London by Tube by Christopher Winn

Author:Christopher Winn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473528352
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY

Restricted opening • Free

This building was put up in 1738 to house the Welsh Charity School. In 1893, with funds donated by William Morris, it became the home of the Twentieth Century Press, publishers of Justice, the newspaper of the Social Democratic Federation, Britain’s first organised Socialist party. Lenin worked here while exiled from Russia and from 1902 to 1903 edited and printed 17 editions of the underground journal Iskra here, which were then smuggled into Russia. In 1933, on the fiftieth anniversary of Karl Marx’s death, the Marx Memorial Library was established here and now holds some 45,000 books, pamphlets, journals and newspapers on Marxism, Socialism and the history of the working classes. Highlights on display include ‘The Printers’ Collection’, the archive of the British print unions, complete runs of the Daily Worker and Morning Star newspapers, the world’s largest collection of material on the Spanish Civil War, a red Hammersmith Socialist Society banner stitched personally by William Morris, and a rather magnificent fresco painted by Jack Hastings in 1935 showing a worker, flanked by Lenin, Marx and Engels, breaking free from his chains and destroying Big Ben. The library is open for the public to look around between 1pm and 2pm from Monday to Thursday. Admission free.

Exit the library, turn left and cross the road to the …

Crown Tavern, where Lenin would often go for a drink. It was called the Crown & Anchor then, and it is said that right here is where Lenin met Stalin for the first time, in 1905.

Exit the Crown and turn right to visit …

St James’s Church, occupying a fine elevated situation above the green. Built in 1792, it’s an agreeable building and unique as the only known church accredited to architect James Carr, a local man. The crypt, with its vaulted brick ceiling, is spectacular and there are some interesting monuments in the church itself, including that of Henry Penton after whom the area of Pentonville is named. Thomas Rolfe, the son of John Rolfe and Pocahontas, married Elizabeth Washington in the previous church that stood on this site, in 1632.

Return to the green and turn left on to Aylesbury Street and after 100 yards (90 m) turn right at the Indian restaurant into …

Jerusalem Passage. A green plaque on the wall of the factory building on the corner informs us that here, in the early 18th century, stood the house of Thomas Britton the Musical Coalman. A coal merchant by day, Britton was something of an impresario by night, hosting musical evenings in a small room above his shop where ordinary folk could come along and hear some of the great musicians of the day. His star guest was Handel, who would play the harpsichord, and on more than one occasion treated the audience here to the first performance of a new composition.

Walk along Jerusalem Passage and emerge into cobbled St John‘s Square.

This was the site of Clerkenwell Priory, the grounds of which stretched from here to Smithfield.

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