Kate – “Want to see the world? Don’t join the Army, become a librarian,” Denise Bangs, Idea Store Librarian at Tower Hamlets, laughingly told me last year when I began researching my latest novel, based on the true story of a little wartime library.
The Second World War reconfigured the literary landscape, literally in the case of Bethnal Green Central Library when a high explosive bomb smashed through the roof at five minutes before closing on the first night of the blitz. In a split second, an orderly and well-equipped library became a scene of destruction. Rather than hurrying for the nearest shelter, borough librarian George F. Vale and his deputy Stanley Snaith pulled a tarpaulin over the shattered glass dome roof and set about planning a pioneering social experiment that would transform the lives of war- time Londoners.
Bethnal Green Underground was a half-completed stop on the Central line when war broke out. One week after the blitz began, East Enders defied Churchill’s orders not to shelter in tube stations and claimed their right to safety. At 78 feet below ground, it was one of the few safe places to shelter in the area. Over
July-August 2021
Kate Thompson.
the next 12 months it was transformed into a fully functioning subterranean community with an astonishing array of facilities.
Metal triple bunks sleeping up to 5,000, a shelter theatre, which hosted opera and ballet, doctor’s quarters and a creche. But here’s the best part: there was a library, too! I love surprises in history and finding out about George and Stanley’s under- ground library, built over the boarded-up tracks of the westbound tunnel, felt nothing short of magic.
Next year, Bethnal Green Library celebrates its centenary. The library opened in 1922 on the site of what was a male lunatic asylum, which only closed in 1920. Lunacy replaced with literacy, what a message of hope that must have sent to the community. What better way to mark that anniversary, I thought, than by inter- viewing one hundred library workers! I’m ashamed to admit that prior to my research, I subscribed to the archaic belief that librarianship was a quiet, sedate job. Fast forward and after 60 interviews (40 to go) with library professionals of all ages and backgrounds and Denise’s comment now makes sense!
I see now that librarians are frontline
workers used to dealing with the mentally ill, the disenfranchised, homeless, the lonely, and vulnerable. A librarian is often the only person someone might see all day. What’s more, they have the emotional intelligence to deal with whoever walks in through the door, which to my mind, makes them more than someone who loans out books. They are part counsellor, social worker, listening ear, facilitator, events planner and friend.
Such eye-watering tales! Like the librar- ian forced to eject a man for frying up egg and bacon on a portable gas stove in the middle of the library. Or what about the friendly old fella who used to smuggle out books under a trilby hat that grew higher on every visit, the gentleman who frequented Whitechapel Library dressed in a gorrilla suit and sat quietly reading, or the woman who turned up to a small rural Suffolk library in nothing but a fur coat. Items used as bookmarks could be a chapter in its own right!
Libraries are anything but dull. They are a microcosm of society, so we should probably add humanitarian to the job description! “Librarians require infinite patience and politeness in the face of adversity,” Charlotte
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