Dave Walker, our Local Studies Librarian has been documenting the changes at Kensington Central Library. You can catch up with his first piece, Empty Spaces.
Dave is the author of our extremely popular blog, The Library Time Machine – do take a look as it showcases some of the amazing photos we have in our archive. So over to Dave again….
For the second of these looks at the refurbishment of Kensington Central Library we go down to the ground floor. This is the former counter area with all the old furniture cleared out.
And here’s a tall window, much loved by our Planning and Conversation department.
And three windows which I quite like.
There were no plans to do anything especially creative with the concrete floor but some drilling had to be done and the contractors had a problem – they didn’t know exactly where all the cables and pipes under the floor were. So one weekend some specialists came in and x-rayed the area.
The colour coded marks indicate the presence of water and gas pipes, electrical conduits and ley lines (possibly).
There are also some messages, some of them easy enough to figure out (if you’re an electrician).
Others simple and enigmatic.
Others look like pictograms.
The first piece of equipment to enter the space was the sorter, which was carefully assembled before any further work was done. (The sorter is used by the public when returning their library items.)
Here’s a book’s eye view.
The writing is now covered over with carpet tiles, but it’s still there. At some time in your next visit to the library you may be standing on this.
Will you experience a sudden urge to change direction?
Dave Walker, Local Studies Librarian
Kensington Central Library
rbkc libraries blog 