Canning Town Old Library
Following our successful Levelling Up Fund bid, work is underway to transform Canning Town Old Library. Located on Barking Road, this Grade II listed building has been vacant since the new library facility in Rathbone Market opened.
We are bringing this magnificent building back to life as an innovative cultural and creative space dedicated to protecting and conserving Newham’s heritage through a new archive and digital skills development centre. The final building will house the borough’s extensive archive collective, bringing it together for the first time and opening new and exciting ways to engage with the collections both digitally and physically.
The final building will be multifunctional, hosting archive and educational uses together with a café, event hire, exhibitions, and community functions. The final offer, opening around Spring of 2026 will deliver enormous Community Wealth Building benefits to Canning Town and become a key focal point of the Regeneration of Barking Road.
The centre will host a wide array of cultural and educational programmes, building upon the annual Newham Heritage Month, whilst meeting the objectives of the Council’s Cultural Strategy ‘Building Newham’s Creative Future’. Furthermore, both the construction and operation of the building will generate a range of jobs for local people of all ages.
Timeline
Here are some major milestones in the project to transform Canning Town Old Library into Newham’s first heritage and digital learning centre. This timeline might change and will be updated periodically as new milestones are set or reached.
- October 2021 – Newham Council is successful in its bid for £6.2million Levelling up Funding “to bring Canning Town Old Library back into cultural use for the community”
- October 2022 – Haworth Tomkins are appointed as the project Design Team
- February 2023 – Stage 1 application is made to National Lottery Heritage Fund for Newham’s first heritage and digital learning centre at Canning Town Old Library
- June 2023 – Decision on funding from National Lottery Heritage Fund that would provide staffing, engagement and exciting activities for Newham’s community to start shaping their Heritage Service
- 2024 – Refurbishment works begin on site at Canning Town Old Library, restoring and improving accessibility for the building due to be complete by March 2025
- 2025 – Heritage Service activities include engaging with collections and moving the archive store to its new site
- Early 2026 – Canning Town Old Library is refurbished and open to the public as a heritage and digital learning centre for Newham.
Want to find out more?
We want to ensure that everyone who wants to feed into the project can. Over the coming months there will be lots of opportunities to find out what is happening and to have your say.
For the latest update on Canning Town Old Library, please visit the project co- create page.
You can also join our mailing list by clicking here.
Or you can simply pop into Canning Town Library (18 Rathbone Market, London E16 1EH) and speak to a member of staff.