Opened in 2017 by Mayor of Sunderland Councillor Doris McKnight with Sheila Quigley as guest.
With the help of sponsors including Sunderland City Council, Gentoo Group, The National Lottery, The Sir James Knott Trust, The Key Fund and others we have reached 6 years operation and are thriving.
We have updated toilet facilities with Disabled, Accessible and baby change facilities. We installed two kitchens, a lobby way, rearranged and updated computers and printers and re-sited them. We changed the café increasing it to 11 tables inside and 8 outside in a revamped courtyard. We cleared the old overgrown garden and replaced it with a modern garden with many excellent plants planting 5,000 bulbs and several specimen trees.
We replaced the old 8 computers with new running Windows 11 and installed a laser printer. We have free to use wi-fi and photocopying and printing services at a small charge.
We installed a new heating system with gas and this has reduced our yearly bills by over £5,000 and negotiated a fixed price contract for gas and electricity until December 2026 so we are not suffering the price rises faced by many. We also installed LED lighting which further reduced our bills by an estimated £800 per annum.
We demolished the old office and rebuilt a new office in the annex. The annex was re-plastered and decorated with new carpeting. We removed the old library serving area and canopy and replaced it with a modern serving area for the café.
We stripped the roof and re-boarded it with insulation and a DPM rubber roof covering. We have replaced the windows in aluminium to update the outside of the library. Lately we have converted the redundant ladies toilets outside the library to provide more storage inside the library.
We painted the library and replaced the old flooring both in the library and the annexe and fitted blinds to complete the refurbishment.
Recently we have updated our electrical control and lighting and replaced chairs and tables increasing the size of the café to 54 seats as well as refurnishing the children's area and adding cloud lights.