An estate agency looks set to move into the old Camberwell Library building on Camberwell Church Street.
A picture shared on social media appears to show the Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward estate agency has painted the frontage red ahead of its opening.
The three shop fronts have been boarded-up and unoccupied ever since the library moved to a new building on Camberwell Green in October 2015.
People have reacted differently on social media. One user wrote: “That boarded-up shopfront has blighted Camberwell Church Street for years, so I’m pleased to see it in use again.”
But another person wrote: “Just bleak. Libraries have immeasurably improved our lives since their inception, and we still need places that support our learning and access to our culture, despite the ubiquity of access we have with digital devices.”
But local bookworms will be pleased to know that the Camberwell Library on 48a Camberwell Green remains open for business.
Opened in autumn 2015, it has all the usual library services plus kids’ book clubs, poetry groups, IT classes and more.
Southwark Council had conducted a comprehensive review of the borough’s libraries in 2011 and found that the old Camberwell Church Street branch was “not fit for purpose”.
The council said it was not disabled accessible, had too much artificial lighting, no soft seating and an “unacceptably poor” children’s library area.
The council chose to build a new library near the now-closed Camberwell Magistrates Court which would be open-plan and fully accessible.
The selection of that site was met with opposition, particularly because it meant destroying an orchard and some chestnut trees.
But Southwark Council said, as the land was already owned by the council, it was a cost-effective location.