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FIRST ANNUAL REPORT
of the
COMMISSIONERS FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES and MUSEUMS
for the Parish of Saint Leonard, Shoreditch,
for the year 1891-92.
The Commissioners have pleasure in submitting, for the information of the Vestry,
the following report of their first year's work in carrying out the Libraries Acts in
this Parish.
Immediately after their appointment on the 14th April, 1891, the Commissioners
visited the principal libraries of the Metropolis and obtained a large amount of information
as to their practical working and the cost of building and establishing public
libraries, and their maintenance.
In view of the necessity which is found to arise in parishes as large as Shoreditch
of establishing branch libraries as well as a central one, the Commissioners thought it
expedient to provide at the outset two libraries for this Parish of about equal size, to
supply the needs of the two Parliamentary Divisions of Haggerston and Hoxton.
In the Haggerston Division they were fortunate in finding a substantial and suitable
building, ready to hand, nearly in the centre of the division, known as the Independent
Gas Offices, 236, Kingsland Road, having a large garden in the rear and a house
No. 231, Kingsland Road, accompanying the property which the Commissioners thought it
advisable to acquire as a residence for their Librarian. The tram, omnibus and train
facilities to these premises, and their situation in such an important thoroughfare led the
Commissioners to think that no better site could be obtained, and they opened negotiations
with the owners, the Gas Meter Company, whose Directors and Manager—Mr. Andrews—
met them in a very fair and generous spirit. The Commissioners succeeded in persuading
the Directors to reduce their first price of £5,000 to £4,250 in view of the purpose for
which the building was required, and the Vestry having given its sanction to this
purchase, a contract for the purchase of the property, subject to the sanction of the Local
Government Board, was entered into by the Commissioners on the 29th October, 1891.
It then became necessary to raise a loan of £5,000 to pay the above purchase-money
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