Survey faults

Published: 17 February, 2011

• PAUL Braithwaite uses his February 10 letter to “suggest” that “readers consider the closure of Swiss Cottage” [library].

Whatever his personal interest is in closing down Swiss Cottage, readers should be aware that the survey he recommends is seriously flawed and full of leading questions with a limited choice of possible answers. It is designed to give Camden the easy answers it wants and was drawn up without taking into account the big public meeting at the Town Hall.

The closure of Swiss Cottage would be a nonsense, if not a crime. It was purpose-built as a library in 1968 by Sir Basil Spence. Its location next to the leisure centre was intended to enable adults and children to combine mental and physical stimulation in one outing. Although regrettably vandalised during an £8million renovation in 2003 that saw Spence’s swimming pool building destroyed, the library remains one of Camden’s gems and is a listed building. 

It offers more books and magazines, more reading rooms, quiet study spaces, exhibition space and longer opening hours than any five smaller libraries combined. 

Its closure would result in a loss of amenity and net loss of books in circulation.

It contains some wonderful, rare books, wisely stored off the shelves, which no other library could provide.

JOYCE GLASSER
Savernake Road, NW3