Various grassroots organisations have operated from its address, including the Gay Liberation Front, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and London Greenpeace.

Housmans' not-for-profit shop specialises in books on feminism, anarchism, anti-racism, anti-fascism, LGBTQIA+ politics, socialism, and nonviolence.

It also stocks radical and socially engaged fiction, children's books, graphic novels, magazines, zines, and poetry alongside new and second-hand books, Housmans stocks cards, calendars,[3] White Poppies,[4] and merchandise from Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (including the "Pits and Perverts" T-shirt).

By 1946 a bookshop was operating within the Peace Pledge Union headquarters at Dick Shepherd House, 6 Endsleigh Street in Bloomsbury, London, but its business lacked a shop window.

[19] A plan for a permanent bookshop was envisioned by a key sponsor of the Peace Pledge Union, the pacifist author and playwright Laurence Housman.

Directors appointed to the original company limited guarantee include the pacifist writer Vera Brittain, London bookseller Llewelyn Kiek, and literary critic Hugh I'Anson Fausset.

[24] Attendees of the shop's opening ceremony included Laurence Housman, the anarchist author Herbert Read, editor of The New Statesman Kingsley Martin, the campaigner Irene Barclay, Howard Whitten, Patrick Figgis, Doris Figgis, Trefor Rendall Davies, Llewelyn Kiek, Hugh I’Anson Fausset, Harry Mister, Eileen Ager, Geoffrey Gilbert, Henry Rutland, Duncan Christie and John Barclay.

[20][25] In 1948, business manager Harry Mister launched Endsleigh Cards, named after the original street location of the Peace Pledge Union offices.

In 1958, a freehold building at 5 Caledonian Road in Kings Cross was acquired after a £5,000 gift from Reverend Tom Willis of Hull (the equivalent today of £120,000[31]) and further donations from other Peace News supporters.

No injuries were sustained and the shop windows remained intact, but the explosion destroyed the Campaign Against Arms Trade first newsletter, which had been posted ten minutes prior to the incident.

[33][43][44] Peace News reported that the attack was one of several warning bombs that followed an announcement from then Home Secretary Roy Jenkins of emergency powers under Section 8 of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1974.

Its founders and staff included Housmans' employees, Nigel Kemp and Alexander Donaldson, who would go on to found Judd Books together in 1992.

Newly expanded sections in the original upstairs area of Housmans include titles on anti-racism, health and disability politics, and Irish history.

[55] In 2019, the English all-female DIY punk/riot grrrl band Dream Nails released a live album Take Up Space - a recording of an acoustic performance at Housmans.

[27][57][58] A 5 Cally Road volunteer told Peace News, "We wanted to relate the building’s history to the present day and demonstrate that the ideas and struggles we’ve documented are still thriving and making waves.

It combined oral history interviews recorded during the 5 Cally Road project with sound design and music by the anarcho-punk band Crass.

Reverberations was composed by Christina Radukic, Connie Hatt, Keir Chauhan, Laura Toms, Naoise Murphy, Tania Aubeelack, and Will Hecker.

In an interview with the 5 Cally Road research project, Nettie Pollard (a member of the Gay Liberation Front), recalled Arrowsmith saying to LGBT protestors, "Well, why don't we go to Housmans?"

[44]Housmans is one of many radical bookshops that have been a target of police surveillance and the attendance of officers who purchase material to monitor left-wing groups and individuals.

The plaque above Housmans reads, "Peace, Environmental and Animal Rights Campaigns meeting here were spied on by undercover police officers from the Special Demonstration Squad (established 1968), and other units"[88][89] Police officer Bob Lambert was head of the Special Demonstration Squad and posed as a left-wing animal rights activist named[85] Bob Robison from 1983 to 1988.

Lambert fathered a child with an activist, who was unaware of his true identity, during his deployment and regularly visited Housmans whilst undercover.

[90] In 2013, it was reported that Lambert had co-authored the 'McLibel leaflet' while undercover with London Greenpeace which resulted in a ten-year defamation lawsuit from the McDonald's Corporation.

Kerr visited Housmans and other radical bookshops to report on individuals and amassed thousands of files on trade unionists and political activists for his work at the Consulting Association.

The Economic League had 45,000 files on people considered "extreme left-wing" and received payment from more than 2,000 companies to screen potential employees for trade unionists and "troublemakers.

[95][9] Book collections have been donated to Housmans from the estates of authors and activists including Doreen Massey, Mike Marqusse, and the educator Byron Criddle.