** There is now a brand new library in Chester, Storyhouse, which I am looking forward to visiting**

Unfortunately Chester library was a bit underwhelming. Chester itself is, of course, such a nice county town. From the outside the library building (an old motor car works) looks really interesting but the inside feels worn and lagging behind most of the other central libraries I’ve seen recently. Admittedly Cheshire arranges its libraries into regions and I picked Chester to represent Cheshire libraries as it was a the county town, it does not claim to be a “central library”.

The library is a good size and it was packed full of stock. I went on a showery July Saturday (my birthday!) at lunch time and there weren’t many readers around. But it was also a race day with race-goers tottering up the street so it’s possible locals stay indoors on such days. The library is on three floors. The children’s library is in the basement which I like (as long as there’s a lift) as it helps contain toddlers and there is a stepped area which I presume is for story-telling. The ground-floor included fiction, music scores, DVDs, CDs, teen section. Upstairs was more like a reference section with newspapers, local studies, more computers and study tables.

Generally, the inside could do with a refit to complement its outward appearance.