Bury St Edmunds Library Refurbishment

Bury St Edmunds library has been refurbished, bringing new services to the town centre.

Old Bury St Edmunds library New Bury St Edmunds library
                   Old Bury library                Refurbished Bury library

September 2010

The library reopened on Monday 6 September 2010 with a week of special activities and events.

August 2010

Monday 16 August, the Shire Hall Site is now closed.  The refurbished Library At Sargeants Walk will reopen on Monday 6 September at 8.30am.  Please visit the activities and events page for details of our opening week activities.

July 2010

The refurbished library is due to reopen on Monday 6 September. The Shire Hall site will close on Sunday 15 August in preparation for the move back. Bury Access Point (the Quaker House) and the mobile library service will continue to be available until the refurbished library opens.

Wednesday, 6 January 2010


The shuttle bus service started, offering a service on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Please go to temporary facilities page for more information.

Monday, 4 January 2010

Bury Library Temporary Mobile Library and Bury Library Access Point opened.  Please go to temporary facilities page for more information.

Wednesday, 23 December 2009

Bury St Edmunds Library, Sergeant's Walk closed for refurbishment. Bury St Edmunds library is now at Shire Hall, Raingate Street. Please go to temporary facilities page for information about other library access points in Bury St Edmunds during the refurbishment.

Monday, 14 December 2009

Shire Hall opened, offering a range of services for all customers including activities such as Bookstart, TopTime and Sunday Crafts.  See our temporary facilities page for more details.

4 November 2009

The project to refurbish the library is progressing and staff have been working hard behind the scenes in preparation for the works. Please see our temporary facilities page for details of the temporary library locations during the refurbishment works.

The indicative timescales for the project are now also set, with the 30 November being the key date that customers will start to notice a change. We are intending to have no break in service whilst we move into temporary locations, however this will mean offering a reduced service from the current library while we move the stock to the different locations.

From the 30 November we will be offering a condensed service from the foyer area of Bury St Edmunds Library only. The Shire Hall site will then open on the 14 December, offering a full range of services. The main library will close on the 23 December and for the period between Christmas and New Year we will be operating from the Shire Hall site only. Please ask staff for details of our Christmas and New Year opening hours. The Friends Meeting House Service will open on the 4 January and the Mobile will also be available outside Woolworths from this date

The expectation is that the building contract will last for 32 weeks. We will then need to fit out and restock the library. This means that the refurbished library should be open in October 2010.

August 2009

Bury Library is one of the ‘top tier’ of libraries in Suffolk - The library is situated in the town centre and is a heavily used community resource generating approximately 18,000 enquiries, 315,000 issues and 521,000 visits per year. The refurbishment will offer not only a modern library space, but also incorporate a Children’s Centre, LEAP (Learning and Enterprise Access Points) Centre and refreshed coffee shop into the building.

The Children’s Centre is a new facility in the town centre. Other children’s centres within the county only operate Monday to Friday. This new facility will provide the opportunity to offer children’s centre services for seven days a week making it unique within the county. For more information on Children’s Centres visit www.suffolk.gov.uk/EducationAndLearning/EarlyEducationAndChildcare/ChildrensCentres 

The LEAP Centre is also a new facility in the town centre. It will be run by Community Learning and Skills development, a part of Suffolk County Council. Customers will be able to drop-in or call to find out about all the education, training or skills courses and workshops available in Bury St Edmunds. For more information on LEAP Centres visit www.leap.ac.uk

The refurbishment project is due to start towards the end of 2009; more information will be made available on this website and in the library shortly.


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