Visit the Marx Memorial Library

We saw last week what a hotbed of communism Clerkenwell has been through the ages, and the Marx Memorial Library is another example. Located at 37a Clerkenwell Green, it is home to a huge archive of books , documents and pamphlets, amounting to around 40,000 volumes covering leftist subjects like Marx, Engels, Lenin, the History of Socialism and the British Labour Movement.


Opened in 1933, the 50th anniversary of Marx's death, the building has a history of radicalism and has hosted a range of radical organisations, including the British Social Democratic Federation, which brought Lenin there to use the publishing operation. Lenin's office, used when he was in exile in London in 1902-3, has been preserved for modern visitors.

Guided tours are available Monday - Thursday, at 1–2pm only (or by appointment) and there are regular talks and lectures, such as an upcoming talk and book signing with MP Chris Mullin. For more on all these sorts of things see http://www.marx-memorial-library.org/

_{^Picture from Wikipedia under Wikimedia Commons^}