The Park Bench Home Page
Registered Charity No. 1111578

The Park Bench is a voluntary charitable organisation which aims to provide access to a lending library service for people in Bristol who find it difficult to register with the Public Library. We are not aligned to any other organisation, but have received some funding from Quaker Housing Action, who run a mobile library for the homeless in London, and we have had a lot of encouragement and support from Bristol Central Library.

We are running a library service at New Street Day Centre every Friday morning at 10:30 and an evening session at Logos House on Thursdays between 6 and 7pm.

If you think you would be able to help or just want to know more please contact Richard or Heather on 0117 3737612 or by email : TheParkBench@blueyonder.co.uk

Our first session was on September 23rd 2005, and we are currently achieving all we set out to do - establishing an inviting presence and lending a few books. See the monitoring report which you can access from the Documents page.

Our second AGM was on Thursday 7th February at the Caring at Christmas offices in Little Bishop Street.

You can access the Annual Report and the AGM minutes from the Documents page.
The Park Bench Logo

We are running a deliberately low profile service so don't need much to keep going but will always be in need of

  • A range of books in good physical condition (though not just at the moment, thanks)
  • Volunteers who can help with management, admin and running the library (Download Form)
  • Members who wish to support the charity, its trustees and management by attending general meetings (Download Form)

    Click this link to view some of The Park Bench Documents or these links for other organisations working with the homeless in Bristol

    		The Julian Trust (http://www.juliantrust.org.uk/) runs a night shelter for the homeless which offers beds for up to 15 people and meals for many more on 5 nights a week. The Julian Trust website includes several links to other organisations working with the homeless in Bristol.
    		 Big Issue South West (http://www.bigissuesouthwest.co.uk/) is part of an international movement, providing opportunities for people facing homelessness to help themselves.