But we are so much more we are a Community Hub offfering craft,groups for adults and children,visiting speakers. Many years ago Little Downham hosted a library just out the back of the Village Hall (crammed full of books it was). Eventually the cuts that sadly are part of Local Government life, meant that we lost our little portacabin at the back of the Village Hall Car Park. A small group of peop
le got together to try and save our little library, (The Mobile Library is ok but not practical for those of us who work, and unless we ventured into Ely, Cambridge or even March we couldn't browse those lovely things called books), and travelled all over looking to see what other places had done to keep their libraries alive. As a result The Bookcase was established in what was the Post Office, something better than nothing. Then during one of their (many) trips to Canada the lovely Derek and Helen Last visited a little café that also held books to read whilst enjoying your tea and cake......from this the idea of Little Downham Book Café was born. In October 2000, Little Downham Book Café opened it's doors for the first time, a Monday evening, no-one knew how it would be received, but we guess that the fact we are still here to tell the tale says it all. Little Downham Book Café was the first Local Access Point (LAP) within Cambridgeshire, and other LAP's ( both within Cambridgeshire and further afield) that have opened have taken on the concept that tea (or coffee), cakes and chat work within a library. We love to meet new people and chat with old friends. Sadly over the years we have lost a few of those who made the Book Café what it was in the early years (the stories those guys and gals could tell), but in their place new people have joined us and continue to join us so that we can share their stories and learn some new. Unfortunately due to people not wanting to venture out to see us in the evenings, Monday evening sessions were stopped in December 2019…. We can pretty much talk about anything, the volunteers come from all sorts of careers, as do our customers.....if we don't know something, our friend Google usually does. We like parties, so any excuse.....usually Easter, Christmas and Halloween. We also like celebrating our Birthday too....we hit Sweet Sixteen in October 2016. We also have a resident IT expert, if you need any help with those pesky computers, if he doesn't know then we're in trouble! Not forgetting our Ancestry guru.....if he can't help you find the info, he knows of someone who can......
In October 2021 we turned 21....where have the years gone.....the Covid19 Pandemic tried to stop us, but we didn't let it......
Our opening times are:
Wednesday 2pm to 5pm
Friday 10am to 1pm (Except Bank Holidays)
We would love to see you.....
