Brief history

Fifth Column formed in 1977. We began as four punk rockers designing and printing our own designs inspired by the music and raw energy of those times. We then got involved in various campaign groups active in the early 80's (remember Coal not Dole, Lynx and Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign?) and from there our customer base grew. We now print and design for a variety of clients. Our workforce consists of 13 wonderful people from all over the world and we occupy a truly magic space above Kentish Town tube station in north London.

Creative concepts

While we still enjoy the colourful world of contract printing we are proud to launch Fifth Column Classics T-shirt shop as our direct outlet for our own designs. We have always promoted exciting and innovative designs and look forward to express and exchange creative ideas with you link: get creative. You will be able to submit your own designs and the best will be given the opportunity to see there designs come alive on t shirts link:competitions. In our link:photo gallery you will be able to see and contribute to an online exhibition of all those weird or wonderful T-shirts being worn all over the world

Our vision

We see the Fifth Column Classics T-shirt shop as a doorway to enjoying, viewing and inspiring a huge range of original T-shirts. T-shirts are the ultimate medium to getting across an idea, look, statement or ethic in order to inspire people to respect and care for themselves and each other, and their cultural and social environment.

Our mission

We want to communicate and promote innovative and exciting designs and regularly keep you updated with new original T-shirts. By giving you the opportunity to exchange ideas with us (see Get creative) we keep promoting exciting ideas and ensure that Fifth Column will always have a contemporary attitude whilst remembering its roots.

A helping hand
As we strive to be more that just a business, we are also putting a percentage of our profits into the community by promoting inspiring projects. To date we have sponsored the unique project about a tidal powered moon clock see www.alunatime.org, a cycling expedition to Sydney www.cyclingtosydney.com and provided several school workshops for T-shirt printing and Tai Chi, and also supplied free T-shirts to various causes such as critical mass www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk and bikes for Africa.