Clapham Library

This is a lovely new building and should be a great place for people to come read and study. The problem is its not a library! There are few desks and the place is always noisy. I’ve visited there a number of times and every time there have been kids running around screaming, people making noisy Skype calls and all manner of disturbances and the staff make no attempt to quiet anyone. As a result you will see very few people actually use it as a library. Its a real disgrace that what should be a great public facility can’t be used for its intended purpose.

I was hoping that the Clapham library could be my new place to study — no more spending the whole day reading the best page in the universe and making tea. But no, forget about it. It’s only a very small library, with very few places to sit. There are two tables where in theory you could sit down and study, but they are right by the computers (with free internet), so it’s not very quiet (and, goddammit, I was trying to get away from the internet!). It’s also a bit run down, shabby sort of, not a very inviting or inspiring environment. And I can’t imagine that their selection of books is any good, given the size of the library I mean. They also charge you for borrowing CDs and DVDs, which is a bit unnecessary. Well, you could still come here and use the internet and read all the papers, I guess.