David O’Driscoll was left perplexed when he saw TfL had removed its free book library from Blackhorse Road Station

Photo by Hans-Jürgen Weinhardt on Unsplash

I want to acknowledge the sad demise of what has been in my view, the best bookshop in Waltham Forest.

I’ve discovered exciting new writing, such as a collection of short stories by a writer from the Dominican Republic, Junot Diaz. I also picked up Nina Simone’s Gum, by Warren Ellis, the musician, producer, and music partner to Nick Cave.

This award-winning book was, I discovered, a signed copy and, what’s more, was signed by Nick Cave! My favourite book however, was an autobiography of the northern playwright David Storey, and his incredible account of a working-class upbringing.

He left school to play rugby league for Wakefield, then wrote one of the best sports writing books and some of the most critically acclaimed plays in the 1960s, including the classic, This Sporting Life.

All of these books were free; I paid not a penny for them because I picked them up at Blackhorse Road tube book swap. As an avid reader, I also always felt it was my duty to shift some of my collection there, too.

That in turn gave me much pleasure. But sadly, very abruptly in March, it closed. According to TfL, the book stations have been removed due to fire safety concerns in response to guidance from the London Fire Brigade.

A TfL spokesperson told me: “We’d like to apologise to any of our customers that this impacts and we are reviewing our processes for these internally and will work with the fire service to see if book swaps can be re-introduced at some stations across the network in the future.”

It just seems very odd that there are fire safety concerns about the presence of maybe 20 or so books in one of two metal cabinets.

How could this be the legitimate reason for why such a well-used public book-sharing service has ended, with such sweeping action taken across all tube stations in the capital?

Perhaps the London Fire Brigade did not notice the stacks of free Metro newspapers that still remain in the station? Even a former chief fire officer has described the decision as overkill.

Frankly it all seems rather dubious to me, even if I understand that the main task of TfL is to get us from A to B safely.

But it’s important to stress that these free books were adding something of enormous value to the wider community.

The benefits of reading are now well researched and are such an important aspect of our imagination, creativity and learning. We know that one in two adults do not read regularly, and that if an adult reads for at least 30 minutes a week it adds to their greater life satisfaction, and for that reason some GPs have been prescribing books for people’s mental health.

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