frazi ...

South London South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...

. The library opened in 1890. The building was home to

Lambeth Archives Lambeth Archives is an archive in South London, managed by the London Borough of Lambeth. Containing records of Lambeth businesses, organisations and individuals. Until 2023, for 133 years the Lambeth Archives collections were housed at Minet Li ...

for 133 years, however this facility moved to

Brixton Hill Brixton Hill is the name given to a section of road between Brixton and Streatham Hill in south London, England. Brixton Hill and Streatham Hill form part of the traditional main A23 road, London to Brighton road (A23). The road follows the li ...

in 2024.

History

The Minet Library was built by

William Minet William Minet (1851–1933) was a British landowner and philanthropist, of Huguenot descent. Early life He was the son of James Lewis Minet (1807–1885) and Elizabeth Iggulden, and a descendant of Isaac Minet (1660–1745), a Huguenot, who left F ...

and opened in 1890. Minet was a descendant of French

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

who immigrated to London in the 1700s, and in 1889 he also gave 14½ acres of land to the

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

to create

Myatt's Fields Park Myatt's Fields Park is a 14-acre Victorian park in Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth in South London, England, 2.9 miles south-east of Charing Cross. History The majority of the area of Myatt's Fields belonged to the estate of Sir Hu ...

. The library was designed to be a

church hall A church hall or parish hall is a room or building associated with a church, generally for community and charitable use. In smaller and village communities, it is often a separate building near the church, while on more restricted urban sites ...

for St. James The Apostle on Knatchbull Road and to be used by the tenants of the local estate. When Minet's first wife, Alice Evans, died in 1887 before the building was completed, he decided to turn it into a

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 ...

in her memory. The library might have been completed before the nearby

Durning Library Durning Library is a public lending library in Kennington, London. It is part of Lambeth Libraries in the London Borough of Lambeth and is in purpose-built listed building, Grade II listed building at 167 Kennington Lane, Kennington, London SE1 ...

and South Lambeth Tate Library, but was interrupted when the contractor went bankrupt, Minet was interested in the

co-operative movement The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...

and decided to form a private company on co-operative lines. The experiment was successful and the library, which was designed by George Hubbard who also designed nearby

Longfield Hall Longfield is a village in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located 6 miles south east of Dartford and the same distance south-west of Gravesend. History The place in Kent is recorded as ''Langanfelda'' in the Saxon Charters of 96 ...

, was finished and opened in 1890. Hubbard's octagonal library building, in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style, was partially destroyed by an

incendiary bomb Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires. They may destroy structures or sensitive equipment using fire, and sometimes operate as anti-personnel weaponry. Incendiarie ...

on 8 December 1940 during

The Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

. The fire destroyed 18,585 books. Around 6,700 books were salvaged, and half of those were moved to Longfield Hall where a temporary library was established. The Surrey Collection, a collection of archive records established by William Minet, survived the fire because they were housed in a strong room. The library was rebuilt in 1956 and became part of the London Borough of Lambeth public library service and official home of the Lambeth Archives.

The closure of Minet Library

In the late 1990s, the library began to suffer from cuts to local council funding, and Lambeth Council proposed closing the library on a number of occasions. This culminated in 2015 with Lambeth Council closing the library (but not the archive) and proposing to contract Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) to convert part of the building into a gym, with a limited library service continuing to operate. The magazine Private Eye reported in May 2017 that Lambeth Council had begun talking to GLL about contracting them to turn Minet Library and others in the borough into gyms before a plan by library staff and local residents to save the libraries was rejected in 2015. In May 2016, despite protests by local residents, the Minet Library was closed by the Lambeth Council. The library reopened in 2017, but with reduced services. It is currently operating as a self-service library. Lambeth Archives and the local history reference collection re-located to a purpose built archive building in Brixton on January 2024.

References

External links

Lambeth Archives
{{Authority control Public libraries in London Libraries in the London Borough of Lambeth History of the London Borough of Lambeth