Marx Memorial Library, Grade II listed library and archive in Clerkenwell Green, United Kingdom.
The Marx Memorial Library is a special library and archive on Clerkenwell Green, in the London Borough of Islington, focusing on Marxism, trade unions, and labour movements. It occupies a Grade II listed building and holds a research collection of books, pamphlets, and periodicals available to readers and scholars.
The building started as a school in 1738 and passed through different uses before becoming a centre of political activity. In 1902, Vladimir Lenin used a printing press here to produce issues of his newspaper Iskra, which gave the place a lasting connection to international radical politics.
A 1935 mural painted by Jack Hastings covers one wall of the room where Lenin once worked, showing workers in a style typical of that era. Visitors can stand in front of it and read the scene as a direct visual statement about labour and solidarity.
The reading rooms are open to visitors by prior arrangement, and guided tours run at set times throughout the week. It is worth contacting the library in advance to confirm access to specific parts of the collection before making the trip.
The library holds a copy of the first edition of The Red Republican, the British newspaper that published the first English translation of the Communist Manifesto in 1850. It also keeps complete archive runs from printing and papermaking unions across Britain and Ireland, materials that are rarely found together in a single collection.
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