The Freedom Press bookshop

Suraiya at the entrance

The first stop on our tour of the great ideological sites in London was the Freedom Press bookshop, one of the oldest Anarchist publishing house in Europe, and the largest in the country. Located in an area all of us are familiar with, it took us a long while to actually find it. Incidentally, we had passed by it several times, while staring at the maps on our phones before one of us actually looked up and noticed the dull sign which had an arrow pointing down a narrow alleyway (admittedly it did look a tad bit shady...).

...with the hardly noticeable
sign

The Freedom Press was set up by Charlotte Wilson, a British Anarchist, and Peter Kropotkin. Kropotkin was an anarchist, born into Russian nobility (fun fact: he was a Prince by title), a man who served in the Czar's army, yet identified as an anarchist at the age of 30, and joined the illegal group, the Tchaikovsky Circle, named after one of it's members, (yes, he was a relative of the renowned composer). He was active in many European countries, like Switzerland and France, all of which he fled from or was arrested. He eventually settled in England in 1886, and as we Brits are known for our tolerance (even back then it seems), he was able to stay till 1917, when he returned to Russia after the Bolshevik revolution which saw the end to the Tsarists regime. While in England, in 1886, together with Wilson, he set up an anarchist paper, The Anarchist, and later set up Freedom Press.

Freedom Press plays a key role in the history of anarchism in the UK. It helped to revive the anarchist movement in Britain after it's decline during WW1, during which the publication of Freedom, the anarchist publication was stopped. During WW2 however, Freedom Press began the publication of War Commentary, and resumed the publication of their other works. Nowadays, the publishing house is responsible for the production of many anarchist texts.

Autobiography of
renowned anarchist

Walking into the bookshop, I straightaway thought of an old, vintage bookshop. Every nook and cranny was filled with books, magazines, pamphlets and posters, all to do with the anarchist movement.The book which stood out to us all instantly was the autobiography of the anarchist Stuart Christie, titled "Granny made me an Anarchist". In the book, Christie talks of his grandmother's influence on his beliefs. He is famous for his attempt to assassinate the Spanish dictator General Franco in 1964 as a teen. His book mainly focuses on the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, and the role of anarchists.

The bookshop, due to its controversial political stance, has been attacked several times in the past, most recently in 2013, when it was victim to an arson attack. In the 1930s it was under constant fire by fascist groups, leading to the installing of metal bars on the windows. The site is extremely important to the history of anarchism in Britain. The building itself, bearing the signs of previous attacks, illustrates the long-standing anarchist movement in the area, and what it has endured over the years.

Anarchist portraits along the alleyway...
Noam Chomsky on the bottom row anyone?