Working Class Movement Library

The Working Class Movement Library records over 200 years of organising and campaigning by working men and women for social and political progress.

The library is built on the personal collection of Ruth and Edmund Frow and now holds tens of thousands of books, pamphlets and archives, as well as posters, banners, prints, newspapers, photographs and more.

The new permanent displays give a taste of the many aspects of working people’s personal and political lives which are represented in our collections. They show campaigners speaking up for change, from Peterloo and the suffragettes to ramblers seeking the ‘right to roam’. There are stories of First World War conscientious objectors, and local volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and there are accounts and pictures of the Battle of Bexley Square when, in the last Great Depression, 10,000 unemployed Salfordians demonstrated against the hated Means Test.

Admission to the library is free and all are welcome. Individual and group tours are also welcome by appointment.