19th century law may save London libraries
Councils hoping to sell off libraries in a bid to plug funding deficits could be prevented from doing so by an obscure 19th century law.
Up to 100 libraries in the capital could be affected by the Literary and Scientific Institutions Act of 1854. It requires councils to return any profits to the original owners from a sale of a donated library or museum.
Slight problem with the idea of it saving them
They would still close them to save that money and just leave them boarded up. Loss of the profit from selling the space but it doesn’t necessarily save the library.
Or they could just change the law, or indeed as I doubt it’s been used just bypass it.