BANES Council are planning to move Bath Central Library from its current home in The Podium to The One Stop Shop near the bottom of Manvers Street. You can read the reasons for the move by clicking here.

The new library will save BANES Council £800,000 a year and they will ‘Uphold [their] statutory duty for the provision of library services’. In layman’s terms they will do the bare minimum to ensure the public have access to library facilities.

If you could create a beautiful, functional, multi-use space, what do you think it would look like? Bath Central Library. It's already here, upstairs in The Podium, right in the centre of our town.

The new space claims to create a modern library service, with a focus on digitalising and moving local archives to the Guildhall, splitting the resources in the library into two separate locations.

This is what we will lose:

Parking facilities in The Podium, making Bath Central Library easily accessible to both the elderly and the disabled. The current Library can be reached directly from the carpark via lift. There are no such parking facilities at the One Stop Shop, isolating a key demographic within the community.

in The Podium, making Bath Central Library easily accessible to both the elderly and the disabled. The current Library can be reached directly from the carpark via lift. There are no such parking facilities at the One Stop Shop, isolating a key demographic within the community. There is a beautiful gallery space where local artists can display and sell their work. It can also double as a community space for talks and functions. The loss of this space further marginalises the already limited access to arts within our community.

where local artists can display and sell their work. It can also double as a community space for talks and functions. The loss of this space further marginalises the already limited access to arts within our community. The breakdown of socio-economic boundaries . The Library currently offers a central space where everyone is welcome; it has comfortable chairs and a selection of daily newspapers, free to patrons. No one is excluded from using the library facilities and people from all social and economic backgrounds are able to integrate and discuss things that are important to them.

. The Library currently offers a central space where everyone is welcome; it has comfortable chairs and a selection of daily newspapers, free to patrons. No one is excluded from using the library facilities and people from all social and economic backgrounds are able to integrate and discuss things that are important to them. A large study area, capable of seating up to 100 people. This is a vital area for local students and is used all year round as a quiet study space, located conveniently in the centre of town.



The council wants to save money, but we need to recognise the cultural and social hub that is Bath Central Library in The Podium. We cannot continue to allow the arts and literature to be marginalised for the sake of saving. We need to nurture and encourage community engagement in a safe, central space. To lose The Podium is to lose the heart of Bath’s community and cut off lots of people who are key to making a community thrive.

To close such a wonderful, useful, welcoming space is to disown something really worth something. We need to rally around here folks! Make our voices heard........DON'T MOVE OUR LIBRARY!