View source for Marx Memorial Library

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox library
| library_name       = Marx Memorial Library
| logo               = 
| logo_size          = 100px
| image              = File:Marx Memorial Library 37a Clerkenwell Green.jpg
| image_size         = 250px
| caption            = Marx Memorial Library
| architect          = James Steere
| country            = United Kingdom
| location           = [[Clerkenwell Green]]<br />London, [[EC postcode area|EC1R]]
| type               = [[Library]]
| coordinates        = {{coord|51.5229|-0.1057|region:GB_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
| location_map       = Central London
| num_branches       = 1
| established        = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1933|paren=yes}} 
| items_collected    = Books, [[Academic journal|journals]], newspapers, magazines, [[Printmaking|prints]], drawings and [[manuscript]]s
| collection_size    = 60,000+ items (2021)
| legal_deposit      = No
| req_to_access      = Open to anyone with a need to use the collections and services
| budget             = £2 million GBP (2020)<ref>{{Cite web|title=MML Accounts & Report of Work 2020 {{!}} Marx Memorial Library|url=https://www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk/item/mml-accounts-report-work-2020|access-date=2021-09-13|website=www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk}}</ref>
| director           = Prof David McLellan (president) 
| website            = [https://www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk/ marx-memorial-library.org.uk]
| mapframe = no
| module = {{Infobox designation list
 |embed=yes
| designation1 = UK Grade II
| designation1_offname = Marx Memorial Library
| designation1_number = 1279541
| designation1_date   = {{start date|1972|09|29|df=y}}
}}
}}{{Socialism in the UK}}
The '''Marx Memorial Library''' in [[London]], [[United Kingdom]] is a library, archive, educational, and community outreach charity focused on Marxist and wider socialist bodies of work.<ref>{{EW charity|270309}}</ref>

The library opened in 1933, and is located at 37a [[Clerkenwell|Clerkenwell Green]], formerly home to many radical organisations and base of an important publishing operation. The building, originally opened in 1738 as the [[St David's School, Middlesex|Welsh Charity School]], is [[Listed building|Grade II listed]].<ref name=NHLE/><ref name="marxlibrary.org.uk">{{cite web|url=http://www.marxlibrary.org.uk/about-us/history-of-the-marx-memorial-library|title=Our History|website=www.marxlibrary.org.uk}}</ref> The library's collection comprises over 60,000 books, pamphlets, items, and newspapers on [[Marxism]], [[socialism]], and [[working class]] history.<ref name="collections">{{Cite web|title=Collections {{!}} Marx Memorial Library|url=https://www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk/collections|access-date=2021-09-21|website=www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk}}</ref>  

== Building background (1738–1932) ==
=== Early history ===
The building now occupied by the library was originally built in 1737–1738 to house the [[St David's School, Middlesex|Welsh Charity School]].<ref name="lonelyplanet.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.lonelyplanet.com/england/london/sights/arts-culture-literary/marx-memorial-library|title=Marx Memorial Library|website=www.lonelyplanet.com}}</ref> 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 (newspaper)|Justice]]'', the newspaper of the [[Social Democratic Federation]].

=== Vladimir Lenin and ''Iskra'' ===
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.<ref name="lonelyplanet.com" /> 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.<ref>Temple 2008, p. 112.</ref>

== Marx Memorial Library (1933–present) ==
[[File:Ben Sutherland - 16562901782.jpg|thumb|left|''The worker of the future upsetting the economic chaos of the present'': mural by [[Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon|Jack Hastings]], 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 [[Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon|Jack Hastings]] in 1935 with the assistance of the American artist, [[Clifford Wight]].<ref>Temple 2008, pp. 111–13.</ref>

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.<ref name="marxlibrary.org.uk" /> 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 [[Quoin (architecture)|quoins]] can have survived".<ref>Temple 2008, pp. 107–8.</ref>

The library building was [[Listed building#England and Wales|listed Grade II]] on the [[National Heritage List for England]] in September 1972.<ref name=NHLE>{{NHLE|num=1279541|desc=Marx Memorial Library|access-date=11 July 2022}}</ref>

==Collections==
As of 2021, over 60,000 items are held by the library.<ref name="collections"/> Holdings include the first edition of ''[[The Red Republican]]'' (1850), the ''[[Votes for Women (newspaper)|Votes for Women]]'' [[suffragette]] newspaper, and other socialist publications.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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 (trade unionist)|Derek Simpson]] Joint General Secretary of [[Unite the Union|Unite]] and [[Tony Burke (trade unionist)|Tony Burke]], Assistant General Secretary of Unite.

== Governance ==
The first president of the library in 1933 was [[Alex Gossip]], president of the [[Socialist Sunday School]]s.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

==Journal ==
The library publishes an annual journal, ''Theory & Struggle'', published by [[Liverpool University Press]]. Its current editor (2021) is Marjorie Mayo.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{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 }}

==External links==
*{{Official|http://www.marx-memorial-library.org/}}

{{Libraries in London}}
{{Socialism}}
{{Authority control}}

[[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]]