The Marx Memorial Library & Workers’ School (MML) will receive a transformative £475,000 investment package to revolutionise access to its internationally significant collections. 

The funding comprises a £249,713 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, £200,000 in pledges from Islington Council, and £25,250 raised from individual supporters.

The investment launches the ‘Opening Doors: Transforming Access to Radical Heritage’ project, a 24-month initiative beginning in January 2027 and culminating in a major public relaunch on 1 May 2028, marking MML’s 95th anniversary. 

Phase One of the Library’s ambitious Centenary Master Plan is designed to secure its future as a thriving hub of ideas, engagement and learning as it approaches its centenary in 2033.

MML’s collections document centuries of ideas, movements and struggles, including material from demonstrations on Clerkenwell Green, the Spanish Collection on anti-fascism, community and Trades Council campaigns in the housing collections, and items dating back to the 1640s within the Klugmann Collection. 

Through this project, these materials will be reinterpreted for school students, trade unionists, activists, local residents and tourists, creating vital links between historical debates and today’s pressing social questions.

MML will introduce accessible ramp with WC and drop in exhibition space with permanent and rotating displays, alongside new online resources on relaunched website with re-shaped visual identity. 
Meirian Jump, Director of the Marx Memorial Library & Workers’ School, said: "This is a huge step forward for MML, our members and supporters. 

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see our unique historic site, with its internationally significant collections, transformed into a truly accessible resource for the local community, the labour movement and the public at large. 

“The opportunity to open our doors, share these extraordinary collections and connect radical histories and ideas with the questions people are asking today has been a long-standing goal of ours and we are thrilled that it is being realised."