Peterborough Central Library will be moving to a new location this week – but on temporarily as part of major renovations to the building.

Central Library in Broadway, Peterborough will close on Friday, October 30 to allow for all the books and other services to be transferred to a temporary library in Northminster House in Northminster Road, Peterborough, and will be known as Northminster Library.

Northminster Library (Ground Floor, East Wing, Northminster House, Peterborough PE1 1YN), which is located just across the road from Central Library, will open on 9 November 2026.

The move is to allow £6 million works to refurbish the Broadway building to take place.

During the week while Central Library is closed, awaiting the opening of the temporary Northminster Library, the other nine Peterborough libraries will remain open as usual, alongside the mobile library service and the digital library, BorrowBox, so there will still be plenty of ways to access library services.

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The council is leasing Northminster House from October 2026 to March 2028 to enable sufficient time for the library services to relocate to Northminster House and, once the renovation is complete, return to a modern, flexible, digitally focused library in the heart of the city.

The refurbishment of Central Library is being designed to meet the changing needs of the community, with dedicated areas for community groups, events and other activities.

The project is funded by the city council’s Regeneration Fund including monies from the Government’s Towns Fund.

All the current services provided by Central Library including book loans, photocopying, printing, access to public computers, group events and activities, will move to Northminster Library, with the exception of the study rooms.

Councillor Zameer Ali, Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Safety said: “Central Library is a well-used, well-loved library and it is important we invest in it now to protect its future. The building has not had any major investment for over 30 years.

“This is an opportunity for us to modernise our library so it meets the needs of today’s school children, students, families and other users and provides a library service fit for the future."