A library is more than a place with books, it is a lifeline

The UK is losing libraries at a rate of about 40 each year, BBC research has found. According to those who depend on them, local libraries are far more than a repository of books - they are community focal points and, for some, a vital lifeline to the outside world. What happens when one closes?

The purpose-built, glass-fronted Broad Green Library sits unobtrusively between two blocks of flats in the middle of a bustling residential street in Croydon.

For Kiran Choda, a full-time carer to her elderly mother, this 1990s building in the south London borough has been a place of sanctuary and a vital part of her life.

And then, late last year, the library was permanently closed.

Those who depended on Broad Green say the closure has been devastating, with many using the phrase "home" to describe what this single-storey building meant to them.

They are not alone. Research by the BBC has found 190 libraries across the UK have shut in the past five years, 20 of them in London alone, as councils desperately try to save money.

Councils considering further library cuts in the coming year include:

Ms Choda, who has fibromyalgia which leaves her in "constant pain and fatigued", says as well as giving her weekly respite from her caring duties, Broad Green was also a place of huge practical importance.

"It was a lifeline for me in terms of being able to get my weekly shopping done and to sort out all my admin," says Ms Choda, who does not use a smart phone because she struggles to use them for any length of time because of her health condition.

The library, which cost £101,727 a year to run, was also a place of friendship. She joined a couple of groups, including a poetry club.

"It opened up a whole new life for me," she says.

"Ive made friends through the library that I never would have had, and I just had a little time for myself, a little peace and serenity.

"When we found out the library had closed, it was devastating.

"I do feel isolated now."

Croydon Voluntary Actions building is a 20-minute walk from Broad Green Library. Here, a yoga and meditation session is being held by the Empowering Tamil Families group.

The sessions – attended largely by elderly women - started life inside the now defunct library.

The move across town meant the group lost a number of loyal members, for whom the walk is simply deemed too far.

Meera Jeyakumar, who leads the session, says: "I miss those people - more than 15 to 20 of them. Thats the thing about the library – when it happened in the library, they all came.

"For those who lived around the library area it was a one or two-minute walk."

Until 2010, Meera Ms Jeyakumar lived in Midhurst Avenue, which is the next street down from the Canterbury Road home of Broad Green Library.

Although they are now all grown up – and have children of their own – she regularly took her three sons to Broad Green.

"I took them every day to the park next to the library," she says.

"They would play there and read books every day there.

"Yes, I have got memories, good memories."

The move to close Broad Green, Bradmore Green, Sansterstead and Shirley libraries in Croydon was made last year.

It was not a decision taken lightly, says Croydons executive mayor Jason Perry.

When he took over the reins as mayor in 2022, the council had 13 libraries.

"Many of them were open only two days a week. So [they were] not really serving their local communities."

The hope was that savings made from closing four libraries would mean extra money to invest in the nine surviving libraries.

Deciding which to shut, Mr Perry says "it was really down to usage".

"Less than 10% of our residents were actually visiting libraries.

"Those that were the lowest usage essentially were the ones that were then shut."

Data from Croydon Council shows Broad Green was the fourth least visited of Croydons libraries, with just over 17,000 visits in 2023-24.

However, documents produced by the council ahead of the closure decision highlighted that "active user data" did not include visitors using the library as a study space, to use the wifi or to attend an event or group.

That would include groups like the writing club founded by Chloe Smith which, she says, attracted a "mixed bag" of members ranging from full-time carers to working professionals to "people needing it to connect and rebuild".

She compares the loss of the library to that of other "community assets" such as pubs, community centres or playing fields.

It was, she says, a "meeting place for people".

It was also, as Kiran found, an important resource because "not everyone has the income to have laptops or wifi" and so used the computers at the library to pay their bills online.

"I think the closure of Broad Green is going to have a really detrimental effect on the local area," says Ms Smith. "It is going to isolate people further because there are no other assets like the library."

She says the library felt like a second "home" for her. The writing group is currently homeless.

"Weve been forced into becoming a nomadic community not of our own choosing.

"But we adapt, we carry on and we will do it together."