Marx Memorial Library

The Marx Memorial Library in London holds more than 43,000 books, pamphlets and newspapers on Marxism, Scientific Socialism and Working class history.

Clerkenwell Green and St James’ Church
Credit: Nevilley

The Library also 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.

The Library opened in 1933 at 37a Clerkenwell Green, formerly home to many radical organisations, and base of an important publishing operation.

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 building now occupied by the library was originally built in 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) 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. The Press expanded to take over the whole building in 1908–9, and remained until 1922. It was during this period, in 1902–3, that the exiled V.I. Lenin worked in the building, publishing seventeen issues of his newspaper Iskra (Spark) from here. The office he allegedly used has been preserved as a memorial to him: in fact, this room did not exist at the time he was there, although he may have worked in an earlier office partly on its site.

Following a further period of commercial use, the Marx Memorial Library occupied part of the building in 1933, eventually taking over the whole. Through these changes of use, the fabric had undergone numerous alterations and dilapidations, and in 1968-9 the building underwent a major programme of work to restore the 18th-century appearance of the front. The work was necessarily so drastic that the result is described as "a modern quasifacsimile—of the original only the outer quoins can have survived".
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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

C Hobbs

Long Lane, EC1A

Added: 31 Jan 2024 23:53 GMT

George Gut (1853 - 1861)
George Gut, Master Baker lived with his family in Long Lane.
George was born in Bernbach, Hesse, Germany and came to the UK sometime in the 1840s. In 1849, George married an Englishwoman called Matilda Baker and became a nauralized Englishman. He was given the Freedom of the City of London (by Redemption in the Company of Bakers), in 1853 and was at that time, recorded as living at 3 Long Lane. In the 1861 census, George Gut was living at 11 Long Lane.

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LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Tony Whipple Frank Whipple Place, E14 Added: 16 Apr 2024 21:35 GMT	Frank Whipple Place, E14 Frank was my great-uncle, I’d often be ’babysat’ by Peggy while Nan and Dad went to the pub. Peggy was a marvel, so full of life. My Dad and Frank didn’t agree on most politics but everyone in the family is proud of him. A genuinely nice, knowledgable bloke. One of a kind. Reply
Theresa Penney Whites Row, E1 Added: 16 Apr 2024 18:08 GMT	1 Whites Row My 2 x great grandparents and his family lived here according to the 1841 census. They were Dutch Ashkenazi Jews born in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 19th century but all their children were born in Spitalfields. Reply
Wendy The Polygon Added: 22 Mar 2024 15:33 GMT	Polygon Buildings Following the demolition of the Polygon, and prior to the construction of Oakshott Court in 1974, 4 tenement type blocks of flats were built on the site at Clarendon Sq/Phoenix Rd called Polygon Buildings. These were primarily for people working for the Midland Railway and subsequently British Rail. My family lived for 5 years in Block C in the 1950s. It seems that very few photos exist of these buildings. Reply
Steve Charleville Circus, SE26 Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:42 GMT	Road construction and houses completed New Charleville Circus road layout shown on Stanford’s Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1879 with access via West Hill only. Plans showing street numbering were recorded in 1888 so we can concluded the houses in Charleville Circus were built by this date. Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London Reply
Steve Charleville Circus, SE26 Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:04 GMT	Charleville Circus, Sydenham: One Place Study (OPS) One Place Study’s (OPS) are a recent innovation to research and record historical facts/events/people focused on a single place �’ building, street, town etc. I have created an open access OPS of Charleville Circus on WikiTree that has over a million members across the globe working on a single family tree for everyone to enjoy, for free, forever. Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London Reply
Charles Hornsey Rise, N19 Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT	My House I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s. Reply
NH Woodgrange Road, E7 Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT	Telephone House Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000 Reply
Paul Cox Aldine Street, W12 Added: 5 Mar 2024 22:18 GMT	War damage reinstatement plans of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street Whilst clearing my elderly Mothers house of general detritus, I’ve come across original plans (one on acetate) of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street. Might they be of interest or should I just dispose of them? There are 4 copies seemingly from the one single acetate example. Seems a shame to just junk them as the level of detail is exquisite. No worries if of no interest, but thought I’d put it out there. Reply

