News / Society

Pop-up street libraries appear in Totterdown

By Fiona Burgess  Wednesday Apr 20, 2016

Live in Totterdown and fancy picking up a book on your commute or on the way home from school?

Community-run pop-up street libraries have been appearing on roads and walls across the area.

The families who opened the pop-ups say the philosophy is ‘take a book and leave a book’.

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Susannah Thompson, who lives on Woodridge Road says that their library “is a bit of give and take sometimes… so you take a book you can keep it, you don’t have to bring it back if you don’t want to and you don’t have to leave anything if you don’t want to.

“No one’s said anything about it and sometimes I have a look myself to see if there’s anything I want to read, at the moment it’s really posh in there, there’s some Tolstoy. You should have a look!” 

The micro pop-up library on Woodridge Road

While we were chatting, a young girl came up to the library: “I put that book there,” she said excitedly, “Oh wait mummy I haven’t read this one can I take this one please?”

It’s this sort of enthusiasm for the project that has inspired others to set up their own pop-ups.

Lisa Tunstall’s husband built the colourful library on Crowndale Road

“My husband started the library two years ago,” said Lisa Tunstall, who lives on Crowndale Road. “He thought it’d be a really good thing for the community and we’ve got a lot of positive comments back from local residents.

“It’s just really nice especially when the children come up and say I put that there or they get really excited to take a book”

Upcycled pop-up library on St Martin’s Road

 

Read more: Bristol library staff to strike over hours

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