Events, activities and things to do in Lambeth Libraries for April 2024

Lambeth Libraries have announced some of their highlights for April 2024, with plenty of activities for people of all ages:

The Easter break is upon us, and it would be great to see you at some point in the library. We have loads of new books for adults and children as well as activities and events for all. It’s definitely worth a visit and you’ll receive a very warm welcome as ever.

During April, South Lambeth Library, situated in the heart of ‘Little Portugal’, will host a series of events celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the fall of the Fascist regime in Portugal in April 1974. Lambeth has the largest Portuguese speaking community in the UK and it’s great that many of the commemorative events will take place in our Libraries.

Easter Opening Hours

Friday 29 March (Bank Holiday) – CLOSED
Saturday 30 March – Normal hours*
Sunday 31 March (Bank Holiday) – CLOSED
Monday 1 April (Bank Holiday) – CLOSED
Tuesday 2 April – Normal hours

*Streatham Library and Lambeth Archives will remain closed on Saturday 30 March

Building improvement works

The work continues at Brixton Library and during April parts of the library will be closed for redecoration. Please bear with us while we upgrade this beautiful building and accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Streatham Library building work will be completed in the first week of April and the Hall, and upgraded rooms for hire, will be available again. We have put in air conditioning in many parts of the building and in the upstairs rooms double glazing has been installed, reducing any noise from the street.

Events for Adults

Bantling with Marlowe Russell

Marlowe Russell

Tuesday 9 April, 7pm
Carnegie Library, SE24 0AG
Booking via Eventbrite

Join author Marlowe Russell to discuss her new novel Bantling. Who are you if you don’t know where you come from? Where do you fit if your past is make-believe?

Event organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library.

Percival Everett

Saturday 13 April, 1pm
Brixton Library, SW2 1JQ
Booking via Eventbrite

Join Booker shortlisted US author Percival Everett, discussing his latest novel James, with Caleb Azumah Nelson. A brilliant, moving, harrowing and fearlessly funny reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of and in the voice of the enslaved Jim.

Exhibitions

Unveiling the Champion Within: Portraits of a Boxing Community

Tuesday 2 April to Friday 3 May. Brixton Library. SW2 1JQ
Exhibition available during Library opening hours

In this show, popular boxing collective Champs Within celebrate and illustrate inspirational stories from coaches, amateurs, white collar boxers and fitness enthusiasts. Through photography Unveiling the Champion Within will show the positive interaction between boxing, health, community and creativity. The exhibition will showcase boxing stories through captivating photography by local students and professionals.

Training boxing & photography workshop, Monday 29 April, 1pm to 3pm. Brixton Library.
Book via Eventbrite

Further information: www.champswithin.com
@champswithin

Keith Whitworth Paintings

Keith Whitworth

Showing until Tuesday 30 April. Carnegie Library, SE24 0AG
Exhibition available during Library opening hours

A very personal exhibition of works by local architect and artist Keith Whitworth, paintings in oils and in acrylics of his family and friends, and of local architecture such as Brockwell Hall and, in watercolours, the D&V (aka The Crown & Greyhound) and Dulwich College seen from the allotments (a scene with Sydenham Hills in the background that is 2024 but could be 1924)…as well as landscapes from his childhood in and around Barrow-in-Furness.

Behind the Blue Doors

Friday 19 April to Saturday 1 June. Lambeth Archives, SW2 1ET
Exhibition available during Archive opening hours

Behind the Blue Doors is a new photography exhibition by Jim Grover, the award-winning south London social documentary photographer. It reveals the fascinating story of an alms-house in the heart of Brixton, endowed in 1824 by Thomas Bailey, a china and glass merchant, and which continues to offer accommodation, for those in need, 200 years later. The exhibition documents the history of the alms-houses alongside the stories and portraits of many of its residents: a mix including personal possessions that residents have selected highlighting the diversity of their lives, as well as original archive documents extending back over 200 years.

From Our Friends

Teachers: Meet the Author

Ash Bond

Monday 8 April, 6pm to 7pm
Online. Booking via Eventbrite

Children’s librarians and teachers are invited to meet Ash Bond the author of the electrifying middle-grade debut Peregrine Quinn and the Cosmic Realm in this special pre-publication event as Ash introduces you to the action-packed cosmic world of Peregrine Quinn.

Black Culture Spring Market

Saturday 6 April and Sunday 7 April, 11am to 5pm.
The Department Store, 248 Ferndale Rd, London SW9 8FR
Booking via Eventbrite

Please join us for an inspiring showcase of carefully selected black businesses this April. This is an indoor, face-to-face event that supports emerging entrepreneurs & new black businesses of African & Caribbean descent with retail opportunities.

Taking place over two days in the heart of Brixton it offers a diverse, quality shopping and cultural experience celebrating producers of the African & Caribbean community.

Viva o 25 de Abril de 1974!

Viva o 25 de Abril de 1974

During April, South Lambeth Library, situated in the heart of ‘Little Portugal’, will host a series of events celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the fall of the Fascist regime in Portugal in April 1974.

Fall of Fascism Exhibition launch.

