As the book of my blog inches its way towards publication, I went to check out the Bethnal Green Library, which I include in passing, but without any information. I’m glad I did. It’s a fine piece of municipal socialism, originally built in the 1890s as a wing of the local lunatic asylum and adapted in the 1920s by the Borough Engineer as a library, with bas reliefs of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, William Morris and Richard Wagner, as selected by the town council which was part Communist at the time:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
But sadly much of its space is no longer used. The first floor is usually completely empty. Tower Hamlets has little belief in the virtues of books.
It does have an enchanting fish tank in the entrance – a big attraction for my step grandchild on her walk from her nursery in Weavers’ Fields when we lived in Globe Town