The Women’s Library is a cultural centre housing the most extensive collection of women’s history in the UK. The collections include books, pamphlets, periodicals, zines, artist books, audio-visuals, personal and organisational papers, objects, textiles and visual materials.

The library was originally established in 1926, as the Library of the London Society for Women’s Service, the successor of the London Women’s Suffrage Organisation led by Millicant Fawcett. Its first home was a converted pub in Marsham Street, Westminster.

The Fawcett Society ran the Library until 1977, when it moved to City Polytechnic, later known as London Guildhall University, and now part of London Metropolitan University. Until 2001, the collections were housed in a basement which was prone to flooding. In 1998 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £4.2 million to purchase the site of the old East End wash houses and built a new centre to house the collections. The Women’s Library was renamed and moved into its new purpose-built home in 2002.

The Women’s Library today incorporates a Reading Room for the consultation of printed materials, archives, and museum collections, an exhibitions hall, and education and events facilities. It aims to inspire learning and debate on issues that concern women for the benefit of all, and is an internationally renowned resource, available to everyone, for women’s history research.

www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary