Kensal Rise Library closed and demolished by All Souls College's estate managers

 Published on 31 Jan 2014 by Martin Francis

At 5am on January 31st 2014 security employed by All Souls College's estate managers demolished the community pop up library outside the closed down Kensal Rise Library. Residents had erected the pop up library to preserve a book and learning space after Brent Council had itself carried out a dawn raid and seized the library in pursuit of its 'library transformation project' which closed half the borough's libraries. Developer Andrew Gillick wants to knock down the library and build flats and negotiations have been going on about allocating space for a community library. No detailed plans have been forthcoming and yesterday Friends of Kensal Rise Library announced they would not support Gillick's revised application. Meanwhile the result of a police investigation into the existence of hundreds of false emails submitted in favour of the previous application has yet to be concluded.