Exhibition: The Rock & Roll Public Library - Mick Jones

The Rock & Roll Public Library, a testament to popular culture, springs directly from the enormous personal archive of Mick Jones, a collection that began well before The Clash were formed in 1976; as such it forms an invaluable guide to the collision of cultural influences that informed The Clash and Jones. The collection is also a testimony to the manner in which pop music came to its first full fruition at the same time as pop art.

Envisaged as a permanent reference library for use by both the local and international community, it comprises, believes Jones, ‘a personal, cultural and social history of our times, and through that it extends beyond the local to the global.’ Popular culture is now established as part of the curriculum of many universities: it is intended that ultimately the library will be an invaluable and essential aid to academic research and personal inquisitiveness.

Great songwriting partnerships are hard to break up, and so it is apt that the Joe Strummer Subway on London’s Edgware Road will lead you to the latest edition of The Rock & Roll Public Library at the Subway Gallery - a home for underground art - located in the underpass below Paddington Green police station.