Forest Hill Library

I lived in Forest Hill for two years exactly and I only went to this place three times. It’s a smallish, long, stretched space next to the newly developed swimming pool and the choices of books seemed to concentrate on children books a lot. I never actually took a book home from this place, so I cannot comment on the staff at all.
It is newly decorated, but it doesn’t have much space and I had the impression to constantly bump into people when I was looking through the shelves.

Forest Hill Library is a beautiful Victorian building in its own right. It was refurbished last year and much of the Victorian features inside the building have been retained. I love the old period radiators and leaded windows and cornicing. When you go to a library, I personally believe that the environment of the library itself is very important. There is a good selection of books, DVDs and CDs to choose from. There are 15 computers for free access to the Internet and MS Office. There are always lots of free activities for children to do. There are also free film screenings that take place. The library shows films for children on Saturday, a block-​buster film on Sunday and a film from independent/​world cinema on a weekday evening. Good service from the library staff too. They work hard to engage with their library users, which is good to know.

Much improved since the refit with better opening hours too, the library is very modern and manages to attract local youngsters without it becoming too noisey. The children’s section is a good size and the number of computers available means free internet access is available at most times for members. It is a nice open environment and is well layed out and spacious. It is only a small local library but seems to have a good selection of recent book releases although these could be better promoted.