A walk through Vauxhall Gardens and a talk about Samuel Johnson’s connection
Friends of Tate South Lambeth Library are cooperating with the Vauxhall Society and Vauxhall History on a linked talk and walk as part of this year’s Lambeth Heritage Festival in September. (You can find the whole Festival programme at www.lambeth.gov.uk/heritagefestival.)
Here are the details of our linked talk and walk, both on Monday September 2nd.
2.30pm The Heyday of Vauxhall Gardens
David E. Coke, co-author of Vauxhall Gardens: a History, is your guide on a walk back through time to the 18th century and the days of the visionary entrepreneur Jonathan Tyers, creator of the fabled pleasure gardens that put English art, music and song on the map.
Meet at Starbucks, Vauxhall Station, SW8 1SP at 2.30 sharp, for the walk which lasts around one hour.
No booking is required, and the event is free. But a £5 contribution to the Friends of Tate South Lambeth Library would be welcome.
7pm at Tate South Lambeth Library
Samuel Johnson and the Lambeth Mysteries
Did the young Samuel Johnson hide out in Lambeth to dodge arrest by government agents? And, asks Dr Ross Davies of The Vauxhall Society and Vauxhallhistory.org and author of Vauxhall: A Little History, did Sam (now Doctor) Johnson – ‘the greatest Englishman’ and compiler of the Dictionary of the English Language – later hold court in Vauxhall Gardens, as depicted in Thomas Rowlandson’s masterpiece Vaux-Hall?
Again the event is free and no booking is required. Refreshments are available and a £5 contribution to the Friends would be appreciated.
Space Chase – this year’s Summer Reading Challange
During the coming school holiday period the library will be running its regular Summer Reading Challenge – a programme aimed at children from 4 to 11 years. The “challenge” is straightforward and enjoyable: reading at least six library books (any sort of book – library staff will be on hand to help choose) and visiting the library regularly.
This year’s programme is entitled Space Chase.
To get started children sign up at the library. Then for each book they read, they will get a sticker, and those who complete the challenge get a medal.
Here’s the list of special activities the library is offering during this period, all on Thursdays, starting at 3pm, and all free of charge.
July 25th Blast Off!
Rocket and spaceship making to blast off into space
August 1st Little Green Beings
Grow spider plants, mustard monsters and cress creatures in the library garden
August 8th Space Slime School
Make and take home your intergalactic space slime
August 15th Alien Disguises
Get face painted into a Venus Princess, Mercury Villain or choose an old favourite
August 22nd Solar System Mobiles
Make the entire solar system in just one afternoon
August 29th Chess Championship
Who will win the prize, donated by Friends of TSL?
September 7th Summer Party
Join us for fun, games and our awards ceremony for those who participated in and completed the Summer Reading Challenge. Children will be presented with certificates.
Full details of this programme, which is entirely free of charge, will be found in the leaflet at the library desk. Places are limited, so booking is needed – at the desk or at 0207 926 0705.
Stock up on crime books for the summer holiday
Friends of Tate South Lambeth Library are selling crime fiction books and thrillers at the library on Saturday July 13th at 11am-4pm.
Pick up a bargain – books are priced at only £2-£3.
Never tried crime fiction? – why not enter the raffle for a stack of books for the whole family?
All proceeds will be used to buy equipment or materials for the library or to fund special activities.
Find out what’s happening at the library – and meet the new manager
Saturday June 22nd is the date for the library’s public forum – where you can get an update on performance, plans and policies from the head of Lambeth’s library service, Susanna Barnes.
This is an opportunity for library users to raise questions, proposals – and complaints.
And you can get to know our new manager, Rita Chakraborty.
So come along to Tate South Lambeth library on June 22nd at 2-4pm.
Storytime for young children – with extra glitter
It’s book sale time
On Saturday June 15th – from 10am to 4pm- Friends of Tate South Lambeth Library will be running our annual book sale at the library.
Over 500 books donated by local people, supplemented by withdrawn library books, will be on sale, with all the proceeds used to buy equipment and materials to support the library’s services.
Friends’ book sales (of which this is the ninth so far) have been very successful, raising well over £1,000 for our library.
So we invite you to help us by:
- donating books in good condition (drop them off at the library desk, by 4pm on Friday June 14th , in a bag or box labelled Friends book sale). The library will select suitable ones to go on the shelves, the rest will be put on sale
- buying lots of books –all at bargain prices, with £1 (or three for £2) for paperbacks , £3-5 for hardbacks ( with £8-10 for high-value specials) and 40p for children’s books ( or three for £1).
This year, weather allowing, we’ll put a stall outside the library, to catch passing traffic. The stall will include the updated and expanded version of The Oval Cookbook – a collection of recipes from people from 31 countries, who live or work in Oval, and the contributors’ personal stories. The proceeds of the book’s sale will go the Triangle Adventure Playground in Oval.
Our annual general meeting shows measured optimism
At the 2019 annual general meeting, held on May 22nd, the chairman – Edith Holtham – reported that the short- and medium- term outlook for Tate South Lambeth Library looked more positive than it did 12 months earlier.
Funding for our library, which had been covered by special allocations whose maintenance was not certain, has been re-incorporated into the overall Lambeth libraries budget. At the same time Lambeth Council is no longer actively discussing the replacement of our library by a single “town centre library” for the north of the borough. These developments are seen as maintaining the status of Tate South Lambeth as a full-service library, at least for the short and medium term, as against the demotion to a one-room, largely unstaffed “neighbourhood library”, that was threatened in 2016.
The past year has seen a new strand in Friends’ campaign against such demotion, with a week-long monitoring by volunteers of how many people enter the library and their interaction with staff. This confirmed the vital importance of the constant presence of professional library staff.
A tip about a local event – from which Friends of TSL, and so the library, will benefit
The Heyday of Vauxhall Gardens
David Coke, co-author with Alan Borg of Vauxhall Gardens: A History, will lead a history walk through Vauxhall on Monday May 20th.
This guided walk is organised by the Vauxhall Society/Vauxhallhistory.
Meet outside Starbucks, Vauxhall Station SW8 1SP at 2.30pm sharp, for a walk that will last approximately one hour.
All are welcome but the organisers suggest a contribution of £5 to go to the Friends of Tate South Lambeth Library. Thanks!
Member or not, come along to our Annual General Meeting
Friends’ annual general meeting will be held at the library on Wednesday May 22nd, starting at 6.30pm.
After the regular stuff (reports from the chairman and the treasurer, the election of the committee for 2019/2020) the meeting will discuss the outlook for Tate South Lambeth Library now that the prospect of it being replaced by a new, “town centre” library for the north of the borough seems to be off the immediate agenda..
If you would like to propose other items for the agenda, please do so now –email friendsoftsl@hotmail.com or leave a note addressed to Friends of TSL at the library desk. Also please contact us if you’d like to stand for the committee. We are keen to have new members.