Building    From 1894 

Willesden Library

Categories: Museums / Libraries

The newly built up Willesden area was provided with a library, completed in 1894. It was extended at the back in 1907, part funded by Andrew Carnegie.

The whole back section was rebuilt with additional facilities, such as a cinema, and opened in 1989. Following a contentious period when the library might have been closed completely, it was rebuilt as the white-tiled structure you can see behind the little Tudorbethan original in our photo; opened in 2015.

Wikipedia has photos of the different manifestations of this library. Kilburn Times is good on the Victorian community engagement that led to this library, and the campaign to save it. The Architects Journal mainly covers the current building itself.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Willesden Library

Commemorated ati

Willesden Library - 1894

Willesden Green Library was established in 1894 following a poll of the ratep...

Read More

Other Subjects

Sir Robert Cotton

Sir Robert Cotton

Antiquarian and politician. Born Robert Bruce Cotton in Denton, Huntingdonshire. He entered parliament in 1601, as the member for Newtown, Isle of Wight. His collection of manuscripts which became ...

Person, Museums / Libraries, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Thomas Park F.S.A.

Thomas Park F.S.A.

"The poetical antiquary", bibliographer and engraver. He published his own verse but mainly he edited historical and literary works. Father of John James Park.

Person, History, Literature, Museums / Libraries

1 memorial
Frederic David Mocatta

Frederic David Mocatta

Tycoon and philantropist.  Born London into a Jewish family who came to England from Spain in the 1650s.  Married but childless.  Worked in the family gold-dealing business until 1874 when he gave ...

Person, History, Museums / Libraries, Philanthropy

1 memorial
Major Ernest Edward Austen, DSO

Major Ernest Edward Austen, DSO

Ernest Edward Austen was born in 1867 in Dalston, Middlesex (now Greater London), the eldest of the five children of Ambrose Austen (1838-1924) and Eliza Burnet Austen née Smith (1839-1916). His bi...

Person, Armed Forces, Museums / Libraries, Africa, Brazil

War served, Other war
1 memorial
St Bride Foundation Institute

St Bride Foundation Institute

Established to meet the educational, cultural and social needs of a community working within the burgeoning print industry of the Victorian era.  The Londonphile has visited and photographed the in...

Group, Journalism / Publishing, Museums / Libraries, Theatre

1 memorial