Our movement has a history worth fighting for. Help us open its doors.

For almost a century, generations of workers, trade unionists and activists have walked through the doors of the Marx Memorial Library & Workers’ School to learn from those who came before them — to understand the struggles that shaped our world, to educate themselves and others, and to find inspiration for the struggles still ahead.

Inside our historic building in the heart of London is a remarkable record of working-class life and struggle: the ideas, campaigns, victories and defeats that have shaped the labour movement and changed society.

But this history should not belong only to those who already know where to find it.

We want to open the doors wider.

We want people to be able to walk in off the street, without an appointment, and discover the history of their movement. We want a young activist to encounter the stories of those who organised before them. We want local residents, students and visitors to see that the history of the working class movement is not something locked away in an archive - it is a living resource for understanding and changing the world around us.

That is why we are launching Opening Doors: Transforming Access to Radical Heritage.

The project will transform how people experience MML and its internationally significant collections, making our historic building, exhibitions, education and events more accessible to the labour movement and the wider public.

We have already secured £475,000 in investment: a £249,713 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, £200,000 in pledges from Islington Council and £25,250 raised from individual supporters.

Beginning in January 2027, the 24-month project will culminate in a major public relaunch on 1 May 2028 - our 95th anniversary.

What will your donation help make possible?

Your donation will create an open shop front for labour and radical history in central London, with a new drop-in exhibition space featuring permanent and rotating displays. Members and visitors will be able to come in without an appointment and encounter the extraordinary stories held in our collections.

Those collections include material from demonstrations on Clerkenwell Green, the anti-fascist struggles documented in our Spanish Collection, housing and community campaigns, Trades Council activity and material dating back to the 1640s in the Klugmann Collection.

Your donation will develop new online resources and relaunch our website, bringing these histories to audiences far beyond our building.

Your donation will make MML truly accessible. A new ramp, accessible WC facilities and improvements to our spaces will help ensure that everyone can take part.

Our Main Hall, a vital space for trade union meetings, workers’ education, events and organising, will remain at the heart of our work - but in a venue that is more accessible to all.

Your donation will help us open the doors!

The funding we have secured is an enormous step forward, but it is only the beginning.

Your donation will help us preserve our radical heritage and, most importantly, put it into the hands of the people who can use it - to learn, organise, debate and build a better future.

This is our history. Help us make it accessible to everyone.