Keir Hardie's link to Lanark shop

It acts as an architectural end stop, marking the top end of the High Street with St Nicholas Church at the other.

Its importance was also recognised a number of years ago as it was deemed important enough to include in the World Heritage Buffer Zone of neighbouring New Lanark.

The building’s historical importance is of great interest especially as last year was the 250th anniversary of the great social reformer Robert Owen. He was not only the owner of New Lanark but the man who was responsible for starting the process which led to the foundation of the Co-operative Movement.

In the 1820s Robert Owen had a vision of developing communities or villages of unity and mutual co-operation. Owen saw the need to do this as Britain was in the throes of a great depression. Destitution was common place as the demand for goods, especially for the army, had slumped along with the wages.

This led to wages for loom weavers to collapse from 42 shillings to 4/6d a week, leading to the Strathaven uprising in 1821.

Owen saw the need to do something about this and he produced a plan to set up a community based on the principles of co-operation at Orbiston.

It was some years later that the actual Co-operative Movement was established by the Rochdale Pioneers who were influenced by Robert Owen. This movement spread across Britain and a number of Co- operative Stores were set up in Lanark.

Although the influence of the Co-op Movement has declined in Britain, it has spread across the world.

Another legendary figure connected with the Oxfam shop in Lanark is Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party. He made several attempts to stand as a Liberal candidate and one of the interviews is thought to have taken place in the room above the Oxfam shop.

Rejection by the Liberals led Keir to set up the Independent Labour Party – a beacon of hope for those who wished to see a society based on Socialist principles, of which Robert Owen would have approved.