The Reading Rainbow LGBTQ+ Book Group
Balham Library hosts the Reading Rainbow LGBTQ+ Book Group, a monthly discussion group founded in partnership with Wandsworth LGBTQ+ Forum (now Queer Wandsworth). Meeting in a public, non-commercial setting, the group brings together people from across the LGBTQ+ community to explore fiction and non-fiction by and about queer lives, as well as wider themes of identity, relationships and belonging. Copies of each month’s book are available through the library’s lending service, helping to keep participation open and affordable.
The group forms part of a wider programme of LGBTQ+ activity at Balham Library, including history workshops, author talks and community events during LGBT+ History Month. This reflects the library’s evolving role not only as a place for study, but as a civic space where local identities, stories and communities are actively supported and made visible.
Including Reading Rainbow on the map highlights how queer social and cultural life today often takes place in everyday public institutions. Book groups continue a long tradition of queer self-education and mutual support — creating spaces for reflection, conversation and shared experience that sit alongside, rather than replace, more familiar nightlife or activist settings.
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Northcote Road Library a modern, bright and spacious building housing a vast array of resources, facilities, events and activities.
