Stand before the small building on the corner of Clerkenwell Green and Episodes 3 (the clockmakers) and 4 (the square of assembly) merge into one. Number 37a — the most famous piece of print this printers’ district ever produced came from here.
The room that printed the Spark
In 1902 the exiled Lenin printed the Russian revolutionary newspaper Iskra — “the Spark” — at the press in this building Fact. The paper was smuggled into Russia and circulated through underground networks Fact. The building itself rose in 1738 as a Welsh charity school Fact, and since 1933 it has been the Marx Memorial Library, preserving the room Lenin used Fact.
Why here
An exiled revolutionary needed three things: a press, compositors, and neighbours who asked no questions. The printers’ district had all three Estimate. How the artisan radicalism of Episode 4 actually worked as infrastructure — this one small building testifies.
Euljiro’s sister
Print lanes becoming corridors of thought — readers of our Euljiro series will recognise the skeleton of this story. As Seoul’s print alleys connect to the leaflets of its democratisation era, London’s print lanes connect to Iskra Estimate. Different cities; where type is set, similar stories pool.