The historic Peterborough library which became a nightclub
In 1980 I took this picture of some regulars waiting for the Peterborough city centre library in Broadway to open, writes street photographer Chris Porsz.
Upstairs was the reference library and downstairs the adult and children’s section and the popular newspaper reading area.
It was also the tourist information centre
It cost over £6,000 to build which was paid for by Freeman of the City Andrew Carnegie, a Sottish- American industrialist and philanthropist who opened it on May 24th 1906.
It closed in 1990 and has been a nightclub and restaurant under various guises since – most notably Rinaldo’s, which opened in the early 1990s, and Break For The Border at the turn of the century.
It is currently Velvet Panache, which opened late last year, replacing Gurkha Durbaar Nepalese restaurant.
The new library – the current Central Library – was built just along Broadway, between Fitzwilliam Street and Sheltons department store after the demolition of a row of shops including Fairways.
Here’s a gallery of photos from Break For the Border in 2000 and 2002
And here’s a gallery featuring Rinaldo’s in the 1990s
You can buy Chris’s Reunion books from www.chrisporsz.com and help his breast cancer research fundraising.
And you will find many more of his Reunion street photos at www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/retro .