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."