It's Women’s History Month 2023! We aim to celebrate women at King’s and beyond, emphasising their contributions to history and the ongoing challenges they face.
This year, in collaboration with the KCLSU Women’s Network and other fabulous student groups, we are holding a range of wonderful events, activities and initiatives to get involved in.
The theme for this year is ‘Celebrating Women Who Tell our Stories’, where we recognise women who have been active in different forms of media and storytelling. With this theme in mind, we thought it was fitting to share our favourite feminist reading spaces/bookshops with you.
The Feminist Library
Firstly we have The Feminist Library, situated in Peckham just around the corner from our Denmark Hill campus. Set up in 1975 at the height of the women’s liberation movement, The Feminist Library is volunteer-run and requires no registration or membership to visit. The staff and volunteers are always on hand to give you recommendations or show you around, so it makes it the perfect place to sit back and relax in one of their comfier seating areas, or even buckle down and get some research for your next project done.
The library hosts an impressive archive of feminist literature, with the aim to preserve as much as possible. They fundraise through selling merchandise and hosting community workshops and events.
They also run a feminist bookshop, so you can buy and read some of the amazing works they have at home. Plus there is coffee and cake!
You can visit The Feminist Library at 161 Sumner Rd, Peckham, London, SE15 6JL
Opening Hours:?
Tuesday 11am-5pm
Wednesday 11am-5pm
Friday 11am-5pm
Saturday 1pm-4pm (bookshop)
Housmans
Opened in 1945, Housmans is one of the longest running radical bookshops in the UK. It champions the rights of minorities by promoting works written by black authors, queer writers, feminist writers and all written words by minorities fighting to have their voices heard. You can truly find the meaning of intersectionality here!
You can visit Housmans at 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DY.
Opening Hours:
Monday to Saturday: 11am-6:30pm
Sunday: noon-6pm
56a Infoshop
56a Infoshop is a long-term volunteer-run social centre in Walworth selling books and other print on a huge variety of topics as well as a massive open-access archive where you can hang out and meet people in the space. Subjects include trans-inclusive feminism, anti-colonialism, anti-fascism, queer politics, environmentalism, anarchism, anti-capitalism, squatting, and self care. Tea and coffee is free, as well as the meeting space for groups and book launches.
The range of topics covered in the archive at 56a Infoshop and the community-feel to the centre has put them on our list as one of the top places in London to visit if you are looking for feminist reading material.?
You can visit 56a Infoshop at 56 Crampton Street, Walworth, London, SE17 3AE?
Opening Hours:
Thursday: 2pm-8pm
Friday 3pm-7pm
Saturday 2pm-6pm
The Second Shelf
The Second Shelf is a former London bookshop that has now been operating online for the past few years. It has a focus on rare or rediscovered women’s literature, with a book for all budgets and interests to be found as you browse through their extensive collection.
Fun fact: The name ‘The Second Shelf’ actually comes from the title of Meg Wolitzer’s 2012 essay in The New York Times Book Review about sexism in women’s fiction. It is a reference to Simone de Beauvior’s The Second Sex, worth a read too!
You can visit The Second Shelf online.
Some societies right here at King’s offer feminist reading groups, such as Women & Politics and Wxmen in Bioscience, so make sure you take a look!