Libraries news archive

Recent Events in Westminster Libraries

What has been happening recently in Westminster libraries?...

Writing for the Theatre

Wednesday 10 December 2008 6pm to 8pm
London's Soho Theatre runs an annual competition to encourage people to have a go at writing for theatre. This year's competition, hosted by Don Camphill, took place in the Art Reading Room at Westminster Reference Library.

These workshops were aimed at introducing people to ways to approach writing for theatre. The top three plays will be performed on the main stage at Soho Theatre in Dean Street and there is also a cash prize in the form of theatre tokens.

Host Don Mc Camphill has written a number of plays for Soho Theatre, the Tinderbox Theatre Company (Belfast), the 7:84 Theatre Company / Traverse Theatre (Glasgow), the Lyric Drama Studio (Belfast) and others. His radio plays include the critical success Bull Epic, nominated in 2000 for the Richard Imison Award (Society of Authors) and the Classic Serial Barry Lyndon was nominated by BBC NI for the Sony Award for radio drama.

22 October 2008
Don't Get Lost was a talk on map reading by David Oldman, who had just completed a 5,700 mile walk around the coastline of England, Wales and Scotland.

The talk helped those who attended to see how they could get the most out of Marylebone Information Service's complete collection of Ordnance Survey Landranger and Explorer maps, many of which can also be borrowed from the Lending Libraries. But also looked at how to read maps and how to find one's position in the wilderness. David also talked about his own personal experiences.

National Book Start Day

National Bookstart Day was celebrated across Westminster on several days! We held pirate parties for under fives and their grown ups in Westminster Libraries in October. Children read and wrote pirate rhymes, sang pirate songs and told pirate stories, and dressed up as a pirates! Stickers and goodies were given out and it was all completely free!

Monday 6 October
Pimlico Library
Tuesday 7 October
Marylebone Library
Wednesday 8 October
Charing Cross Library
Mayfair Library
Paddington Children's Library
Victoria Library
Thursday 9 October
Church Street Library 
St Johns Wood Library
Friday 10 October
St James' Library
Maida Vale Library
Queen's Park Library

Family learning event : The Shoebox Story

Thursday 9 and 16 October
This family workshop looked at a painting from the Wallace Collection and created a story of 'What happened before...' and 'What happened afterwards...'. People were given a chance to talk about the painting, make up their own story and then create scenes from the story in shoeboxes. These will then be displayed in the library.

This was a collaboration between The Wallace Collection and Mayfair Library.