LOCAL PHOTOS

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Smithfield Market TUM image id: 1620388545 Licence:	The third Grand Theatre, Islington (1903). This was built on the site of the former Philharmonic Hall and two previous Grand Theatres TUM image id: 1587741263 Licence:	The old wooden Temple Bar Credit: Walter Thornbury TUM image id: 1523115955 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Islington Horse and Cattle market at the turn of the twentieth century. TUM image id: 1556878421 Licence:	The Grand Theatre, Islington High Street (1903) The new Grand Theatre - the fourth theatre on the site - was opened on 26 December 1900 with a production of the pantomime ’Robinson Crusoe’. The Huddersfield Daily reported the next day: "Nearing the end of the first performance of ’Robinson Crusoe’ at the Grand Theatre, Islington, on Wednesday, a fire broke out. From all parts of the house an alarm was raised. All present rose to their feet as large pieces of inflammable material were seen dropping from flies. The fire-proof curtain was promptly lowered, and the band struck up the National Anthem. The actors and actresses crowded into the stage boxes. Mr. Jones, playing ’Friday,’ clambered on to the stage from the front and appealed to the audience not to rush for the doors as there was no danger. Then Mr. Charles Townley, the author, came forward explaining that the management, owing to the electric installations not being completed, had used gas batten, and one of the sky borders had unfortunately caught fire. The officials had shown their efficiency by the celerity with which the fire had been extinguished. This is the fourth fire that has occurred at this theatre, and Wednesday’s was the first performance given since the building was gutted some few months back." Thankfully the fire was quickly put out and the performance continued, and the Theatre would go on to stage pantomime, drama, and variety productions until it was renamed the Islington Empire in 1908. TUM image id: 1557151038 Licence:
The Angel, Islington (c.1890) TUM image id: 1557162442 Licence:	Saint John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, the main gateway to the Priory of Saint John of Jerusalem. The church was founded in the 12th century by Jordan de Briset, a Norman knight. Prior Docwra completed the gatehouse shown in this photograph in 1504. The gateway served as the main entry to the Priory, which was the center of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitallers). Credit: Henry Dixon (1880) TUM image id: 1557226611 Licence:	Illustration of Fleet Market Credit: William Henry Prior TUM image id: 1530111646 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Sadler House on the Spa Green Estate from Rosebery Avenue (2011) The ’organic’ connection between old and new buildings intended by architect Berthold Lubetkin at Spa Green. Credit: Wiki Commons/Grantham9 TUM image id: 1655931145 Licence: CC BY 2.0	At the corner of Clerkenwell Road and Goswell Road sits the Hat and Feathers. It was built on the site of an earlier tavern around 1860 for owner James Leask. It was designed by William Finch Hill who specialised in music halls and pubs. Credit: Ewan Munro TUM image id: 1637770947 Licence:
Mount Pleasant Sorting Office on the north-east corner of Farringdon Road (1910). The present building is on the site of the Coldbath Fields Prison where the punishments were particularly cruel in that they were not only long and physically hard but also pointless. The pub at the back used to open at 9am to serve postal workers. TUM image id: 1620296515 Licence:	View looking upwards of the stairway at Bevin Court. Bevin Court (1946-54) designed by Berthold Lubetkin and Tecton. Credit: Wiki Commons/Steve Cadman TUM image id: 1681034288 Licence:	William Davenant had Lisle Credit: Henry Herringman, London, 1673 TUM image id: 1522758368 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Amen Court, EC4M TUM image id: 1493474208 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Clerkenwell Green (1898) The water fountain shown here became public toilets. TUM image id: 1620298544 Licence:

In the neighbourhood...

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Smithfield Market
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Saint John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, the main gateway to the Priory of Saint John of Jerusalem. The church was founded in the 12th century by Jordan de Briset, a Norman knight. Prior Docwra completed the gatehouse shown in this photograph in 1504. The gateway served as the main entry to the Priory, which was the center of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitallers).
Credit: Henry Dixon (1880)
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Sadler House on the Spa Green Estate from Rosebery Avenue (2011) The ’organic’ connection between old and new buildings intended by architect Berthold Lubetkin at Spa Green.
Credit: Wiki Commons/Grantham9
Licence: CC BY 2.0

At the corner of Clerkenwell Road and Goswell Road sits the Hat and Feathers. It was built on the site of an earlier tavern around 1860 for owner James Leask. It was designed by William Finch Hill who specialised in music halls and pubs.
Credit: Ewan Munro
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Mount Pleasant Sorting Office on the north-east corner of Farringdon Road (1910). The present building is on the site of the Coldbath Fields Prison where the punishments were particularly cruel in that they were not only long and physically hard but also pointless. The pub at the back used to open at 9am to serve postal workers.
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Clerkenwell Green (1898) The water fountain shown here became public toilets.
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View of Cloth Fair in 1884 showing the side entrance to St Bartholomew’s Priory, Smithfield.
Credit: John Crowther
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Coldbath Square in Clerkenwell was named after a cold water well that stood originally in fields. Cold Bath was fed by a spring which was discovered by a Mr Baynes in 1697. The discoverer declared the water had great power in nervous diseases, and "equalled those of St Magnus and St Winnifred". The bathing hours were from 5am to 1pm, the charge two shillings. The old bathhouse was a building with three gables, and had a large garden with four turret summer houses. In 1811 the trustees of the London Fever Hospital bought the property for £3830, but, being driven away by the frightened inhabitants, the ground was sold for building, the bath remaining as late as 1865.
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Pluto Lamps were first demonstrated in 1897. They included an automatic machine that could dispense a gallon of hot water, or a halfpenny worth of beef tea essence, cocoa, milk, sugar, tea or coffee. Pictured here is the inauguration of the first Pluto lamp in Exmouth Street (now Exmouth Market), Clerkenwell 1899. The Pluto Lamps initiative disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived.
Credit: Islington Local History Centre
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Eyre Street Hill, Little Italy, c. 1890
Credit: Bishopsgate Institute
Licence: CC BY 2.0

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