Feature
‘Take a break from shopping’
10 September 2005
Josie Appleton on how libraries are becoming things of the past. Enter, instead, the Idea Store
On 22 September, a new flagship ‘Idea Store’ will open to replace Whitechapel library in east London, which closed its wood-panelled doors on 6 August. Idea Stores (this is the third in Tower Hamlets) have book collections, but are emphatically ‘not just a library’, including everything from cafés to careers advice, family classes to aromatherapy sessions. According to the publicity, these are ‘neutral safe spaces’ where people can ‘come for a coffee, to meet friends, to take a break from shopping’. Reading is almost discouraged. As you enter Bow’s Idea Store, you see the café on the left and the internet stations on the right; the books line a walkway curving around the back of the building. It’s all open-plan glass and plastic, so there’s little chance of finding a quiet spot to think.
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