Whickham hasn’t always had its own library – originally Brompton House on Ravensworth Terrace in Dunston housed the library services for Dunston, Swalwell and Whickham.  Books would be sent around the communities on a mobile book van, and a ‘pop-up’ library opened for a few hours a week in local halls.

 

When Whickham did get its own library, it was housed in various places; at one point it was in a room in The Hermitage at the West end of the Front Street.  In 1968 the library got its own building in Chase Park.  As the population of Whickham grew, with the building of new housing estates the management of the sub-libraries was transferred from Dunston to Whickham, becoming a divisional library.

 

Whickham Front Street was developed as a shopping centre, and a new purpose-built library was included in the plans.  The library as we know it now was opened on 26th September 1975.

 

In 2017 Gateshead Council reorganized the provision of libraries in the Gateshead area, as part of that reorganisation Whickham Library became a Volunteer Library.  In July of that year the library re-opened now staffed by a team of approximately 50 volunteers, Whickham Volunteer Library Association was born and, on the 23 April 2018, became a Charitable Incorporated organisation registered with the Charity Commission