Free Word, London

Free Word exists where literature, literacy and free expression come together. Working as a catalyst for collaborations, nationally and internationally, Free Word explores and promotes the transformative power of words.

At its London hub, the Free Word Centre, it runs a programme of events and exhibitions, while also providing a home for six resident organisations and over 25 associates, all working to strengthen literature, literacy and free expression.

Free Word Centre is located at 60 Farringdon Road, London, in a building that dates back to 1875. Originally constructed as a warehouse, it has been occupied by a wheelwright’s workshop, studios for music education and filmmaking and most recently The Guardian’s archive and education/exhibition centre.

Their location in Clerkenwell has connections to literature and politics which go back centuries. Bookstalls lined the pavements of Farringdon Road from the 1870s to the 1990s and nearby Clerkenwell Green was historically associated with radical groups, ranging from the Lollards in the sixteenth century to the Chartists in the nineteenth. In the 1900s, Wladimir Iljitsch Uljanow [Lenin] also famously edited the magazine Iskra from 37a Clerkenwell Green.

Today, Free Word Centre is a creative laboratory where ideas are given space to develop. The Free Word Centre prides itself on supporting and nurturing emerging writers, readers, translators and poets, providing a platform for unheard voices and a location where dedicated campaigners and artists can come together to defend our rights to free expression.

Visit Free Word’s own website: https://freeword.org/