Marx Memorial Library

The building now occupied by the library was originally built in 1737–1738 to house the Welsh Charity School.{{cite web|url=http://www.lonelyplanet.com/england/london/sights/arts-culture-literary/marx-memorial-library|title=Marx Memorial Library|website=www.lonelyplanet.com}} 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) 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) by the Twentieth Century Press Ltd, publishers of Justice, the newspaper of the Social Democratic Federation.

In 1902–1903 exiled Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin worked in the building that would become the Marx Memorial Library, publishing seventeen issues of his newspaper Iskra (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.Temple 2008, p. 112.

File:Ben Sutherland - 16562901782.jpg, 1935]]

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 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.Temple 2008, pp. 111–13.

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 as "a modern quasifacsimile – of the original only the outer quoins can have survived".Temple 2008, pp. 107–8.

The library building was listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England in September 1972.{{NHLE|num=1279541|desc=Marx Memorial Library|access-date=11 July 2022}}

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 suffragette newspaper, and other socialist publications.{{Cite web |title=Marx Memorial Library |website=Islington Directory |url=https://directory.islington.gov.uk/kb5/islington/directory/service.page?id=2T_zxjG1jeA |access-date=April 15, 2022}}

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, Assistant General Secretary of Unite.

The first president of the library in 1933 was Alex Gossip, president of the Socialist Sunday Schools.{{Cite journal|last=Gerard|first=David|date=2002-01-01|title=The Marx Memorial Library, Clerkenwell Green, London|url=https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530210443163|journal=Library Review|volume=51|issue=8|pages=417–419|doi=10.1108/00242530210443163|issn=0024-2535|url-access=subscription}}

The library publishes an annual journal, Theory & Struggle, published by Liverpool University Press. Its current editor (2021) is Marjorie Mayo.{{Cite web|title=Theory & Struggle|url=http://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/id/69/|access-date=2021-09-23|website=www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk|language=en}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite news |first1=W. W. |last1=Begley |first2=J. |last2=Betjeman |authorlink2=John Betjeman |first3=Asa |last3=Briggs |authorlink3=Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs |first4=Evelyn |last4=Broadwood |first5=Tom |last5=Driberg |authorlink5=Tom Driberg |first6=Christopher |last6=Hill |authorlink6=Christopher Hill (historian) |first7=Paul |last7=Paget |authorlink7=Paul Edward Paget |first8=Ruskin |last8=Spear |authorlink8=Ruskin Spear |first9=Fred |last9=Tonge | display-authors = 8|title=A House Worth Saving (letter) |page=11 |newspaper=The Times |location=London |date=5 May 1967 |url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/618/119/166900964w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS185429157&dyn=6!lnk_11+401+LTOA+CS185429157?sw_aep=ucl_ttda }}{{subscription required}}
• {{cite book |first=Andrew |last=Rothstein |title=A House on Clerkenwell Green |year=1966 |place=London |publisher=Lawrence & Wishart }}
• {{cite book |editor-first=Philip |editor-last=Temple |chapter=Clerkenwell Green |series=Survey of London |volume=46 |title=South and East Clerkenwell |place=New Haven, London |publisher=English Heritage |year=2008 |pages=86–114 |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=119413#s14 |isbn=9780300137279 }}

• {{Official|http://www.marx-memorial-library.org/}}

{{Libraries in London}}

{{Socialism}}

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Category:1933 establishments in the United Kingdom

Category:Archives in the London Borough of Islington

Category:British digital libraries

Category:Buildings and structures in Clerkenwell

Category:Charities based in London

Category:Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Islington

Category:Libraries established in 1933

Category:Libraries in the London Borough of Islington

Category:Literary archives in London

Category:Research libraries in the United Kingdom

Category:School buildings completed in 1738

Category:Socialist organisations in the United Kingdom

Category:Socialist organizations

Category:Monuments and memorials to Karl Marx