Kate Sharpley Library

The library was begun in the 121 Centre, a squat in Railton Road, Brixton, South London in 1979 by a collective which included anarchist Albert Meltzer. It had both lending and reference sections. In 1984 the centre was raided by the police. Consequently the library was moved for safety across the road to a different squat. Barry Pateman, a self-described '"independent" scholar' who around that time was undertaking research into the history of anarchism, recalled in an interview: '... I think in 1991, I learnt from Albert Meltzer that the KSL was in search of a new home.' At the time Pateman was living in Stamford, Lincolnshire. He later recalled that the library was transported from London which needed two trips of a minibus which was full of boxes. Consequently: 'The Library filled up one room with boxes and I put others on the floor, on tables etc. Initially I began to sort what I could. English language books, papers, newspapers, pamphlets, correspondence, ephemera in one place etc. Other languages all grouped together as well. As I did this I chatted to Albert about future plans. He was very keen on KSL becoming a little publishing house by publishing some of the material it had. Col [Longmore] and Ineke [Frencken] had produced some nice Bulletins and he was keen to make these a regular feature. That was the genesis of the Bulletin of the KSL.'

Moran (2014) observed that when the library was moved to the safety of Pateman's home, its focus shifted towards being a special collection and archive. After eight years, Pateman moved to the United States and in 1991 the library was moved again, to a renovated barn at his home in Northern California.