Entrance portal, Earlsdon Carnegie Community Library

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 14 Jul 2018

Earlsdon Library opened in 1913, having been constructed with money given to the City Council by the charitable foundation established by the Scottish-American steel magnate and 'self-made man' Andrew Carnegie. The grand entrance portal to what is otherwise a fairly simple building symbolises Carnegie's belief in reading and education as the gateway to self-improvement. The library building and its neighbours by the Earlsdon roundabout road junction, the Methodist church and the Co-op store, form a kind of triptych expressing an ethic of self-help and mutual aid that was characteristic of what was, in the early 20th century, a 'respectable' artisan district of Coventry. The trio is, however, counterbalanced by the presence on the fourth corner of the City Arms public house, giving rise to a local saying about 'Salvation, Education, Co-operation... and Damnation.' Threatened with closure by the City Council, the library was rescued by volunteers, who formed a charity in 2019. https://earlsdonlibrary.org.uk/about-us/

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