Miss Gribble

Head librarian Miss Gribble was integral in controlling operations at CTOL, but she also went above and beyond to ensure the best for her staff, far beyond the building’s walls.

Elaine Clark (nee Smith) worked as a Saturday girl in the first-floor adult library in the late 1970s, and additionally worked for the Schools Library Service during breaks from her chemistry degree.

Elaine worked under the head librarian, who had a first-floor office. “If you ask a child to draw a librarian, they’d draw Miss Gribble,” Elaine said in September 2025. “Tall, flat brogue shoes, nice tweed suits, hair in a bun, glasses, but a lovely person. As everybody was.”

There are several stories about the positive influence Miss Gribble made on library users and employees at the time, but it was particularly pivotal for Elaine’s future.

“Miss Gribble didn’t just get my job, she got me my career,” Elaine said. Unable to seek the job for life she desired after her university graduation, Miss Gribble kept her on to work in the library.

“I looked at the internal jobs, and there was a student public health inspector role,” Elaine said. “She said it would suit me as a subset of my chemistry degree. I applied and they rejected me because it was internal. She argued I was an internal candidate. She fought my corner and got me an interview.”

As a result of that perseverance, Elaine got a position as a student environmental health officer, a career that has been her life since then. Elaine has set up her own consultancy, as well as working for different London boroughs and councils in South Wales. None of which would have happened without Miss Gribble stepping up to defend one of her library employees from council regulations.

Despite last visiting the library in the mid-80s, when she left the local area, Elaine has fond memories of Canning Town Library, and Miss Gribble’s impact on her whole life.

Elaine remembered: “I have an awful lot to be grateful for to Miss Gribble. She was a very stern lady but she had a heart of gold.”