大象传媒

Not long having left school, I started as a very young junior library assistant at the beginning of 1943. Being fortunate enough to have had a very good leaving card from my former headmistress I was designated to work, at first under supervision, in the news and magazine room at the Central Library at the Lansdowne. This entailed going to Grooms the newsagents in Lansdowne Road to fetch the magazines (I think the newspapers were delivered) each morning and then placing the library stamp at strategic places on the magazines to deter would-be thieves. The newsroom was to the left just inside the main door and the magazine room to the left of the first floor entrance to the reference library. They were both very imposing rooms where complete silence reigned and which were visited from time to time by the janitor, resplendent in his navy blue serge suit with brass buttons. When the staff arrived in the mornings he could be found, sleeved rolled up polishing the brass stair rail which stretched up to the fourth floor.

I was given a large key which unlocked the brass rod which was in the middle of each newspaper to keep it in place. I think all the newspapers were purchased including the Daily Worker and a great many magazines including those for young people, the womens' glossies and pictorial ones like The Sketch, the Illustrated London News, The Tatler and Picture Post etc. The Sketch, a fortnightly, had an inset of a lady scantily clad, no doubt destined for a pin-up in barracks or on board ship, but I had to take this out and place it in the drawer of the desk of one of the senior staff (male). These duties meant that I started work at 9:30am until one and then worked from 5pm to 8pm and rarely had to do 1pm to 8:30pm which no one liked. Wednesday was half day and on Tuesdays I did nine to ne and two to five. I had two friends on the staff so on Tuesdays or Wednesday afternoons we often went to a play at the Palace Court Theatre in Westover Road or a musical at the Pavilion (with so many young men in the forces the matinee idol was often rather portly and past his first youth). But for the princely sm of 3 shillings (15p) who were we to complain?

By the time I had finished in the newsrooms it was time for me to go on the daily errand. Ten Senior Service cigarettes for one of the senior staff from Ruggs the tobacconist in Old Christchurch Road and a visit to the bakery just below the Lansdowne on the left hand side. I never minded this as I rarely paid for my morning bun as it was the days of the "baker's dozen". When I think of people I worked with I often recall them as a 1d (old money) jam, bun 1.5 Chelsea bun or a 2d rock cake (the latter mainly the senior staff). These rock cakes were rather a deep shade of yellow with no fruit, of course, and unless eaten while hot really were rocky.

I had several pieces of advice given me by my superiors when I first started (at 23/4d per week). They were (1) always look as if you are busy even if you are not; (2) if you want a private word with anyone use the far corner of the lending library where there is an alcove for oversized books and which cannot be seen from the desk; (3) If a Mr X (a reader) comes in and asks you to go mushrooming with him the answer is "No" and (4) when it comes to your holiday try to take it not when Mr C takes his; we all like to be here then to appreciate his absence!

Incidentally my father was appalled at my wage and thought it far too much for a girl of my age. Many school leavers then worked for ten shillings per week, 7/6d in some cases if they had a lunch thrown in at the staff canteen. At the library newcomers were only allowed to issue books out - it was some time before they were allowed to find the tickets as readers entered and counting the issue at the end of the day was a very senior pastime. Almost the first time I went on the "in" counter I was thrown when one of the readers wouldn't pay a 1d fine because her husband was a town councillor. Books were always put on the shelves as they came in. This was known as bookshelving, commonly known as bookshoving. There were few books with dust covers and the paper covers were not strengthened as they are now so only lasted a week or so and were pounced on by readers as they were obviously new arrivals. Therefore it was a dusty job and some of the staff wore smocks to keep their clothes clean. With clothes on coupons they had to be well cared for. No the men didn't wear smocks! Actually there were few men on the staff and the one or two young ones were eventually called up. When we weren't very busy we had to sort and dust the non-fiction shelves, quite a leisurely and enjoyable occupation as one could have a quiet read at the same time.

Sometimes I worked in the music library on the fourth floor. This was a very elegant room with a very long polished wooden table and blue upholstered armchairs. There were just books on music, musical scores and sheet music. The young woman in charge was awaiting news of her fiance who was reported missing and we felt very sorry for her, especially as she could hear a very senior member of staff in the adjoining office phoning every government department he could think of for news of his son in law who had also been reported missing.

The girls on the staff who had been there for some years often used to drool over a former member, now a pilot officer in the air force. Great was the excitement when it was learnt that this handsome young flier was home on leave and would come in to see us. I have never forgotten the moment when I looked towards the door as he came into the lending library and we realised he was on crutches having lost a leg.

