Marx Memorial Library & Workers' School

A Monument Born from Resistance

The Marx Memorial Library & Workers' School stands as a living testament to intellectual resistance and collective memory. Established in 1933 on the fiftieth anniversary of Karl Marx's death, the library emerged from a pivotal moment in history. A delegate meeting of trade unionists, veteran socialists from both the Labour Party and Communist Party, and representatives of the Labour Research Department gathered to consider an appropriate memorial. That same year, Nazi Germany was burning books—a chilling backdrop that crystallized their decision. Rather than a conventional monument, they resolved that a library would be the most fitting tribute to Marx's legacy and the most powerful response to fascism's assault on knowledge. Thus the Marx Memorial Library and Workers' School was established at 37a Clerkenwell Green, beginning with approximately 500 books and an ambitious educational mission.

Centuries of Radical History Within These Walls

The building itself predates the library by nearly two centuries. Constructed in 1738 as a Welsh Charity School by architect James Steer, it educated boys and later girls—the children of Welsh artisans living in poverty in Clerkenwell. When the school outgrew its premises in 1772, the building was subdivided into separate workshops. One section became a coffee house where the International Workingmen's Association met; it is probable that Karl Marx himself spoke on this site during his time in London. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the building housed the Twentieth Century Press, the first socialist printing press in Clerkenwell, which produced several of the earliest English editions of the works of Marx and Engels. William Morris, the Arts and Crafts polymath and activist, was an early benefactor who guaranteed the press's rent. Lenin worked in the library between 1902 and 1903, editing and printing the journal Iskra (The Spark) from this address during his exile in London. The building achieved Grade II listed status in 1967, and in 1969 its façade was restored to replicate its original 1738 appearance. During refurbishments in 1987, mysterious brick-vaulted tunnels were discovered beneath the building, their origins obscure but significantly predating the structure itself.

An Unparalleled Archive of Working-Class Struggle

Over nine decades, the Marx Memorial Library has assembled one of the world's most comprehensive collections of material on Marxism, socialism, trade unionism, and working-class movements. The library now houses approximately 50,000 books alongside an extraordinary array of archives, pamphlets, periodicals, and posters. The International Brigade Archive, one of the most significant collections, documents the volunteers who fought fascism during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. The Bernal Peace Library, added in 1994, complements the Klugmann Collection acquired in 1977. The library holds the complete run of the Daily Worker and its successor, the Morning Star, dating from 1930. The Spanish section contains the most comprehensive records of the Spanish Civil War and the aid Spain movement in Britain anywhere outside Spain itself. Additional holdings include extensive materials on workers' struggles from the Tolpuddle Martyrs to the Wapping dispute, from Chartist movements to the miners' strikes, and archival records of print unions acquired in 2009. Material in the collections extends back to the 1640s, offering researchers an unbroken thread through centuries of labour activism and radical thought.

Education as Radical Practice

From its inception, the library distinguished itself through its commitment to education. Study classes held in the evenings became the defining feature of the Workers' School, which was organised into faculties of science, history, and political economy. Early lecturers included luminaries such as J.D. Bernal, J.S. Haldane, Eric Hobsbawm, and Christopher Hill. The library offered courses on anti-fascism, imperialism, and political economy—a radical programme particularly significant in the 1930s and 1940s when educational work was expanding. Today, the library continues this mission through weekly lectures and classes covering labour history, socialist art, housing crises, and contemporary political economy. It hosts film festivals, exhibitions, and book launches, and has expanded its reach through online education modules ideal for remote learning, alongside workshops for school groups and day courses for trade union activists.

The Building's Artistic Soul

In 1934, Viscount Hastings, who had studied under the great Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, executed a large fresco-style mural on the wall of the first-floor reading room. Titled 'The Worker of the Future Clearing away the Chaos of Capitalism', the mural illustrates pivotal events and leading thinkers in the history of British Labour. This artwork remains a striking visual centrepiece, embodying the library's commitment to making radical history accessible and inspiring. The main hall, where lectures and educational events take place, serves as the intellectual heart of the institution, hosting generations of scholars, activists, and students engaged in the study of Marxism and working-class movements.

Clerkenwell Green: A Stage for Radical Assembly

The location itself carries profound historical weight. Clerkenwell Green has served as a gathering place for radical movements for centuries. Wat Tyler camped on the green during the 1381 Peasants' Revolt. In the nineteenth century, over 7,000 people assembled here in 1839 to hear Chartist speeches, and in 1842 a procession departed from the green carrying a petition of 3,315,752 signatures supporting the Charter to the House of Commons. On 4 April 1866, 4,000 people gathered to discuss the Reform Bill, with a brass band providing popular airs to the assembled crowd. The green has hosted meetings against slavery, anti-corn law agitation, and countless other expressions of working-class and radical political consciousness. By the 1980s, Clerkenwell underwent full-scale regeneration, transforming into a fashionable quarter while retaining its historical character. The Marx Memorial Library remains embedded in this landscape of resistance, a physical anchor connecting contemporary struggles to the long history of labour activism.