Excitement is building for the opening of Bromley’s new Central Library later this year. Moving from Churchill’s Theatre to its new home at 145 High Street, Bromley, BR1 1JD, the purpose-built modern library is the latest to benefit from the council’s £11m investment in the borough’s network of libraries.
As part of this move, changes are also being made to the storage of the Bromley Historic Collections (BHC).
Bromley Borough has 14 libraries, of which 11 are earmarked for regeneration. The Central Library is the borough’s flagship, receiving 355,512 visits and issuing 242,213 books and multimedia items in 2022/23.
Residents are excited about the library’s relocation. A comment left on the planning application remarked, “We believe that what is proposed will be an excellent use of a large retail site for which there appears to be no demand. We understand from the application how popular the library is at present, and the move to an even busier site should increase its popularity”.
The newly relocated Central Library in the heart of Bromley Town Centre will not only rehouse the provisions currently available in the existing library, but also deliver improvements, including a larger children’s library, accessible toilets, attractive, modern study areas, and new lifts.
Bromley’s friendly library team can’t wait to welcome you. The ground floor: Informal study and meeting areas; active and quiet spaces; popular fiction and non-fiction book section; an expanded children’s library, including a space for storytelling; public toilets accessible to all, including ‘changing places’.
The first floor: Modern study space with IT facilities; an enhanced local history centre; a reference library; the fiction and non-fiction book section; newspapers and periodicals; private meeting rooms reached by lifts and stairs; special events space linked to the ground floor; and accessible toilets. The existing library next to Churchill Theatre will remain open during construction.