Monday evenings were often spent at the top of the building overlooking Meyrick Road where we repaired books and replaced ticket holders and places for the date stamp. Opposite was a services club and it was a temptation in the summer to watch the personnel going in and out and to see all the different uniforms, khaki, navy blue and air force blue, the dark blue of the New Zealand airmen and the pointed hats of the Czech airmen. Later there were the US uniforms and the arrival of the "Yanks" was a great talking point.

Working in the reference library I got to know some of the art students who came in to study. Some of them rented an upstairs room in a house in Cotlands Road which they used as a meeting place. One or two of us were invited to a party there once and I relaly thought I had arrived in Bohemia, although as I remember it we played a very innocent party game, sat on cushions and one of the men had a beard! One of the art students asked me if I would look after her dog for a week which I agreed to do. My friend and I would take it out in the afternoons when we were on "split" duties but the problem was that it stopped every time we came to a group of American soldiers. Although this embarrassed us somewhat it had its compensations as a couple of times they gave us oranges which we hadn't seen for ages. Perhaps we looked pale and wan!

I can still recall some of the lending library readers. There was a lady working with the Red Cross who was unmarried so you can imagine the shock when she came in and announced to all in ringing tones that she had a son. Evidently there had been a heavy raid on Southampton a few nights previously and her father, a doctor, had gone with others from Bournemouth to help tend the wounded. On his way home in the early hours of the following morning he had found a boy aged about two wandering aimlessly about on his own. Knowing how hard pressed all the services were in Southampton he brought him home and he and his daughter gave him a home later adopting him when it was obvious his parents couldn't be traced.

We were always warned that we were never to accept gifts or money from readers, but when having followed an elderly lady round the library for quite some time shouting into her ear trumpet, she offered me a threepenny bit I'm afraid I accepted it rather than refuse for all the library to hear.

I can recall other readers and imagine they were a cross section of society as they no doubt are now; the comic ones, the friendly ones and the awkward ones! Sometimes I would go as a relief to the branch libraries. On Friday evenings it would often be in the old Boscombe library in teh main road with its imposing stone staircase and gleaming brass rail. What a clatter we made coming downstairs from the staff room in our wooden soled shoes. Going to another branch I was warned that the lady in charge had had an unhappy love affair and I would hear all about it at length and I did.

Saturday evenings I was on home ground at Springbourne where I had borrowed books since a small girl of seven, the joining age then. It is difficult to realise now that on Saturday evenings at Springbourne during the war years the library would be absolutely crowded with a long queue at the counter making it extremely difficult to get to the bookshelves. The most memorable occasion was going one evening to the old library at Kinson. Now to me, growing up in Springbourne, Kinson could have been twenty miles away. Somehow I found my way there and was told on arrival that there was no loo but if I was really desperate I would be given permission to go across the road to the house opposite where the occupier would kindly let me use hers. Cycling to an unknown library in the blackout held no terrors for me but knocking at the door of a strange house did. Suffice to say that I was very glad when I reached home. Relieved you could say.

From time to time there were enormous book drives when people would donate unwanted books, which could be recycled one way or another. The library took over the Anglo Swiss hotel and I can remember going there with other members of staff, sorting books and passing any likely ones on to the librarians to add to the stocks in the libraries. Paper was in very short supply and those books printed in wartime were on very thin paper with small print.

Life wasn't all work, there was a small group of us who used to go to the Sunday afternoon symphony concerts at the Pavilion for one shilling (5p) and we had bank holiday outings to the river at Wimborne ending up at the house of one of the staff. At Christmas the furniture in the music library was pushed to the walls and the fun would begin - innocent party games, I hasten to add and if by today's standards the evening would be considered "tame" I can remember going home feeling I had had a wonderful evening.

Working on a Saturday evening at the Lansdowne, I would go upstairs for a coffee break (could use the lift going up but not coming down) and could hear the music coming from the College dances next door. Most of my friends would be going out on a Saturday evening and only the senior staff had the Saturday evenings free. Sometimes I would go to a dance after work but not being allowed out late except on very special occasions it was often hardly worth it. With the war obviously drawing to its close at the end of 1944 we temporary staff began to wonder whether we would be kept on after the war when pre-war staff would be returning from the forces or war work. No would could give us that assurance so when I had the chance of a scholarship to the day commercial course at the college I took it. Many of the staff left at about the same time - there must have been a mass exodus. As it happened not all of the pre-war staff returned to work for the library service and some I knew who "stayed put" were there for many years.

After I had completed my commercial course I worked for the local authority again in a secretarial capacity but I never enjoyed it as much as my brief time at the library - or does distance lend enchantment?

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.