Clapham Library and the Mary Seacole Centre on the High Street
Lambeth's largest library is at 91 Clapham High Street, open seven days a week, in a building named for a pioneering nurse and businesswoman.
By Clapham London Editorial
Clapham Library is at 91 Clapham High Street, SW4 7DB, inside the Mary Seacole Centre. It is open seven days a week, and on a Wednesday the doors are open from 10am to 8pm. The nearest tube stations are Clapham Common and Clapham North.
Opening hours
These are the hours listed by Lambeth's venue hire page and by Culture24. It is worth a quick check on the Lambeth Libraries website before a special trip.
- Monday: 1pm to 8pm
- Tuesday: 10am to 6pm
- Wednesday: 10am to 8pm
- Thursday: 10am to 8pm
- Friday: 10am to 6pm
- Saturday: 9am to 5pm
- Sunday: 1pm to 5pm
You can ring on 020 7926 0717 or email ClaphamLibrary@lambeth.gov.uk. Accessibility details are on the AccessAble site.
What you can do there
Lambeth Council calls it the borough's largest library. According to Culture24, you can borrow books, DVDs and CDs, use a reference and information service, and get free computer use for internet, Wi-Fi, email and word-processing. There is also a small collection of books in French, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.
For families, Lambeth lists a free Tuesday session for under-5s, 10am to 11am, with songs, stories and rhymes. Check the library for current dates and whether you need to book. Lambeth's ESOL directory also lists a Tuesday 2pm to 4pm slot at Clapham Library.
Children aged 5 to 12 can take part in the Summer Reading Adventure, which runs from 18 July to 13 September 2026. The challenge is to read six or more books, and children also help create a time capsule, according to Brixton Buzz.
The building has a central performance space and meeting rooms for hire, per Lambeth Council. The performance space holds up to 200 people, 120 of them seated. The whole library can be booked only outside opening hours.
One online reviewer calls it an impressive building and a good community centre, but says desk space is limited and it can be noisy, so it may not suit quiet study.
The building
The library is the final part of the £80m Clapham One scheme, which also includes a leisure centre, a GP surgery and housing. Dezeen reported in July 2012 that the library cost £6.5m, covers 19,000 sq ft and was designed by Studio Egret West. It stands on the site of a former office block called Mary Seacole House. Dezeen's headline said it looks like a row of books.
Cathedral Group and United House were the developers, with Lambeth Council and Notting Hill Housing Trust as partners. Designing Buildings says the library and leisure centre were paid for entirely from the sale of the private part of the scheme.
Who Mary Seacole was
Mary Seacole was born Mary Jane Grant on 23 November 1805 in Kingston, Jamaica, and died in London on 14 May 1881, aged 76. Her father was a Scottish army officer and her mother was Creole. According to the London Museum, she was a businesswoman and a “doctress”, a term she used for the Creole herbal healing she learned from her mother.
Her travels added to her knowledge of local medicines, and her remedies for cholera and dysentery were valued. In 1854 she was in London and offered her services as a nurse, but was refused, which she put down to racial prejudice. She travelled to Crimea on her own in 1855 and set up the British Hotel, a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers that also gave medical care and support. She became known as Mother Seacole.
In 1857 she published Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, described as the first autobiography by a woman of African descent in Britain. She was well loved in her lifetime but faded from view after her death, and her memoirs were not reprinted until the 1980s.
She is buried at St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green. A statue stands outside St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth, unveiled in 2016, and a memorial plaque followed in 2017.
