This is a photograph of the Centerprise Children's bookshop in 1973, and the building as it stood in 2012. The Children's bookshop was an extension of the Centeprise café and bookshop at no. 34; by 1974 they would move both under one roof to Kingsland High Street.

 

Centerprise was first opened in 1971, by founder Glen Thompson.

That same year, the Stepney School Strike saw hundreds of students refusing to attend school. They marched to Trafalgar Square, demanding that their teacher, Chris Searles be reinstated. Searles had been fired for his role in publishing a book of their poetry, Stepney Words, against the orders of school governors. Both Chris Searles and Glen Thompson had identified a need for this kind of provision in these areas; a place for working class people to participate in the world of books, either by having a wide choice to buy from or having the chance to have published things they themselves had written.