Buildings of the labour movement

Nick Mansfield, English Heritage, paperback, 154 pages, £30

With a foreword by Tony Benn, this fascinating book ranges from the architecture of the communal buildings of the early 19th century political radicals, Owenites and Chartists, through the Arts and Crafts influenced socialist structures of the late Victorian and Edwardian period to the grand union “castles” of the mid-20th century.

There are also chapters on the ubiquitous co-operative architecture, long forgotten socialist holiday camps, and those memorials associated with the hidden story of radical ex-servicemen and their remembrance of war dead.

The countryside is not forgotten with rural labour buildings and the clubhouses of idealistic socialist cyclists.

The book though is not just about bricks and mortar, but uncovers the social history of the men and women who worked so hard locally to achieve their goals.

Though many buildings have been lost over the years, the book outlines the recent struggle for their preservation. It details many which can still be visited, such as those in Tolpuddle, Dorset, the Burston Strike School which was built by the labour movement in 1917 for striking schoolchildren in Norfolk, or the Marx Memorial Library in London which houses one of the key British labour history libraries and archives.

Order online at: www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk