A fundraising campaign has raised nearly £250,000 to repair a library in Liverpool that was torched by rioters during unrest earlier this month, with hundreds of authors pledging to donate their books.
Recent donations to Spellow Hub library’s GoFundMe page have more than doubled the £120,000 that was raised in the few days after the riot. The initial fundraising target of £500 was very quickly met, with Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library, donating £5,000, alongside contributions from food writer Nigella Lawson, children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and thousands more from the general public.
Spellow Hub is located on County Road, Walton, where Merseyside police said approximately 300 people were involved in violent disorder on 3 August. The library suffered severe fire damage to its ground floor.
The #ReadingNotRioting campaign on X, started by author Marnie Riches, encouraged authors, readers and publishers to donate books. The campaign saw pledges from 150 authors within 24 hours and “within 48 hours that number had more than doubled”, Riches said.
Philip Pullman, Kate Mosse and CL Taylor are among those who have donated books to the library. Riches, a writer based in the north-west who is from a working-class background, said her childhood local library was “instrumental” in her becoming an author. She said seeing such damage inflicted on a recently refurbished library in a “working-class area where residents desperately need free access to books and a safe community space” is a “disgrace”.
Formerly known as Spellow library, Spellow Hub reopened as a community hub last year, offering opportunities including training and skills programmes for the long-term unemployed in one of the most deprived communities in the country.
The GoFundMe page was created by local Alex McCormick, a 27-year-old manicurist. “The reception online has been phenomenal. I still feel utter disbelief when I see the amount raised and the support received,” she said. McCormick said that Liverpool city council, which is overseeing how the money raised is spent, has been “amazing”. “Their support, along with the support of politicians, just reaffirms that the good will always outweigh the bad.”
Jonathan Reynolds, secretary of state for business and trade, was one of many MPs and councillors who visited Spellow Hub and discussed plans for the future of the library with McCormick. “I would love to see us give back to the community,” she said. “More baby classes, more community outreach, more resources.”
The plans for the library are still being decided, with a clear agenda to be set in the coming weeks. The council is liaising with with members of the community including McCormick and the centre’s manager, Debbie Moore. McCormick hopes that the “people who caused such mindless damage” can “redirect their energy into something positive in the future”.
Police said when firefighters arrived at the library, the rioters attempted to stop them from getting to the fire to put it out. They “threw a missile at the fire engine and broke the rear window of the cab”, police said in a statement. After the riot subsided, police caught Ellis Wharton, 22, attempting to steal a computer while his brother, Adam Wharton, 28, acted as lookout. Both were jailed after pleading guilty to burglary.
Riches said the success of the campaign shows “that authors, agents and publishers are firm in their support of libraries and their readers”. The “gifts of joyful escapism, empathy and learning opportunities that come from reading books provide a panacea to the mindless vandalism we’ve seen.”