Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish/American philanthropist, opened the new free library in Brentford on May 9 1904.

This was not the beginning of the public library service in the town.

There was an attempt to set up a free library in 1882, but it was stopped by campaigners who feared it would lead to large increases in the rates.

Campaigners for a library tried again seven years later after they ran a poster campaign explaining that it was against the law to levy more than one penny in the pound for a library service.

This would not make a noticeable increase in anyone's rate bill.

A subsequent public meeting, called to debate the issue in June 1889, voted overwhelmingly for a free library in Brentford.

The Brentford Local Board promptly set up a Library Committee of four members of the Board and four of the pro-library campaigners.

The Committee advertised for a librarian in The Athenaeum, a weekly journal of the arts and sciences.

They received 36 applications from all over the country from as far afield as Edinburgh and Guernsey.

Alfred Turner (also known as Fred), a 25-year-old son of a tinplate worker from Wolverhampton, was appointed on a starting salary of £1.10s.9d per week.

The committee also appointed Harry Green, a 16-year-old from Windmill Road, who was paid eight shillings per week to assist Turner.

After difficulties finding suitable premises for the new service, the Library Committee persuaded the Local Board to allow the use of a ground floor room in the Board's newly acquired offices in Clifden House, a Georgian mansion on the corner of Clifden and Windmill Roads.

Fred Turner had assembled 2,662 books within weeks of being appointed and many were donations, including nearly 1,000 from the trustees of the defunct Mechanics Institute, which had been set up as a subscription-only library and reading room in the 1840s.

Turner was also allowed to spend £100 of the donations raised by the pro-library campaigners.

He bought 500 volumes, novels and non-fiction and newspapers and magazines were added to the library's publications.

The library was in financial crisis by 1902 but the Library Committee heard that the Scottish/ American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was offering funds for the erection of library buildings in poor areas and they instructed Turner to write to him asking for help.

Two weeks later a letter was returned stating that Mr Carnegie would be glad to offer £5,000 for the erection of a Free Public Library Building for Brentford.

The condition was that a suitable site for the building had to be found.

Brentford Urban District Council stepped in with the offer of some land in the grounds of Clifden House.

This is the current site of the library which is being modernised with a major refurbishment programme and a lift.