CAMPAIGNS
SAVE OUR LIBRARY
Primarily about ensuring Grimsby's Central Library building is saved and reopened as our areas main library, this campaign has also been about raising awarenees in our communities about how vulnerable library services are.
GCDCS have participated in 'consultation' events, had face-to-face meetings with the general public to raise awarenss, arranged a Facebook group to raise awareness, spearheaded protests and led a very successful petiton to put to Council - all efforts to get assurance from NELC that library services would one day return to the iconic building. Grimsby Central Library building itself, having suffered from lack of real maintenance over many years, has been closed and empty since early 2025 'due to due to a water leak posing a risk of asbestos disturbance' (NELC).
Designed by the Borough Architect JM Milner ARIBA and assisted by E L Shepherd, Central Library first opened in 1969 and has since been noted by various commentators as 'a proud public building of real quality, reflecting the cautious optimism and fierce civic pride of the Sixties' https://modernmooch.com/2019/10/21/central-library-grimsby/
'This little- known building is a small masterpiece – a concrete jewel box' Modern Buildings in Britain: A Gazetteer by Owen Hatherley (published by Penguin 7 April 2022).
And led The Guardian's article of 2022 'Like something from a Kubrick film – the hunt for Britain’s best modern buildings' ( https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/mar/24/something-kubrick-britain-best-modern-building-owen-hatherley)
ABBEY WALK CAR PARK
This is another of our central Grimsby mid 20th century buildings under threat and one whcih again, GCDCS endeavoured to raise its profile and awarenss of its architectural and artisitc interest. 'a stark concrete layer cake with abstract reliefs sculpted by artist Harold Gosney on its flank and an elegant spiral access ramp (The Guardian, 7 Nov 2019) its architectural merits were also noted by Manchester Modernist Society's Facebook pages twice. Money apparently could not be found to reburish it - only for its demoltion.