Working Class Movement Library - The Crescent,
Salford![]() The Pevsner Guide describes this
building at the corner of Acton Square and the Crescent
in Salford as, "An attractive eclectic
composition with timbered gables, a tall channeled
chimney, and bays with pretty looping parapets with
crown motifs in terracotta." It was
designed by the architect Henry Lord who was responsible
for the rather grand Technical Institute Building
building across the road. As the sign indicates,
this is now the home of the Working Class Movement
Library but it started life as a nurses home built to
celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
![]() In relative terms the connection with
the Working Class Movement Library has been much
briefer. The library was the life work of Edmund
and Ruth Frow whose private collection formed the basis
for the library. As the Library's website
explains, " ... By the late 1960s they had built
up an enviable collection of works in their home at
111 King's Road, Stretford. Room after room was
filling up with books and their home became known as
the Working Class Movement Library. Donations of
personal collections were added to the library by
labour activists far and wide. .... By the 1980s
their house was at bursting point and so the City of
Salford Council agreed to house the magnificent
library in a Victorian building called Jubilee House
on Salford Crescent. The collection has been there
ever since."
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