A York library will reopen next Monday, it was revealed today.
Acomb Explore Centre in Front Street opens on Monday 5 January.
Manager Fiona Reilly and her team are excited to welcome everyone back to Acomb Explore with its reading cafe, garden, meeting rooms and well-stocked shelves.
And honorary librarian Betty the cat, is keen to see all her friends again too.
Fiona said: “We’ve knocked down walls and built others. We’ve created a bigger, more colourful children’s area and we’ll also have a study pod, and a teenage area.
“We also have lots of gorgeous new comfy chairs so that you can really relax and enjoy your new library. We’ve even upgraded the toilets, and added an extra one!”
The café has had a refresh too with new seating and décor and a huge new servery to make food prep and service even better.
Visitors can enjoy a great cup of tea or coffee, freshly-prepared sandwiches, wraps, cakes and home-cooked hot dishes throughout the colder months.
Menus change seasonally, with monthly specials, and aim to cater for all, with child-friendly, and vegetarian, vegan and free-from options
The cost of the upgrade at Acomb Explore Centre was more than £400K.
Jenny Layfield, chief executive, Explore York Libraries and Archives said: “Acomb was our first Explore centre and a blueprint for Explore’s vision for 21st century libraries truly shaped by and for their communities.
“So it is great news that, with this investment from the DCMS, the Mayoral Renewables Fund and City of York Council we have been able to make the improvements to Acomb Explore in line with the priorities identified by local people.”
The upgrade was largely funded by the government’s Libraries’ Investment Fund, funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and administered by Arts Council England which put in £250,000, while the council’s Future Libraries Fund contributed £100,000.