Portugal: Oppression

Monday 15 April, 6.30pm
Tate South Lambeth Library. SW8 1QP
Booking via Eventbrite

Join us for the launch of the Fall of Fascism in Portugal exhibition.

The exhibition tells the story of Portugal under the fascist dictatorship of Salazar and Caetano, its colonial rule, the poverty that motivated a huge wave of emigration to Europe in the 1960s and 70s, and the colonial wars that eventually provoked the military coup by middle ranking officers on the 25th April 1974. This in turn led to the Revolution of the Carnations, ended the colonial wars and heralded the independence of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor.

The Exhibition is free and will run from 15 April to 19 May. Organised by Migrantes Unidos and Lambeth Libraries.

Viva Portugal: Street Art Workshop

Street Art Workshop

Saturday 20 April, 11am
Tate South Lambeth Library. SW8 1QP
Booking via Eventbrite

Inspired by the explosion of Street Art following the revolution, this is your chance to get creative and make your own street art for the here and now, led by artist Vicki Long, and based on rare photographs that captured the revolutionary spirit in 1970s Portugal. What do you want to say? Sign up for this workshop to explore your ideas. For all ages. Produced by Modern Culture

Living History: The Carnation Revolution

Wednesday 24 April, 6.30pm
Tate South Lambeth Library. SW8 1QP
Booking via Eventbrite

What happened on 25th April 1974? What changed for you, or for Portugal or the wider world? Zoltan Biedermann, Professor of Early Modern History at UCL and author of Disconnected Empires, and Susannah Finzi, a playwright and Portuguese translator who was in Lisbon at the time of the revolution, and who has an incredible photographic archive of revolutionary street art (to be shown at the event) will be in conversation.

They will welcome perspectives and questions from the audience, and will also be inviting UK Lusophone residents to help us by recording their memories of the breaking news for a Living History sound archive hosted by the library. Produced by Modern Culture

Events for Children and Young People

Easter Fun Craft Day

Easter

Saturday 30 March, 12pm to 3pm
Tate South Lambeth Library. SW8 1QP

Join the Friends of South Lambeth Library for a fantastic Easter craft day in the library. There will be activities for all ages and an egg-hunt activity for children! Flower making, card making, face-painting and you can decorate an egg for an egg hunt! All welcome.

Easter Nest Egg Making

Nest Egg Craft

Wednesdays, 3 April and 10 April. 2pm to 4pm. Durning Library, SE11 4HF

Get crafty for Easter making your own ‘Nest Egg’!. Ages 5 to 9 years

Free GCSE Maths and English

GCSE Learning

Credit Photo by RDNE Stock project

Every Wednesday, 5pm to 7pm
Durning Library, SE11 4HF

Catch up on all your learning with qualified trainer at the library. All welcome. For 16 years and above. Book a place with the library on 020 7926 8682

Lego Code Block Animation

Tinkercad

Every Saturday, 12pm to 2pm
Durning Library, SE11 4HF

20-minute drop-in activities on www.tinkercad.com. Make your own 3D paper-puppet, Print Mindcraft & Lego landscapes, make your own Shakespeare poem-flick-book animation and watch your slow-motion movie on our mini-Lego-cinema-screen. For children age from 5 to 14.

Fees and Charges

We have worked hard to avoid any increase in fees and charges for the coming year and most have not changed. However, there have been some small changes to address inflation. The new charges will be on display in all our libraries from 2 April.

The Lambeth Libraries App is here!

If you are in a bookshop and have the Lambeth Library app on your phone you can scan the barcode on the back of a book and it will let you know if you can borrow the book from one of our libraries instead. Do load the Lambeth Library App on your phone if you have not already done so, it has lots of good features and is a handy way to store your library card.

Free e-book and e-audiobook, magazine and comic downloads

With your library card you can use our e-library for free, just go to www.lambeth.gov.uk/LibraryServicesOnline. When logging in use all letters in your library card number ‘LMP’.

We’ve got thousands of e-books, audiobooks, magazines and comics to download and they’re all free. Get the Libby app on your phone, iPad or tablet, or access the website on a PC or laptop and start listening or reading straight away!

We now subscribe to BorrowBox and Libby App so you have more eBook and eAudiobook choices – all delivered directly to your device. Download the apps from your app store now and enjoy a feast of free listening!

BFI Replay Available in Libraries

BFI Replay is a free-to-access digital archive exclusively available in UK public lending libraries. Thousands of digitised videos and television programmes from the BFI National Archive and partner UK regions and nations film archives are available to browse and enjoy, research or study – with some familiar and memorable, others rare and unseen for decades.

Lambeth Archives

Lambeth Archives is open at the new archives building on Brixton Hill. The service is open to the public initially by appointment only.

Lambeth Archives new address is 16, Brixton Hill, SW2 1ET. Otherwise our contact details are unchanged so you can email us at archives@lambeth.gov.uk or call us on 020 7926 6076 to make an appointment to visit.

Join the Library online

If you do not have a library membership, just join online at
www.lambeth.gov.uk/jointhelibrary and contact the library you wish to collect your library card from. Alternatively, call 020 7926 0750 or email as above and we will enrol you.