London, 1944, and Clara Button is no ordinary librarian. While the world remains at war, in East London Clara has created the country’s only underground library, built over the tracks in the disused Bethnal Green tube station. Down here a secret community thrives: with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café and a theatre […]
Bethnal Green’s underground wartime library
Kate Thompson explains how working-class East Enders had access to books, entertainment and culture in an underground library during the Second World War, the background story to her new novel, The Little Wartime Library. June 13, 1944, and Bethnal Green is under fire. The streets are bathed in a choking, acrid smoke as a German […]
The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson
London, 1944. Clara Button is no ordinary librarian. While the world remains at war, in East London Clara has created the country’s only underground library, built over the tracks in the disused Bethnal Green tube station. Down here a secret community thrives: with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café and a theatre offering […]