Libraries rule

Canada Water is a depressing hell-hole in one of the more blighted parts of London, a place where modern "regeneration" has produced such magnificent buildings as can be seen in the back of this shot:

Until recently, the only vaguely civilised new building in the area was London Underground's new station for the Jubilee Line extension, but this is one of the less successful buildings on that otherwise rather excellent project:

It tries to capture the glorious loveliness of Charles Holden's 1930s Arnos Grove station, but here it is blown up to bombastic proportions and the external form bears no relationship to the internal movements the station is designed to channel -- even if the light can be intriguing for photographers, it is just architectural form for the sake of it:

Now, to provide welcome relief from the assorted low-rent warehouse retail outlets, Southwark Council has built a brand-new library just opposite the station. And rather daringly they chose Piers Gough of CZGW to design it (a man whose oeuvre, until now, I've not had much time for):

It looks willfully perverse but the shape is rational: the site was too small for the floor space needed, so Gough cantilevered the upper floors out over the water of the old docks and the surrounding footpaths.

Inside, there is a sense of civic pride -- and a rather daring homage to the circular form of Stockholm's public library from which, ironically, Holden derived inspiration for his Arnos Grove station...

The exterior is also serious, notwithstanding the playfulness of the shapes. The materials are intriguing:

When I visited, the library was packed with people borrowing and reading books, and browsing the internet...

This is the first building I've seen in this part of town which speaks seriously of regeneration and civic values, adding something to the public realm rather than subtracting from it.