An old District line tube carriage has been turned into a library by a primary school in South-East London.
© KN Group
Back in September, the 1970s D-Stock District Line carriage was transported by a consortium of crane networks from its depot in Acton to its new home near Lewisham.
The Tube carriage was delivered to Coopers Lane School, where pupils, parents, Mace and a number of Mace’s supply chain witnessed the 15-tonne carriage being hoisted into the playground. Speakers from Mace explained the difficult process of getting the carriage in place and offered the children an insight into careers in construction.
© Coopers Lane School
Earlier this month, the carriage was opened to the school following a refurbishment as a new library.
Working with the Mace Foundation the Mace team project managed the whole process, which has seen 35 people working on the project, 1,600 recorded volunteer hours and £65,000 worth of pro bono support.
Classrooms have also been renamed after London tube stations such as Angel and Embankment and the rest of the playground has been transformed, creating a pretend station platform and a mini ticket office.
This project is the second of its kind after Plumcroft Primary School which got a tube-train-library back in August 2014.
What a lovely idea. I can’t imagine any child who wouldn’t be thrilled by this. Let’s hope it gets them reading more too.
Don’t libraries normaly have loads of books in them? I saw only 1 book in that video, and if they decide to keep all the seats and the drivers cab then where will the bookshelves go?
Books or no books, I could quite happily spend hours in a library like this!
BTW, D stock dates from 1978 and would best be described as ‘surface stock’ rather than tube stock.
I can assure you that there are LOTS of book cases and hundreds of books in the tube library and there is still so much space! It’s been an amazing additional space in a borough where many schools are having to accommodate more and more pupils. Such a creative way to deal with it- turn the old library space into a classroom and the tube a library.
How my grandson would love to go to that school!
As a District line driver it’s great to see out old carriages being put to great use.
Hope all kids enjoy there new library
I remember these arriving new. Was a bonus in cold weather; so much warmer than the draughty old ‘R’ and ‘CO/CP’ Stock.
Ooooh, envy. Please may I be 10 years old again ? Brilliant foresight and imagination. Well done !
So that’s why I saw a District line carriage driving down the A4 coming home from school…