This fun and inspiring cycle tour led by Golden Key Academy graduate Justin Manley celebrates London’s extraordinary buildings which bring readers and writers together.
Bookshops and public libraries have long brought book lovers together to browse, buy, and borrow books. But a 2004 report on the state of British libraries warned that the institution was in decline and would be obsolete within 10-to-15 years. Bookshops were also struggling: over the ten years following this pessimistic library report, the number of bookshops in Britain declined by a third.
Today, bookshops are thriving once again, and — despite repeated funding cuts — libraries are very much not obsolete. This tour traces the ways British bookshops and libraries have reinvented themselves time and again — not just over the past decade, but over the past century — borrowing ideas from each other along the way.
The tour begins at the expansive and inviting British Library and ends in Whitechapel, where the local council has boldly attempted to reinvent the library for the twenty-first century. Along the route, we will pass beloved independent bookshops and visit some of the most vibrant public libraries in Central London. Over the course of the tour, we will see how architects working across a range of building styles express the ideals of their bookish institutions.
Highlights of the route include: British Library, Mary Ward House, Holborn Library, Bishopsgate Institute and the Whitechapel Gallery.
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