Local resident Rose Streatfield describes spending summers reading in the long lost library at Shoreditch Town Hall
We didn’t have any books at home and it was my lifeline, it really introduced me to books and I became quite an avid reader from the Library. I’d spend all my summer holidays in there, because I can remember it being really old and oaky and the librarian was very strict and she wouldn’t let us round by the Romantic Novels and so we would get the Historical and Romantic ones about Anne Boleyn and read about all the naughtiness that used to go on! It was quite funny really.
It was just as you went out the main door, there’s a little alleyway – before you get to the restaurant that’s there now – it was just down there and we used to go up about three or four little steps. It was a tiny little entrance; I’d love to have a look round the back of this building to see if I could see what its turned into.
It had that lovely old Library smell to it, which I liked.
If you have a personal story or connection with the Town Hall please get in touch by emailing history@shoreditchtownhall.com, calling 020 7739 6176 or writing to us at Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LT.