The Queen has congratulated a community which brought a library back “from the ashes” after it was torched during riots.
On Friday, Camilla visited the Spellow Community Hub and Library in Walton, Liverpool, which was set alight when violent disorder broke out on County Road in the wake of the stabbings at a dance class in Southport, Merseyside, in summer 2024.
The Queen donated a box of books when the library was restocked before its reopening and brought more books with her when she visited.
After unveiling a plaque, she said: “You can never have too many books. I’ve brought some more and it’s so wonderful to see this place rise from the ashes.
“Congratulations to all of you who made it happen.
“It was such a terrible story and it’s had a happy ending.”
Sean McEvoy, a library and information assistant who was joined by the Queen as he read a story to schoolchildren, said: “There are so many positives that came from what happened.
“We’ve moved past the point where we talk about it and how it made us feel and now we look at the community’s reaction and focus a lot more on the positives out of it.
“It has been amazing since the library reopened.
“It’s been great to have the Queen visit today. It’s good for the community and good for the library and they deserve it.”
Mr McEvoy read Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae to the children as Camilla sat next to him.
He said: “It’s not something I expected to do on a normal day in work! The children were fantastic.”
Before Camilla unveiled the plaque, children’s author Frank Cottrell-Boyce read a poem about the library.
He told the Queen he had done a workshop with children to come up with a new name for the facility ahead of its reopening, but they wanted it to remain as Spellow.
Camilla helped pupils from St Francis De Sales Catholic Junior School and Arnot St Mary Primary School as they took part in colouring and wordsearch tasks in the library, before joining children who were having chess lessons.
She picked a queen chess piece up for a child who dropped it and heard the class had been learning about which directions a queen can move in.
She then spoke to first responders from the police and fire service about their involvement in dealing with the disorder and was shown pictures of the damage to the library after the blaze.
She also met Alex McCormick, who set up an online fundraiser with the aim of raising £500 to go towards repairing and restocking the library and raised £250,000.
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