Clifton Explore Library Learning Centre Development

Clifton Explore: Opened September 2024

Clifton Explore: July to September 2024

What are the opening hours at the new Clifton Explore Centre?

From 23 September 2024 opening hours are:

Library

Monday to Wednesday and Friday     10am to 5.30pm

Thursday                                             10am to 7pm

Saturday                                              10am – 4pm

Sunday                                                Closed

Reading Café

Monday to Saturday                           10am to 3pm

Other organisations

As advertised

What other organisations will be based at Clifton Explore?

We are delighted to be working with three new partners who will have office space and dedicated rooms at the new Centre. They are:

• Accessible Arts and Media: an inclusive arts charity 
• York Learning
• City of York Council’s Medical Needs Teaching Service for children/young people who are unable to access mainstream education.

What’s the address of the new Explore Centre?

The postal address is Clifton Explore, Rawcliffe Drive, York, YO30 6NS

Can I hire a Meeting Room at the new Explore Centre?

A few meeting rooms will be available for hire at Clifton. For more information, please get in touch.

Update May 2024

Thanks to everyone who called in earlier this year to give us your views on the interior of the new Explore Centre. We had lots of fabric samples for you to fondle and various colour options for you to choose from.

• You wanted to see some bright colours dotted around the library, so that’s what we’ve gone with in the soft furnishings.
• There will be colour accents on the walls and shelving too.
• You chose a wonderful woodland theme for the children’s library so you can expect hues of green and the occasional toadstool seat!

Final building work is progressing swiftly and we hope to be ready to get the library furniture in during summer, with lots of books on the shelves ready for an autumn opening.

Please watch this space for the opening date and details of the new extended opening hours.

Update December 2023

Building

We’ve made great progress since building work started in April.

We have:

• Demolished the two old school classroom wings
• Reworked the old school hall and classrooms
• Created a new entrance from Rawcliffe Drive
• Laid foundations for the new buildings and finished all underground service works
• Started work on the new two storey building

Landscaping

We have now made a number of  improvements to the design for the landscaping of the garden following your feedback.

• More accessible paths so people who use wheelchairs, motorised scooters, pushchairs and prams can move easily around the garden and enjoy the space.
• More nooks and crannies to encourage wildlife, such as wooden planters with bug houses at the bottom for insects and a planting scheme to encourage bees and butterflies.
• More sensory plants and a quiet, reflective space away from the children’s area so you can sit and read or quietly enjoy a cuppa in a lovely serene environment.
• An arbour to provide shade and create a tunnel of greenery.  

The next step is to find the right garden designer to work with us to create this fabulous space ready for when we open later in 2024.

Update August 2023: Your feedback on the Garden designs

Thank you so much for sharing your views about the proposals for the Garden. 50 of you took the time to send in some very detailed responses. Here are the common themes:

• A more balanced approach to the space focusing less strongly on children and taking into account the needs of teenagers and adults. This might include exercise equipment or outdoor chess.

• Quieter, reflective areas with more seating and a focus on planting.

• Wheelchair friendly paths and surfaces and a sensory water feature.

• Habitats for bees, hedgehogs and other wildlife.
• Some respondents thought that the wooden butterfly and dragonfly features had limited play value and a short lifespan and could become a hazard.

There was also chance to discuss the revised designs at a session with Becky from Rosetta Landscape Design on Tuesday 15 August and Becky will now refine the design further based on feedback. We hope to have a finished design by the end of the summer.

Update May 2023: The Garden – consultation

Last year you shared some ideas for a beautiful, new community garden.

You wanted a place people could spend time socialising or relaxing quietly. You wanted to encourage play and creativity. You asked for natural materials and imaginative planting schemes including edible and sensory beds.

We commissioned garden designer Becky Pickering of York-based Rosetta Landscape Design to come up with a plan based on your ideas and priorities.

We invited you to tell us more about your ideas through a survey online and in the library during May and June.

If the interactive version version of the plan does not work on your device try reloading the page or if that doesn’t work please use the image below and expand to see the detail:

Update March 2023: contractor appointed

Walter Thompson Ltd, a Northallerton-based construction firm, was confirmed as the contractor to build the new Explore Centre in Clifton with work starting in late spring.

Like all our Explore Centres, Clifton Explore  brings community partners to offer a broad range of events, activities and services for people in Clifton. Our vision for Clifton Explore has been developed in detail over the past year, and local people have already told us a lot about what they want from this valuable new community space.

We look forward to continuing these important conversations with you this spring when we’ll be asking you for ideas about the outdoor space through a survey and focus groups.

The new Centre will be five times larger than the existing library. Its 1,400 square metres will offer space for some 15,000 books, a reading café and a children’s library, plus rooms and other spaces. A number of organisations will be based at the Centre including those offering support to disabled children and young people, as well as learning projects, career advice and apprenticeships.

The development will include outdoor spaces for play and relaxation and a terrace outside the reading café. The car park will have electric vehicle chargers and bike storage. Low energy features will be included, such as green roofs and solar panels to  help fuel passive ventilation and heat recovery systems.

A new safe school access route to the neighbouring Vale of York Academy will be built on the site’s additional land and a registered social landlord will be procured by City of York Council to provide some much-needed low carbon, 100% affordable homes.

Update Jan 2023: Tours of the old school were a great success

More than 90 past teachers and pupils joined public tours of the old school between October and December 2022, from babies in pushchairs to 80 year old past pupils.

