Sometimes a story just does not want to go away.
I didn’t think there would be much information on the private lending libraries which I have featured on the blog in the last few days. They were after all small time affairs, run from the back of the local newsagent or bookshop and most had disappeared by the mid 1960s.
But of course this does mean that their existence is still within the living memory of many people. So I have been indebted to Philip, David, Jill and Ida for sharing their memories of these libraries. And today Ida phoned me again to tell me about the newsagents on the corner of Beech and Chequers Road.
In the 1920’s it had been run by Lilly Brown and the family were still there in the 1960s. Ida remembers ”the counter was along the side of the shop facing Beech Road and the lending section was at the end. It dealt mainly in romances and Sci Fi and was a branch of a big concern based in Whalley Range.”
This was the Allied Library which was on the corner of Upper Chorlton Road and Wood Road North.
It had grown as a chain of rental libraries in the years after the last world war.
At its peak in March 1962 it hired out 362, 000 books through 1,489 books.
The Lloyd family which had operated their own private lending library from 1909 accepted an offer from Allied to supply books on a rotating basis, which greatly increased the number and range of books which the "Lloyd's Circulating Library," could lend. The arrangement according to Philip lasted into the 1950s.
Boots the Chemist which had started its library in 1898 closed the service in 1966. I guess the continued expansion of municipal libraries, cheap paperbacks and television each played their part in making private libraries less viable.
My mother stopped visiting hers in the early ‘60s and she would no doubt not have been alone in looking elsewhere to read.
By all accounts the Boot’s libraries were impressive, “The Inverness branch of Boots the Chemist, was in the High Street. - it was on the first floor and was fitted with wooden bookshelves, chairs, tables and even notepaper and fresh flowers. Members paid a subscription and were able to borrow books, light romances and 'whodunnits' being the most popular. By 1938 Boots libraries were issuing 35 million books each year.
The company liked to emphasise its reputation for providing clean books.”
http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_photograph.jsp?item_id=777
And this is the key to the success of all these privately run libraries. There was no deposit, the subscription was modest and the service friendly. My close friend told me the library my mother and hers used “was a small place but absolutely packed with books - a lovely, warm place in the middle of winter! I would get Mum her books sometimes - just went to the counter and asked for romances and, between the man's memory and mine, we nearly always managed to find something she hadn't read.”
This probably also accounts for their popularity in the US where it peaked in the 1930s. For anyone wanting to go further visit http://purplemotes.net/2009/05/03/circulation-from-rental-and-public-libraries/
Picture; Allied Libraries at No 202 Upper Chorlton Road taken in August 1960 Downes A H m40870 Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council
I didn’t think there would be much information on the private lending libraries which I have featured on the blog in the last few days. They were after all small time affairs, run from the back of the local newsagent or bookshop and most had disappeared by the mid 1960s.
But of course this does mean that their existence is still within the living memory of many people. So I have been indebted to Philip, David, Jill and Ida for sharing their memories of these libraries. And today Ida phoned me again to tell me about the newsagents on the corner of Beech and Chequers Road.
In the 1920’s it had been run by Lilly Brown and the family were still there in the 1960s. Ida remembers ”the counter was along the side of the shop facing Beech Road and the lending section was at the end. It dealt mainly in romances and Sci Fi and was a branch of a big concern based in Whalley Range.”
This was the Allied Library which was on the corner of Upper Chorlton Road and Wood Road North.
It had grown as a chain of rental libraries in the years after the last world war.
At its peak in March 1962 it hired out 362, 000 books through 1,489 books.
The Lloyd family which had operated their own private lending library from 1909 accepted an offer from Allied to supply books on a rotating basis, which greatly increased the number and range of books which the "Lloyd's Circulating Library," could lend. The arrangement according to Philip lasted into the 1950s.
Boots the Chemist which had started its library in 1898 closed the service in 1966. I guess the continued expansion of municipal libraries, cheap paperbacks and television each played their part in making private libraries less viable.
My mother stopped visiting hers in the early ‘60s and she would no doubt not have been alone in looking elsewhere to read.
By all accounts the Boot’s libraries were impressive, “The Inverness branch of Boots the Chemist, was in the High Street. - it was on the first floor and was fitted with wooden bookshelves, chairs, tables and even notepaper and fresh flowers. Members paid a subscription and were able to borrow books, light romances and 'whodunnits' being the most popular. By 1938 Boots libraries were issuing 35 million books each year.
The company liked to emphasise its reputation for providing clean books.”
http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_photograph.jsp?item_id=777
And this is the key to the success of all these privately run libraries. There was no deposit, the subscription was modest and the service friendly. My close friend told me the library my mother and hers used “was a small place but absolutely packed with books - a lovely, warm place in the middle of winter! I would get Mum her books sometimes - just went to the counter and asked for romances and, between the man's memory and mine, we nearly always managed to find something she hadn't read.”
This probably also accounts for their popularity in the US where it peaked in the 1930s. For anyone wanting to go further visit http://purplemotes.net/2009/05/03/circulation-from-rental-and-public-libraries/
Picture; Allied Libraries at No 202 Upper Chorlton Road taken in August 1960 Downes A H m40870 Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council
No comments:
Post a Comment