Power To The People

The day after I posted about the possible closure of Bancroft Road library I received an e-mail from a fellow East End family historian telling me that there were two online petitions I should sign up to - both were organised by a local group of residents and family historians, one petition was linked to an action group and the second was linked to the Tower Hamlets Council group responsible for the threatened closure and selling off. Things didn't look good up until yesterday, the library had been removed from the UNESCO listings, seeminglyconfirming that the deal was done and rumours were coming out of the East End quicker than you could say Pat Butcher.

However good news today, it seems that we, the people, have been listened to. I received this e-mail this morning from the stepney.live history group.

NEWSFLASH

On Thursday night Tom Ridge received a phone call from the council to advise the campaign that they have agreed to keep the borough's local history library and archives in Bancroft Road.Cllr Lutfur Rahman, the Leader of the Council issued a statement saying:

"As someone whose grandfather first arrived in the East End in the 1940s and who has spent most of my life here, I am convinced that our common history can be a force to bring together people with different cultural backgrounds. That is why, when I became Leader of Tower Hamlets Council a couple of months back, I promised the East London Advertiser's readers that I would do everything I could to ensure that we cherish the East End's unique heritage. Not long after that, I discovered that Queen Mary College had offered to buy our Bancroft Library. This proposal involved a multi million pound renovation of the historic Vestry Hall to house the internationally acclaimed Wiener Library.

Having the Wiener Library in Tower Hamlets would really help our work to make sure today's generation understand the tragedy that befell the Jewish people the last time anti-Semitism was allowed to go unchecked. So I took the view that the offer required further investigation to see whether we could combine it with our own desire to make the Local History Library and Archive more accessible to the public.Our enquiries have now been completed and it is time for a decision.

After receiving expert advice, it is clear to me that the archive cannot easily be separated from the Local History Library itself. It is also clear that the council does not, at present, have any other building capable of housing both the archive and library, let alone providing the quiet space researchers usually need. I have therefore decided that the Council will retain Bancroft for the Local History Library and Archive.The challenge now is to secure the funding needed to complete the urgent repairs and bring the Vestry Hall back to its former glory. Having just committed the Council to invest £5 million in the long-overdue restoration of Victoria Park, I cannot at this stage commit a similar sum to the Bancroft. I have therefore instructed council officers to try to identify external sources of funding to help finance those works. In the meantime, we will be looking at how we can improve conditions in the History Library and increase public access.

Our shared history is not something to be locked away or reserved for the few. It is something to be shared and celebrated by the many. That is very hard in the current cramped space, so I am seeing if more can be made available. My lead councillor for culture, Rofique Uddin Ahmed, will be coming forward with further details in the next few weeks. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Advertiser and its readers for highlighting just how valuable a resource the Local History Library and Archive are to local people. I hope your campaign will not stop here, but will now get behind our efforts to persuade other public bodies to help finance the restoration of the Vestry Hall and give the Local History Library and Archive the home it deserves."

Tom Ridge said "Cllr Lutfur Rahman is to be congratulated on his decision to keep the local history library & archives at Bancroft Library. This is good news for all concerned, but we have asked for the whole building to be reused as the Tower Hamlets Local History Centre. We therefore hope that the council will make the necessary financial committment to secure funding from elsewhere".

So any East enders out there with £5 million not stuck in an Icelandic bank? At a time when there are moves to introduce 'updated' facilities into libraries I think this is fantastic news, a great example of action by people who care (that's us the users) and a rare example of common sense prevailing.