Restaurant plan for listed library moves forward

Carnegie Library has been vacant since it was closed in 2013

A Grade II-listed building on Merseyside is one step closer to reopening, more than 12 years after the doors were closed.

Carnegie Library, on College Road, Crosby, has been vacant since being closed down by Sefton Council in 2013 as part of a "libraries review" and in an effort to save money.

On Thursday, restaurant chain Moose Coffee confirmed it had completed the next step in its bid to take over part of the building, by submitting an application to sell alcohol on the premises every day between 09:00 and 23:00.

Moose submitted a planning application to Sefton Council in December 2022, stating, at the time, that it was "desperate to see the library returned to its former glory".

The planning application, spearheaded by landlord Cunard Construction Ltd, said the work would include "minor internal alterations" to provide space to be used as an office, a co-working office with meeting space, and a family restaurant.

"Internal heritage features will be retained and restored where possible and will be used to inform interior design choices throughout the development," the application said.

It added that the hope was to bring the interior to "a modern contemporary quality" while highlighting the building's "historical nature", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Crosby's Carnegie Library was opened in 1905, and was one of 2,509 libraries across the world funded between 1883 and 1929 by donations from Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

It was originally one of 660 Carnegie libraries in the UK and Ireland.