Alan Gilbert Learning Commons

What it’s like

A university library that lets you bring your child in if you book a group study room, with 24-hour access and a foyer café.

This one's a bit different to your usual day out, because it isn't one. It's a working university library, open all day and all night, every day of the week. If you've got a child who needs a quiet spot to study and you can't leave them elsewhere, the site says you can bring them in as long as you book Group Study Room 1 in the Main Library first. That's the only way children are meant to be in there, so it's not somewhere to wander in casually.

Group study rooms can be booked between 9am and 9pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm at weekends, though the rooms themselves stay open for as long as the building does, which is all the time. There's a genuinely odd little feature on floor 2 called the Zzz Zone Pod, a spot for a 20-minute power nap, which feels like the sort of thing a tired teenager doing exam revision would actually use.

The foyer café does hot and cold food made fresh daily, with vending machines dotted round the building for when the café's shut. Worth knowing the café itself only runs 9am to 5pm on weekdays, so an evening session means you're relying on the vending machines. Entry's free, there's wifi throughout, and toilets are on hand, but this reads as a study space that tolerates children in specific circumstances rather than a venue built with them in mind.

Facilities

Need to know

Food

Café in foyer serving hot and cold food with fresh daily dishes

• Children are only meant to be in the building if you've booked Group Study Room 1
• There's a 20-minute nap pod on floor 2 called the Zzz Zone, worth knowing about for a shattered teenager
• Entry is free and wifi covers the whole building
• The café keeps office hours even though the library never shuts

Plan your visit

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