Marx Memorial Library
MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY, 37A, CLERKENWELL GREEN
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1279541
- Date first listed:
- 29-Sept-1972
- List Entry Name:
- Marx Memorial Library
- Statutory Address:
- MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY, 37A, CLERKENWELL GREEN
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-04-17
- Reference:
- IOE01/03552/18
- Rights:
- © Peter Fuller. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1279541
- Date first listed:
- 29-Sept-1972
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 30-Sept-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Marx Memorial Library
- Statutory Address 1:
- MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY, 37A, CLERKENWELL GREEN
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY, 37A, CLERKENWELL GREEN
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- Islington (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 31512 82153
Details
ISLINGTON
TQ3182SE CLERKENWELL GREEN 635-1/74/281 (North West side) 29/09/72 No.37A Marx Memorial Library (Formerly Listed as: CLERKENWELL GREEN (North West side) Nos.37,37A & 38 (Consecutive))
GV II
Library. Built as the Welsh Charity School in 1737-8 to the designs of James Steere; the front elevation rebuilt in 1968-9 in sympathy with the original design under the supervision of A.A.Stewart; a circular plaque in the pediment records the dates 1737 and 1969. Brick covered with stucco, roof of Welsh slate. Two storeys over basement, five-window range and double-fronted, the three middle bays projecting slightly under a pediment and flanked by rusticated quoins which also flank the facade as a whole. Central flat-arched entrance with moulded stucco architrave and cornice on consoles over; doorcase has cornice and overlight. All windows flat-arched and without architraves except the central first-floor window which has a moulded stucco architrave and keystone; sill band to ground floor and storey band between floors; cornice, blocking course and pediment. End stacks. This building housed the Welsh Charity School (1738-1772), the Northumberland Arms (1738-1838), coffee rooms (1838-1880), the London Patriotic Club, an important radical workmen's club (1872-1892), the Twentieth Century Press, publishers of Socialist literature (1892-1922), and the Marx Memorial Library from 1933. Lenin edited Iskra here from 1902-1903. INTERIOR: . There are barrel-vaulted tunnels underneath the building and extending well beyond which may have been connected with the C12 nunnery on the site or with the former Sessions House (q.v.). On the first floor, on the party wall to the west, is a mural painting 'The Worker of the Future upsetting the Economic Chaos of the Present' painted c.1935 in buon fresco by Viscount Hastings, a pupil of Diego Rivera. The building is of exceptional importance as the only surviving building in Britain intimately associated with Lenin. (Historians' file, English Heritage London Division; Daily Mirror, 10 October 1935).
Listing NGR: TQ3151482155
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 368772
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Daily Mirror in 10 October, (1935)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 11-Jul-2026 at 18:33:35.
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All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.