Forgotten, but still half there

I FELT frustrated and a little guilty. I didn’t know what had happened to the Swiss Cottage Library before it became the Swiss Cottage Library. It used to be the Hampstead Library before all the little boroughs combined to become Camden, and it changed its name to Swiss Cottage Central Library. Swiss Cottage Central Library was built on different site, up the Finchley Road, London NW3, from 1964.
          There is a certain weirdness to the tale, as a ghost of Hampstead Library is still there, well, half there, and almost forgotten is the fact it used to be the main Library. Now the ornate Victorian-age building is used as a modern arts centre, corner of Arkwright and Finchley roads. It is a complete arts centre in half a building. The other half was removed by Hitler and his German bombers when they invaded the skies over Finchley Road during the Second World War.
          While the Second World War was on, Hampstead Central Library was damaged badly twice in air raids. Hitler’s bombs obliterated the Reference and Lending Rooms and the Book Store. More than twenty-five thousand books were lost. Touchingly, the Children’s Library, which survived, was changed to an emergency library. Repaired and rebuilt after the War, venerable Hampstead Central Library closed peacefully, and the offspring, Swiss Cottage Central Library, appeared near the Underground station in 1964.
          Books that survived the bombing still shelter in the Reserve Stock at Swiss Cottage. Sometimes I order a book and unexpectedly it is a war veteran. When it is, and comes from the basement modestly into my hands, I look at the old label and tell it I can imagine what it went through during the War.