Share your memories and stories of working in one of the city’s most loved library buildings

Any person with a special or unique memory of working in the municipal building of Leeds Central Library are being asked to share their stories at a special event next week.

Members of the Leeds Library Service would love to hear and find out more about the memories and secrets that the building holds, as part of an event which will be held in the Sanderson Room of the library on Thursday, 18 July from 1pm-4pm. Opened in 1884, the building on Calverley Street which hosts the library and the tiled cafe, has also in its illustrious past found itself the home to the city’s engineers, rate departments, police force and the museum service.

Whether you a former museum curator, city policeman, librarian, or one of the many joiners, electricians or builders that worked in the building, this is your chance to reminisce, and who knows maybe even meet an old colleague at the same time. Photos and other nostalgic material will be on hand to spark recollections, and there is also the chance that your story could feature in a proposed new illustrated book about the building.

Already a range of wonderful and sometimes unusual stories have been discovered. From tales of ghosts and a snake that was said to have escaped from a live museum exhibit and lived in the pipes of the building, to stories regarding the Portcullis hidden under the Calverley Street steps and two members of staff who met and fell in love working in the library and who moved to the USA for a new life.

For further information or to RSVP please contact the Local and Family History Library on 0113 378 6982 or email: localandfamilyhistory@leeds.gov.uk

Any person who is unable to attend on the day can also share their stories using the same email or phone number.

Councillor Debra Coupar, Leeds City Council’s executive member for communities said:

“The walls of the Leeds Central Library municipal building will certainly have seen and heard so much in its long and illustrious history. We are extremely keen to bring as many of these stories to life, by finding out more and the stories, myths and legends that people have to tell about their time working in the Leeds Central Library building, whether it was for a day, or decades.

“The event which we are holding in the Sanderson Room at the library on July 18 will be a fantastic way in which to do this, and we are very excited to hear the stories and memories that will be shared on the day.”

For media enquiries, please contact;

Colin Dickinson, Leeds City Council press office (0113) 39 51578

Email: colin.dickinson@leeds.gov.uk