Our tour lead was the last headteacher of the primary school, Mr Wigley. He also held a special get together for more than thirty teachers and other staff from the school. It was a great day and the building was filled with a hum of joyous noise just like it would have been back when it was a thriving infant school!  Everyone enjoyed the tours, and shared so many stories of the past, and friends who had not met each other for years got chance to reconnect.

Update October 2022: Planning permission granted

On Monday 17 October we heard the good news that planning permission has been granted and the new Explore Centre can go ahead.

Sarah Garbacz, Chief Operating Officer of Explore said:

“This is brilliant news for the future of the library and archive service in Clifton.

“Working with the community of Clifton and with our community partners, we look forward to being able to do so much more of what we are good at – providing safe, accessible spaces that welcome everyone in.

“Local people have already told us what they want from their library and archives service and that has informed some of our decisions so far. We now look forward to being able to carry on those important conversations as we work on the next stages of the design.”

The development will now enter the procurement stage with the goal of selecting a contractor by the end of 2022.

We now look forward to many more conversations with you as we believe that what we do should be shaped with you. Keep an eye on this page where we will share next steps on our journey with you as we work towards to new Explore Centre. And don’t forget to sign up for updates if you want to be kept in touch.

Update June 2022: what you told us at the focus groups

Inside the building

You liked the location of children’s library and the quieter/study zone at the rear

The outside spaces

Update April 2022: planning application live

The planning application for the Clifton Explore development went live in April 2022.

Update March 2022: the conversation so far

Since Summer 2021, we’ve been sharing with you and hearing your thoughts on relocating the current Clifton Explore Library Learning Centre to the former Clifton Without Junior School on Rawcliffe Drive. This move, along with secured investment from City of York Council, will transform the library service for the community at Clifton: we’ll be able to do more of the things we are good at, in a bigger space, and for longer opening hours.

These are the things you told us you want:

• A Library with more books and space to enjoy family friendly events and activities.
• Meeting rooms where city centre advice organisations can come to you.
• Flexible space which transforms into a performance area in the evening.
• A Reading Café where you can meet friends,or just sit quietly and enjoy a cup of tea.
• Flexible outside space – you said this is as important to you as the indoor space.
• Enough parking space to minimise the impact of parking on local streets.
• A building design which has as many sustainable elements as possible.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and keeping the conversation going so far.

What next?

We aim to submit our plans for planning consent in March 2022. Sign up for updates using the button at the top of this page and we’ll let you know when the planning application is live so you can comment if you wish.

Following the planning application, we hope to start conversations with you about details of the Library, Reading Café and outdoor spaces. We want as many of you to get involved as possible.

We’d like to know:

• What should we consider when developing the building so it is flexible and can be transformed into a high quality performance space?
• What does a lively, contemporary Children’s Library look like?
• What will you be doing in the Library that we need to consider as part of the design?

Clifton Explore: the conversation continues

In the summer we asked what you thought of our plans to relocate Clifton Explore to the former Clifton Without Junior School. 90% of you liked the idea. You told us some of the things you’d like to see included as part of the new Explore Centre development.

We then came up with a basic first draft design (shown below) for inside and outside based on what you told us. During December 2021, you shared your thoughts with us on this draft design.

83% of you told us that you liked the design, particularly the reading café, the size of the library space and the number of suggested meeting rooms for events and community meetings. We will work up these designs in more detail ready for further conversations with you.

You still didn’t like the amount of parking provision, so we need to do some more work in this area.

You also shared some further ideas about the design of the building and different uses for the library space that you would like to see, such as a quieter area for study, and ensuring full access to spaces on the first floor.

We are now working on your feedback and we will be sharing another set of designs incorporating further developments in February 2022.

Do you have views about the Housing development? Or about the School Access Path? Please contact City of York Council

The Council is proposing to work with a local housing association to build a number of low carbon affordable homes. The income from developing this area will help fund the library project so this is an essential part of the overall site development. For further information and to share your views on this aspect please contact the Council

Although the School access path is part of the site development, the land is under the control of Vale of York School. The school and the Council are working together to create this important, safe access for students. For further information please contact the Council.

The Proposal

City of York Council’s commitment to libraries

As part of our contract with Explore City of York Council made a promise that the number of staffed libraries in York would be protected. We want to build on the success of our libraries, re-imagining them as centres of opportunity and learning for everyone. In February 2019 the Council agreed to spend £4m on significant improvements to the Explore Centre libraries in Clifton and Acomb. Clifton Explore’s current site is too small, so over the past year we have researched new sites in the local area. After an options assessment, we think the best site is on Rawcliffe Drive, the old Clifton Without Junior School.

Why did we choose this site?

The Location: the new site is accessible on foot, cycle or by car from Rawcliffe Drive, Rawcliffe Lane and Fairway. It is easy to find, close to the existing library, Vale of York Academy, on bus routes, and local amenities, and it has lots of people passing by.

The Building: We will breathe new life into a vacant site and restore a local building of character and history. The site is big enough to let us deliver the true vision of an Explore Centre where many organisations can work together to benefit local people.

When will the new development happen?

We need to carry out thorough checks on the site, understand all the costs, and make sure that there is money in the budget to pay for the development. Only then can we ask the Council for agreement to start work. So we have no firm dates at the moment, but we hope that work will start in 2023.

What are the next steps?

• August 2021: Stage 1 consultation ran
• Autumn 2021: We are evaluating your responses and start to draw up designs
• Winter 2021: Stage 2 consultation – we will share early site designs and update you on progress.
• Winter 2021/Spring 2022: Tours of the former Clifton Without Junior School site.