When Leith Library first opened, nine-year-old Donald Jack was happy of a place to do his homework.
Eighty years on, and Donald is still making use of the grand facility, opened for residents to the north of the city in 1932.
But things have changed a lot in the library, where today people lounge reading in comfortable chairs while the laughter of children rings out from a colourful play area.
Since opening, the resource has gained a registrar’s office and an office for local council enquiries as well as recently being refurbished.
“In the days when I joined the library the first thing us school children had to do was show our hands and if there was any sign of dirt on them we had to go and get them cleaned,” said Donald, a retired civil servant.
“One of the big differences was there was no noise. Everything was absolutely quiet - there were no children playing around – we all used to do our homework in complete silence.
“There was a reference library and all the books that you wanted for school work were there. I could have shown you exactly where the Latin and French dictionaries were located. I can also remember the Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue.”
He added: “Where the registrar’s office is was the newsroom. All the newspapers were on sloping boards and the caretaker here had to go in there every day with a black roller and black out the columns with the racing results.
“Otherwise they would have had queues in there reading up the racing results so ordinary readers couldn’t get in to read the news.”
The library, along with the neighbouring New Town Hall, was built by the City of Edinburgh Council as part of a promise made when the burgh of Leith was merged with Edinburgh in 1920.
Considered to be at the cutting edge, the library was kitted out to show films with sound and housed special equipment for counting books.
At the time, novels like Brave New World and Sunset Song would have been brand new additions to its shelves.
But, before long, the stone building became a casualty of World War Two, when it was hit by an enemy parachute mine in 1941, causing severe damage.
“I remember that - my brother’s house on Prince Regent Street was damaged too,” said Donald, who, after an education at Cooper Street Primary School (now demolished) and Leith Academy, went on to enlist with the RAF.
“The day before I was going to do my first solo flight I was called to the medical office where I was told I had a perforated ear drum and taken off flying. I was quite devastated.
“Instead, I chose the be a photographer, which was probably a good thing because, of the 112,000 RAF aircrew, 55,000 never came back.”
Eventually father-of-four Donald returned to his home town of Leith, where he met and married his wife in time for the reopening of the library in the 1960s.
“There’s a real community here, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “And you never say a Leith man is from Edinburgh. Anybody who says that to me - I stop them right away.
“There are a lot of records in the library on Leith and I come in to do a bit of research - I’m trying to build up a few ‘memories’. I know quite a bit about the area I know my way around the records here too.”
But for the 89-year-old, rather than the pristine B-listed library, it’s the adjacent theatre and former New Town Hall, where enjoyed many events as part of the Boys Brigade and with his local church, which deserves some attention.
“That’s one thing I really want to see restored - it’s not fit for use, it needs cleaning up. It was great when I was young.”
The Leith Theatre Trust is currently in the process of obtaining a five-year licence to restore the theatre to its former glory.
For now, the City of Edinburgh Council is celebrating the library’s legacy, and have planned a series of events culminating in a 1930s-themed party on Friday, July 20 (the exact day the library was opened).
Team leader Katie Swann said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity to celebrate. It’s really about the local community and bringing everybody who has been using the library together.
“We get so many positive comments from a whole range of people – lots of families with young children, local people who come in to use the internet who maybe don’t have those facilities at home and older people who find it a real lifeline just to have a sense of belonging and companionship.
“We’ve gone from strength to strength over the years - partly because of the really solid roots here and all the people who have been coming in over the years from such a strong local community.”
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