Friern Barnet – The Library that Refuses to Die

When a local community loses its heart, it’s inevitable that it will die. Local communities can be built around many things; a church, a pub, a cricket club. In Friern Barnet, it is the local library which is the focus of the community. It is situated on the village green, and was set up in the 1930’s with a loan from the Carnegie trust. Sadly, for the residents of Barnet, we have a local authority which places no value on community and the hubs which nurture it. Fortunately the local community have different ideas, leading to a remarkable series of events, culminating in the reopening of the library by the community and activists. Let’s start at the very beginning.

Shortly after the 2010 council elections, Barnet Council announced that it was holding a strategic library review. Rather alarmingly the cabinet member responsible, Robert Rams, announced that people could “get books from Tescos”. He also suggested that maybe people could read books in Starbucks. On hearing this, I realised that we ran the risk of losing our libraries and decided that we needed to stop this disastrous policy before it took hold. I organised a petition to keep all of our local libraries open. Conservative councillors were lobbied at their surgeries. We made sure that everyone got the message that they would lose their library if they didn’t take action. We had soon collected the 7,000 signatures required to compel a debate.

Robert Rams got the message. He realised that many of the libraries were in Tory wards and that it could cost them dear if they carried out their plans. In March 2011, when the strategic library review was presented, only two libraries were targeted for closure. One was Friern Library, the other was in Hampstead Garden Suburb. The HGS library was in a strong Tory ward, and soon a deal had been done to keep it open. Friern, being a Labour ward, received no such treatment. Although the council pretended to be interested in community plans, they had no intention of doing anything other than selling the building and pocketing the cash. Community groups were strung along for months. This was purely to avoid a legal challenge. Once the period for consultation passed, the library was cruelly shut with only 24 hours notice. People did not even have the chance to return books. A small occupation of the building was staged, but after several hours people left and the library was shut.

I immediately announced, in my blog “The Barnet Eye”, that we would hold a ‘people’s library’ on the village green next to the library on the following Saturday. Hundreds of people turned up and a carnival atmosphere ensued. People brought tea, cakes and posters in addition to books. They also brought gazebos and the Save Friern Library campaign took over the running of the people’s library. The event was staged every week throughout April and May, and we even got a visit from The BBC’s One Show.

In August, I got an excited call from a local activist. They told me that Friern Library building had been occupied. I immediately made my way to the site and made contact with activists. I was amazed to find that the group were squatters, ironically evicted from a site in Camden by the local Tory MP Mike Freer’s campaign to outlaw squatting in private residences. I then found that they planned to reopen the library. Meetings were held, and a rota of community librarians was set up.

What was even more exciting were the plans to stage lessons, music and other community events in the space. The council even came down and entered discussions with the group; these discussions are now ongoing. With a shocking lack of good faith, the council then started proceedings to evict the group, even though there are no plans for the building. Even more shockingly, it turned out that the council was spending £600 a day on security to keep the building closed.  As the building is now occupied by people who love it, the council is saving this money, as security has been withdrawn. Sadly, they are still foolishly proceeding with the court case.

Perhaps the most ironic thing is that Mr Freer’s anti-squatting legislation has made our squatters at Friern Library community heroes. Phoenix, who is facilitating discussions and coordinating the library, has shown the council true community values. More than 3,000 books have been donated, children are having lessons, the elderly have their community hub back. Friern Barnet is the library that refuses to die and everyone associated with it is proud of our response as a community.

By Roger Tichborne, who blogs at Barnet Eye