Roaming Reporter: Housmans - The Importance of Radical Bookselling

Roaming Reporter: Housmans - The Importance of Radical Bookselling

By Jacob Winter, Senior Staff Writer, BA Politics and International Relations

Housmans Bookshop is one of the few outwardly political and left-wing bookshops left in London. Situated on 5 Caledonian Road, very close to Dinwiddy House and Kings Cross Station, the bookshop has been nestled there for over 50 years. It remains one of the few independent bookshops left in London, and one of the even fewer radical ones, with the only other main example near SOAS being the Socialist Workers Party-affiliated Bookmarks, situated on 1 Bloomsbury Street.

Housmans offers a valuable service in both selling a wide array of titles from across the communist, pacifist and trade union movement whilst also providing a valuable meeting space for groups and campaigns who struggle to find a place for themselves in an increasingly corporatised London, hostile to public meetings and working-class freedom of expression.

I am a regular of Housmans, and I popped in to speak to Nik Gorecki, co-manager of Housmans, about why their bookshop is important in today’s age of online marketplaces like Amazon and chains like Waterstones. Given recent trouble for the bookshop, particularly issues with its sister organisation Peace News, it is more important than ever to defend the tradition of radical bookselling.

Why is Housmans important? Why are radical bookshops still relevant in a digital age?

There was a time in the late 70s and 80s where nearly every major town in the country had a radical bookshop. They were a vital friendly way for people across the country to come into contact with radical and progressive left ideas. And in a time before the internet, they also served as an essential way to find out about local groups and national actions.

Although many of these shops closed as part of a wider closure of independent bookshops, many shops remain or have even opened in recent years. Most of these shops have come together under the umbrella of the Alliance of Radical Bookshops (ARB), and a visit to the ARB website is a good place to see who is out there.

Housmans is the oldest continuously running radical bookshop in Britain, having started in 1945, and is quite likely the largest in terms of range of titles. At one point, the advent of the digital age did seem to threaten the future of shops like ours as people tried out e-readers; however, that trend has levelled out and it would seem that publishing and sales of radical books are at a healthy level. 

The need for shops like ours remains as vital as ever. We are living in an age of global information warfare and shops like Housmans play an important role in pushing and promoting real social justice and transformation.

What does Housmans do differently from other bookshops?

Housmans history is born of the peace movement. It opened in the aftermath of World War II with a mission to promote antimilitarist ideas. That tradition continues to guide what we do, although the range of stock we now carry is much wider. We believe you can't have peace without justice across the range of all social issues, be that economic, antiracist, decolonial, gender and sexual rights, health, etc., and our stock reflects that. We stock books from across left traditions, and unlike some other shops we don't prescribe a hard political line, although our guiding principles are antimilitarism, feminism and anarchism. We believe it is important to read across all the traditions and tendencies that make up the left. We also stock the largest selection of left magazines, zines, pamphlets and periodicals. We also stock fiction, children's books, art books and have a dedicated second-hand bargain basement. 

 

What is the connection between Housmans and Peace News? How are the problems Peace News are facing at the moment affecting the bookshop?

 

Housmans was the sister organisation to antiwar newspaper Peace News, which started in 1936, and has tragically closed this year, 2024, after the staff resigned en masse. In short, they resigned because they felt they were being bullied by their trustees - trustees who are also Housmans trustees. What took place is too complicated to go into here, but broadly speaking, the staff of Housmans support the position that Peace News staff took, and we too fear that what happened to them will happen to us. The trustees own and control the building we are in and we fear for the future of the building, however we remain hopeful that the shop will be able to continue safely on into the future here at 5 Caledonian Road in Kings Cross where we have been since 1959.

 

What is the history of surveillance and state repression that the bookshop has faced? 

The building we are in has a long and rich history of not just bookselling and publishing, but also campaigning work. Offices above the shop continue to give cheap rent to a range of campaigning groups, and this has been the case for many years. Last year, we published an oral history book called Peace! Books! Freedom! The Secret History of a Radical London Building (available at Housmans for £10) which documents this history, taking in the nuclear disarmament movement, the first gay rights groups in the country, environmental rights groups, anarcho-punk scenes, and much more besides. It's a great book with lots of pictures and makes for a great snapshot of the wider radical movement of past years.

Recently, it has come to light that the British state has engaged in an industrial scale surveillance programme of left groups. The police sent at least 140 undercover officers to spy on more than 1,000 political groups, and that included groups based at Housmans. The most notable of these was London Greenpeace. The realities of this shocking totalitarian surveillance programme are still coming to light as part of the Undercover Policing Inquiry which is currently rumbling through the courts.

I would urge everyone to have a look at www.spycops.co.uk to find out more, and to better understand how the state operates and views those who want to make this country and our archaic system a better place. 

I'd like to finish by saying if you haven't been here before, please come and have a look around. If you like what we do, tell your friends, and let's keep the spirit of resistance alive and growing. It's never been more necessary.