Enough To Make You Bang Your Head Against A Load-Bearing Wall

Our library rents its space from a community centre. One of the many services we provide is that we have a few study rooms that can be borrowed for a few hours at a time by organisations that need a meeting room.

A couple of years ago, we were contacted by a non-profit adult education organisation who asked if they could borrow our largest study room for a few hours once a week for a class they were giving. We said sure, no problem. They asked to come see the room, and the following conversation happened.

Educator: “No, this is much too small. We need a room for about twenty-five to thirty students and a teacher, as well. Don’t you have any larger rooms?”

Me: “Sorry, this is the largest room we have. We have a couple of others, but they’re all smaller.”

They looked around the library as if hoping another room would magically manifest itself.

Educator: “Are you sure?”

Me: “Yes, I’m sure. This is all of the library you’re looking at right now.”

Educator: “Because I know there’s a large auditorium in the building…”

Me: “Yes, that belongs to the community centre. If you want to rent that, just talk to them.”

Educator: “They don’t loan it out for free, though.”

Me: “Afraid not.”

Educator: “Well, we can’t afford that. What if we move that wall?”

Me: “Pardon?”

Educator: *Points to the wall of the meeting room* “I know there’s another meeting room right next to this one. If we take out that wall, we’d have one big meeting room instead of two small ones.”

Me: “Well, first of all, that other meeting room belongs to the community centre, so you’d have to pay rent for it. Second, that wall is a solid brick wall, and taking it out would require a major renovation of the building.”

The educator looked hopefully at the — I cannot stress this enough — BARE RED BRICK WALL.

Educator: “Are you sure?

Me: “I’m pretty sure that’s a load-bearing wall, so yeah.”

Educator: “Oh. Well, if this is the best you can offer, I guess this room will have to do if they really squeeze together. So, can we book it for two hours every Wednesday?

Me: “Of course.”

Come Wednesday, about half the number of promised students showed up. The teacher that the educator had booked never turned up, though, and we had to deal with the students’ understandable anger at this. We tried to get in touch with the educator but never heard back, and we cancelled the future bookings.