Library of the Month: Moss Side Powerhouse Library
Powerhouse Library is not Moss Side’s first library. In fact, there has been a library here for over 120 years!
Originally built in 1896, the Free Library Moss Side was on the corner of Moss Lane East and Princess Road. It had everything a modern library needs: books, a newsroom, and community rooms for lectures, meetings, and classes.
Unfortunately, this building needed to make way for regeneration in the 1970s and for a more modern library.
Today, Moss Side has a very special local library: Powerhouse Library. We have been part of the Millenium Powerhouse Centre since the beginning 25 years ago and have a focus on children and young people. In fact, Powerhouse Library is the only children’s and young people’s library in the country – after 3pm we are open only to those under 25 or families with children.
Nevertheless, we also look after the local community. During our opening hours between 11-2, we are open for everyone to come use the library: use the Wi-Fi, access computers, borrow books, and use the space to work and study. We have ESOL and IT classes run by Community Advice Link, coffee mornings, the wonderful over-50s group Power Rangers (in Powerhouse – get it?!), our buzzing baby group, and a very popular Talk English drop-in on a Thursday morning.
Most of our time is spent with children and young people. We work a lot with schools and recently had all children from both Webster and St Mary’s Moss Side primary schools visit the library, borrow books, and do some creative writing. Some of these poems decorated the library because we wanted to share them with everyone!
In fact, most of the decorations in the library were made by local children during our popular Thursday craft club, or by our team of dedicated library staff. Both Cristina and Luca focus on re- and upcycling because you can make art out of basically any everyday object, even if it is “rubbish”.
An exciting new addition to our already packed calendar is our Games Night which will start with the summer holidays. This will run alongside our regular Chess Club and encourage children to play board games such as Sushi Go, Exploding Kittens, Carcassonne, and The Muddles. Perhaps we can even get enough interest to start our own role-playing group? Watch this space!
And because not everything can be all play all the time, we also have a homework club run by local volunteers where children can bring their work and practice things that they struggle with at school. The Monday homework club is not only popular with children though: more than 40 volunteers have given their time and expertise over the last three years, and we are very grateful to them for giving back to the local community in this way.
A special way to give back to the local community is also Academy Edge. This organisation started as a Saturday homework club a few months before COVID hit and was then run by local young people in college. They came back to us after the pandemic changed everything and have been running their tuition/homework club ever since. These guys are some real homegrown heroes!
As you can see, whichever day you decide to join us, there will be something happening in this, Manchester’s most youthful library 😊
