Centre of Learning

I had been asked to do a talk at one of the local libraries this morning on something to do with literature.  Well, where to start!  Anyway, I decided to talk about poetry to do with places and it ended up being a very pleasant and stimulating (for me anyway!)  hour and a half exploring all sorts of ideas and responses with a group of  older people who had had mixed experiences in their English lessons many years ago.  I was really pleased that the 80 year old gentleman who I got talking to on our walk last Monday also came along to my surprise - I was so pleased to see him there and I hope he enjoyed it even though he was the only man.  He used to own a hardware shop opposite the library at the end of the 1950s.

The Library was opened in 1937, a time when the area around Smethwick was being developed as part of the expansion of the City of Birmingham.  It has some beautiful curves and windows which give it a very art-deco feel and has a series of these tablets about a metre down from roof level which depict a variety of areas of learning.  This one, I presume, represents science.

I shall go back on another day to explore some of its curves with the camera.