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Bloomsbury Project

Bloomsbury Institutions

Progressive

Institution of the Working Classes

Also known as Theobald’s Road Institution

History

It was a coffee-house and beer-shop founded in the 1820s by the radical publisher William Benbow (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

It no longer exists

What was reforming about it?

It became a focus for the activities of the National Union of the Working Classes (founded 1831), and campaigners for co-operation and the emancipation of women (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for William Benbow)

Benbow’s radicalism has been seen as the origin of the idea of a “General Strike” (Niles Carpenter, ‘William Benbow and the Origin of the General Strike,’ Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 35, no. 3, May 1921)

Where in Bloomsbury

It was at 8 Theobald’s Road from its foundation in the 1820s until 1834

Website of current institution

It no longer exists

Books about it

Niles Carpenter, ‘William Benbow and the Origin of the General Strike,’ Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 35, no. 3 (May 1921)

Archives

None found

This page last modified 13 April, 2011 by Deborah Colville

 

Bloomsbury Project - University College London - Gower Street - London - WC1E 6BT - Telephone: +44 (0)20 7679 3134 - Copyright © 1999-2005 UCL


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