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Islington Libraries

1906 establishments in EnglandLibraries established in 1906Public libraries in the London Borough of IslingtonUse British English from August 2025
Islington Central Library (16237236403)
Islington Central Library (16237236403)

Islington Libraries constitute the public library service for the borough of Islington in London. The service provides the best level of library access of any council in the country, with 97% of residents within a 15-minute walk of a branch. The service opened its first library in 1906, after decades of campaigns. Since then, the service and its staff have played a key role in defining the modern public library, incorporating and advocating for open-access shelving, more gender-equal employment, children's libraries, and affordability. The service currently runs 10 libraries that are all open to the public. The service's Central Library is located in the Highbury neighborhood, and is one the service's four Grade II listed Carnegie libraries, built in the historic Metropolitan Borough of Islington. As the Borough grew to its current shape, the service built branches further afield, and incorporated Finsbury Library, initially meant to be the central library of Finsbury. The service has a £3.93 million budget, overseen by the Islington Borough Council. Over the past two decades, the Council implemented budget cuts: these have led to more limited opening hours, but have not led to closures of branches. In 2024/25, the library loaned out 530,000+ items physically (+12% year-on-year), 325,000+ items online (+4%), and registered ~890,000 visits (+6.5%).

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Islington Libraries (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Islington Libraries
Fieldway Crescent, Greater London Highbury (London Borough of Islington)

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Wikipedia: Islington LibrariesContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.548888888889 ° E -0.10694444444444 °
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Address

Islington Central Library

Fieldway Crescent
N5 1PF Greater London, Highbury (London Borough of Islington)
England, United Kingdom
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Phone number

call+442075276900

Website
islington.gov.uk

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Islington Central Library (16237236403)
Islington Central Library (16237236403)
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Nearby Places

The Garage, London
The Garage, London

The Garage is a live music and club venue in Highbury, North London. It opened in 1993 and has a capacity of 600. The upstairs room, also known as Thousand Island, has a capacity of 150.The venue has hosted a number of underplays, with The Killers, Jack White, Mumford & Sons and Suede being among some of the most recent acts to play the venue. Other acts who have passed through the doors include Green Day, Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Temples, Jagwar Ma, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paramore, Oasis and My Chemical Romance.The Garage was originally a Temperance Billiard Hall which quickly gained a reputation for serving great pies, as well as being a haunt for local villains in the sixties. The Highbury Mob often used the Billiard Hall as a meeting place. It became the London Town & Country Club 2, a sister venue to the Town and Country Club (now The Forum in Kentish Town), which is when the first live music events began to be programmed in the building.In 1993, the building was officially reopened as The Garage with Pulp being the first big name to play the venue in May 1993. The venue was renamed The Garage by Mean Fiddler, after the Lex Garage which was once next door. In 2007 it was taken over by MAMA & Company. Jazz Cafe and Borderline were also included in the acquisition, incorporating them in to the MAMA Group's estate from August. In June 2009, The Garage was relaunched as the Relentless Garage with joint naming rights with Relentless Energy Drinks.It was taken over by DHP Family in 2016. This led to a complete revamp of the whole venue in March 2017 to create an all day bar as well as an intimate 100 capacity venue, Thousand Island, upstairs. A new layout, bar, sound and lighting system for The Garage was also added. In recent years The Garage has had acts such as Harry Styles, Jack White, Alt-J, Mystery Jets, Jax Jones, Tory Lanez, The Rifles and War Child’s 25th anniversary shows in performance.

Centre for Recent Drawing

The Centre for Recent Drawing (C4RD) is a non-commercial curatorial space in London, for the exhibition of recent drawing and providing access and discussion for current drawing practice, and to foster the audience for drawing within the general public. It was founded by Andrew Hewish in 2004. Since 2004 C4RD has provided a museum space for the exhibition of drawings by established and emerging international and UK artists, illustrators and designers, architects, art therapists, musicians and students in art from various art institutions in Britrain: Royal Academy, Loughborough University, Goldsmiths College, Camberwell College of Arts, London Metropolitan University, Wimbledon School of Art, Royal College of Art and the Prince's Drawing School. It is a non-profit volunteer-run, non-governmental organisation dependent on private donation. The Centre was established to provide a site in London for the display of drawings free from the commercial concerns that pervade the London art scene and to provide a context for drawing that could also exist beyond the demands of the fine arts. Its emphasis is on recent rather than the more commercially regulated 'contemporary'. As a centre it aims to operate as a node of activity between the artist's studio, art college, school, therapeutic or architectural practice and the public, to provide experience in exhibition and curatorship, to add focus to a college programme and to share the experience of drawing.