Castle Vale Library

Castle Vale is the area of Birmingham that, when mentioned, causes most Birmingham residents no small amount of dismay.
For years, it was a slum filled with council houses and chavy types, haven of drug crime, murder and seemingly without a hope.
But about 5 years ago, the government targeted it as a place that definitely needed renovation and help before it got even worse. They poured millions of pounds into it for development and rebuilding. And, if you were to walk along a street in Castle Vale now, you would never know of its scarred past.
Castle Vale Library, located along the 200 yard stretch of Castle Vale’s «High Street», is part of that redevelopment and improvement.
It is a very small library, with limited resources (Castle Vale is one small district in a very large city), but the librarians have done their best with those resources.
Spitfire House, in which the library occupies the ground floor, is a clean, modern building made of metal and glass and with a nice, spacious open plan.
Their collection of books isn’t great, but for such a small library, it’s vaster than expected, with a few surprising finds.
The librarians are a bit frosty, and seem a bit condescending, which is why I’ve given the place three stars. The service could be much better. Yes, I understand you’re government employees, and we are not paying customers as such, but pleases and thank yous go a long way to providing service that echoes the lovely, bright architecture.