Shut since March 2025, Harold Wood Library will reopen 10am to 5pm on weekdays, run by a local charity on a three-year lease. It can start from 29 October.

Harold Wood Library is coming back. The building closed in March 2025 to save money. It will now reopen as a community library run by a local charity, the Harold Wood Foundation.

Havering Council announced the plan on 15 October. The council keeps ownership of the building. The Foundation runs it, mostly with volunteers.

No opening day has been announced yet. The decision can take effect from midnight on 28 October, so the earliest it can start is 29 October.

What the deal is

The detail is in the council’s key decision report, published on its decisions register. It recommends that the council:

  • grants the Foundation a three-year lease at a peppercorn rent, with a break clause and the option of two more years
  • hands over the building and gives access to library book stock
  • provides induction, training and operating guidance
  • considers help with fixed set-up costs during the transition only

The lease is a full repairing one. That means the Foundation, not the council, pays for upkeep while it runs the building.

When it will be open

The report proposes opening from 10am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. The Foundation’s aim is to stretch that to 10am to 8pm from the second year.

There is no weekend opening in the plan as it stands.

What will happen there

Alongside lending books, the report lists:

  • literacy support
  • digital inclusion help
  • youth activities
  • food support and a warm space
  • men’s mental health programmes
  • volunteering opportunities

The Foundation has partnerships with Tesco, BookTrust and FareShare, the report says.

The money

Keeping the building shut was not free. The council has been paying about £13,000 a year in mothballing costs, which now stop.

The report also explains why the council will not run it itself. The old council library cost about £118,938 a year, including £87,454 in staff costs.

The Foundation says it can run the library for much less, because of its volunteers. The report says it has enough funding for the first two years. It also flags a shortfall of about £10,000 in year three. The Foundation plans to close that gap with grants, sponsorship, memberships and crowdfunding. The break clause at the end of year three is there in case it cannot.

Why it was saved

The building is listed as an Asset of Community Value. That gives local groups the right to bid if the council ever tries to sell it.

The report says two public meetings run by the Foundation were “very well attended” and showed “overwhelming support” for reopening. A Friends of Harold Wood Library group was set up before the closure and will be involved.

Selling the building was considered and rejected “at this stage”, the report says.

Councillor Keith Prince, leader of Havering Council, said the reopening “represents far more than the return of a building”.

What happens next

  • 22 October: the council publishes the signed decision notice. This starts the call-in period, when councillors can ask for the decision to be looked at again.
  • Midnight, 28 October: the call-in period ends. If no valid call-in is made, the decision takes effect.
  • The council must still check the Foundation’s governance, finances, safeguarding, insurance and health and safety before signing the lease, the report says.

What it means for you

If you live in Harold Wood, you should have a library on your doorstep again, on weekdays, from some point after 28 October.

The Foundation will rely on volunteers, so it is likely to need people. Watch for a call for volunteers once the lease is signed. We will add the opening date here as soon as it is published.

For what else is on in the area over half term, see our October half-term guide.