Palmer Park Library

What it’s like

A free, quiet spot in Reading to browse books, use the loos and get online, though the opening hours are a bit of a puzzle.

This is a proper local library rather than a big flagship one, and that's no bad thing if you just want somewhere calm to duck into with the kids for half an hour. It's free to get in, there's wifi if you need to look something up or keep an older child entertained, and toilets on site mean you're not caught out mid-visit.

The catch is the hours. There's no daily routine here, it changes across the week, so Tuesday gives you a full day split into a morning and afternoon session, Wednesday is a short morning-only slot, Thursday runs morning and early afternoon, and Saturday is just three hours around lunchtime. There's no opening at all on Monday, Friday or Sunday from what's listed, so this isn't a spontaneous drop-in on the wrong day.

Given the shorter windows, it suits a focused visit rather than a lingering one, pop in, choose some books, use the facilities, and head off. Around Christmas and Easter the hours shift again, and they post the changes on their social media rather than printing a fixed holiday timetable, so it's worth a quick check on those specific weeks if you're planning around a bank holiday.

Facilities

Plan your visit

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