Shard End library

Shard End’s library users had to wait until 1967 when a purpose built library was opened in Shustoke Road. An issue rate of over 100,000 book loans in the first five months vindicated those who had lobbied so long and hard for this permanent provision.

The new library brought the latest professional facilities to Shard End and it was the first branch library in the city to use plastic membership cards rather than traditional cardboard tickets. The building itself was incorporated into a set of Council owned flats, reinforcing the Council’s commitment to joint service provision in the estate. This pattern was extended in the mid 1980s with the opening of the adjacent neighbourhood office, a partnership which continues in ‘The Shard’.