New home for Lambeth borough archives

A Lambeth council cabinet report has recommended that the borough archives move from their present home in the Minet library in Myatt’s Fields to Kennington Lane in Vauxhall.

A new single-site facility would be built to make the archives more accessible. Bill Linskey, chair of the Lambeth Local History Forum, said he was pleased the cabinet had addressed the forum’s main concerns that the archive be hosted on the one site in a permanent location.

“We hope that this will now progress as quickly as possible to keep the memory of the borough safe and accessible for future generations.”

Feasibility work is due to start soon on a new facility which could be either for mixed use or a dedicated archives building. The current archive will remain at Minet, alongside the re-opened but reduced, library service until a final decision on relocation is made. The Minet was closed as a full library last year. Lambeth council says a local steering group will be established to look at the long term future of the Minet site.