(A newer shorter article has been written here for those looking for ways to support us.)
As we hope you have noticed over the last years, the Carnegie Library Hub is growing with more regular classes and community events. We had an eventful, productive and successful 2023 and we are continuing to work hard building a team, growing partnerships, delivering social value, and facilitating the Carnegie rooms for the community. We have been recognised locally for our efforts and are grateful for the growing and ongoing support. Additionally, we have put in significant groundwork for opening a community café and lounge. We trailed these plans last December by running a successful pop-up café and gained valuable experience and feedback.
We have come a long way in establishing a successful and functioning community business, and with proper backing and support from Lambeth, we can continue to develop the Hub as planned. The long-standing agreement with Lambeth, the freeholder of the building, was that once the summer 2023 capital works were finished the Hub would move over from a license agreement to a longer-term lease that offered more control, community business growth and facilitate capital fundraising capabilities.
Unfortunately, last September, after considerable chasing and delays, Lambeth informed us that they are reviewing this position which led them to eventually withdraw all previous offers. It wasn’t until February this year after many months of lobbying and limbo that Lambeth came back with their revised offer. This was finally simplified and clarified in June this year. Their new offer is significantly different and alters our entire vision and premise for operating. We have had to put our business development and earning potential on hold for the last 12 months whilst waiting for Lambeth to come back to us with a lease that is unworkable and with no clear explanation for the change of direction nor their strategic objectives for the building (other than financial hurdles).
Lambeth’s proposed terms fall short in the following key areas:
- Reduced demise within the building. The current partnership business model, and long-established plans, depended on developing a Community Hub leveraging all of the available rooms in the building that the library and gym were not using. It was agreed, in writing, that we would benefit from demise of the gym as both support income and to increase our floor area and thus facilitate external heritage funding badly needed by the building. Instead, Lambeth has removed 3 usable rooms, thus 50% of the rooms we currently use and restricted our movement through the library within their proposals. This fundamentally undermines the Hub project and means that we do not have a mandate to develop a Hub within a wonderful building complementing the library within. It restricts the programmes that we have made such steady successful progress with and as the trustees see it there is no strategy nor ambition embedded in an alternative plan. Nor does it follow through on their own Culture 2020 Strategy that initiated the project. In effect the CLH is reduced to a small room rental business with no means for innovation and growth and all profits returned to Lambeth. This is an unattractive offer and is a disappointing waste of all the energy, effort and community goodwill, not to mention many hours of high value time and expertise, offered up by dedicated team and trustees.
- No stake or influence in the building. One of the original objectives of the partnership with Lambeth was to support safeguarding the heritage building. This is constituted in our charitable governing documents. All agreements and clarifications sought on the basement, circulation spaces and external spaces have been ignored, eliminating our ability to support the heritage. Lambeth proposals place restrictions on any freedoms we have in the building to innovate, install, lead or do heritage fundraising.
- Inability to operate a community cafe. We executed a long-agreed plan to seek planning permission, listed building consent and found an experienced local operator willing to put time and money into a community cafe. We did everything agreed we would with Lambeth in full transparency to them proposing to use infrastructure provided by Lambeth themselves when they dug out the basement. The idea was discussed for many years, and we set out fixing the conditions to actually make it a reality rather than just a talking point. When we met with Lambeth’s Chief Executive in December 2022 at the town hall, the cafe was one of our agenda items. He confirmed their support for the project and even suggested that the next time we meet him should be in our cafe. The conditions imposed around the provision of a community cafe within Lambeth’s tenancy terms are unworkable.
The team and trustees have experienced repeated and frustrating delays, evasions and difficulties in communication with key decision makers who remain elusive. We’ve provided substantial written material, most recently a multi document bundle in May with significant information asked for, but we have no evidence that this has been read as no subsequent responses reference anything provided then. Our experience has been the opposite of that stated in Lambeth’s own VCS strategy. We are local residents who offer transparency, via our website and social media, and clearly work hard running a service for the benefit of the community. We have shown extreme patience since September 23. This has not been valued and respected. Lambeth have provided no transparency, in writing or otherwise, over their strategic objectives for the building, and given no explanation as to why they have changed long established plans and why they are not following through on the original ideas of a partnership originating from their Culture 2020 Strategy.
Consequently, the trustees and team have decided that, with Lambeth as a principal stakeholder and with the new restricted terms of tenancy which Lambeth appears unwilling to materially negotiate on, we are not able to fulfil our charitable objectives and have no choice than to set a timetable for an orderly close.
We have informed all of our partners that we no longer have secure tenancy and will be closing by the end of December 2024 unless we can urgently agree terms that foster success for community use aligning with our charitable objectives.
We urgently request voices within the community, and our partners, to let Lambeth know that we have strong support from our local community who like what they see at the Hub and recognise how hard we’ve worked to develop a wide range of activities and support the continuation of this positive development and growth.
Here’s how you can help:
- Write an email to the relevant Lambeth councillors to express your support for the Hub project. Please include what you like about the Hub and would like to see in this public building. We have added some suggested text pieces for ease, please use relevant text as you see fit. If the previous link does not open a draft email for you here is a letter that you are free to use.
- Our MP, Helen Hayes, has been kind enough to meet with us a number of times to understand the situation and make representations for us directly to Lambeth. You may want to write to Helen Hayes (helen.hayes.mp@parliament.uk) with a similar letter indicating your own views on the matter.
- Sign our petition supporting a motion to ask Lambeth what their strategic vision is for the building.
- If you are a partner running events at the hub, share this page with your clients and ask them to write and petition.
- Share this page with your local contacts in the areas the Hub serves: Brixton, Loughborough Junction, Camberwell, Dulwich, and Herne Hill.
Your voices of support will demonstrate and amplify to Lambeth the widespread backing for the Hub’s vision that we have worked hard to earn in the last couple of years. Our future success depends on Lambeth lending us the support we’ve made clear we need so that we can, in turn, help them many times over.
For those that want more detail or have further questions we have compiled an FAQ here.