The Marx Memorial Library in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

is a library, archive, educational, and community outreach charity focused on Marxist and wider socialist bodies of work. The library opened in 1933, and is located at 37a Clerkenwell Green, formerly home to many radical organisations and base of an important publishing operation. The building, originally opened in 1738 as the Welsh Charity School, is

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. The library's collection comprises over 60,000 books, pamphlets, items, and newspapers on

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, and

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

history.

Building background (1738–1932)

Early history

The building now occupied by the library was originally built in 1737–1738 to house the Welsh Charity School. It was designed by James Steer, and the construction funded by subscriptions. The school moved out to a new home in Gray's Inn Lane (now

Gray's Inn Road Gray's Inn Road (or Grays Inn Road) is an important road in Central London, located in the London Borough of Camden. The road begins at its junction with Holborn at the City of London boundary, passes north through the Holborn and King's Cross ...

) in 1772. The building subsequently became (in part) a public house, the Northumberland Arms; and was put to other commercial uses. Part of it was occupied from 1872 onwards by the radical London Patriotic Society; and from 1893 (with the financial backing of

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...

) by the Twentieth Century Press Ltd, publishers of ''

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

'', the newspaper of the

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James ...

Vladimir Lenin and ''Iskra''

In 1902–1903 exiled Russian revolutionary

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

worked in the building that would become the Marx Memorial Library, publishing seventeen issues of his newspaper ''

Iskra ''Iskra'' (, , ''the Spark'') was a fortnightly political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). History ''Iskra'' was published in exile and then smuggl ...

'' (Spark) from within the building. The office he allegedly used is preserved as a memorial to him, although this room did not in fact exist at the time he was there: however, he may have worked in an earlier office partly on its site.

Marx Memorial Library (1933–present)

The Marx Memorial Library was founded in 1933, originally only occupying a part of the building but eventually taking over every room. The library features the

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

''The worker of the future upsetting the economic chaos of the present'', painted by Jack Hastings in 1935 with the assistance of the American artist, Clifford Wight. Through these changes of use, the fabric had undergone numerous alterations and dilapidations, and in 1968–1969 the building underwent a major programme of work to restore the 18th-century appearance of the front. The necessary interventions and reconstructions were so drastic that the result is described by the

Survey of London The Survey of London is a research project to produce a comprehensive architectural survey of central London and its suburbs, or the area formerly administered by the London County Council. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Robert Ashbee, an A ...

as "a modern quasifacsimile – of the original only the outer

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

can have survived". The library building was listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

in September 1972.

Collections

As of 2021, over 60,000 items are held by the library. Holdings include the first edition of '' The Red Republican'' (1850), the ''

Votes for Women Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

newspaper, and other socialist publications. The library now also houses "The Printers Collection" consisting of the archives of the printing and papermaking unions of the UK and Ireland. The collection includes union documents, magazines, photographs, badges and memorabilia. The archive was opened in March 2009 by Derek Simpson Joint General Secretary of Unite and

Tony Burke Anthony Stephen Burke (born 4 November 1969) is an Australian politician serving as Leader of the House, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for the Arts. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), and has served as member of ...

, Assistant General Secretary of Unite.

Governance

The first president of the library in 1933 was Alex Gossip, president of the Socialist Sunday Schools.

Journal

The library publishes an annual journal, ''Theory & Struggle'', published by

Liverpool University Press Liverpool University Press (LUP), founded in 1899, is the third oldest university press in England after Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. As the press of the University of Liverpool, it specialises in modern languages, lit ...

. Its current editor (2021) is Marjorie Mayo.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{Authority control 1933 establishments in the United Kingdom Archives in the London Borough of Islington British digital libraries Buildings and structures in Clerkenwell Charities based in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Islington Libraries established in 1933 Libraries in the London Borough of Islington Literary archives in London Research libraries in the United Kingdom School buildings completed in 1738 Socialist organisations in the United Kingdom Socialist organizations Monuments and memorials to Karl Marx