St John’s Grove Street Library was started in March 2020 – partway through the UK’s Coronavirus lockdown – all our libraries had closed & very few people were venturing outside their own houses. Our area is a suburb of the city of Nottingham where Robin Hood originated (allegedly) & the land that was donated from the local church in the late 1800s (St John’s) to make a residential area with beautiful Edwardian houses. The idea for the library did come directly from seeing Street Libraries in Australia. Our son and his girlfriend now live in Hobart so we visited them at New Year – how the world has changed since then! I came back wanting to make a library but as we aren’t terribly good at DIY needed to locate a suitable box – this library was actually going to be an owl nesting box but a friend repurposed it with a shelf, we added a door & the library took shape.
The ‘lockdown library’ has been very popular & we have had so many chats on our doorstep at a safe distance we have really got to know the neighbours too.
