Marx Memorial Library

Keeping the red flag flying

Address:

37a Clerkenwell Green - Knightsbridge
EC1R 0DU - Clerkenwell/Shoreditch
London

Nearest Bus or Train:

Farringdon

Open Hours:

1p-6p M-Tu & Th, 1p-8p W, 10a-1p Sa

The Marx Memorial Library is housed in the oldest building on Clerkenwell Green, the site of a former charity school opened in 1737. The site, like the area that surrounds it, has a history of left-wing associations, having been the home to several radical organisations over the years. Most famously the Russian revolutionary Lenin produced the Bolshevik pamphlet Iskra here in 1902-3 using the printing press owned by English socialist, designer and writer William Morris. The little room where Lenin sweated has been saved for posterity and is open to the public. The premises were turned into a library in 1933 and now boast a huge and dynamic collection of socialist literature and tracts.

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