The Goldfish Bowl!

Otherwise known as the town's new library!!

After two year's construction work, part of the town's new multi-million pound redevelopment has opened to the public, with the library being the first fully open building. Fourteen months ago, the library looked like this! (The brown girders on the left of the shot)

My book group met for the first time today in the new library. It's all very shiny and new, but has lost that cosy intimate feel that the old library used to have. It has become just one part of the council's new One Stop Shop, so there was a constant traffic of people going through the building for various purposes, accompanied by the sounds and smells of the coffee shop's kitchen. As you can clearly see in this photo, there was a big council meeting in process on the first floor.

Yes, the building is very light and bright and modern, but that comfy, cosseted feeling that you usually get in libraries, along with the faint musty, dusky scent of books, has totally vanished...