When London was Suffragette City

This Bloomsbury building was the London home of Emmeline Pankhurst - leader of the Suffragette movement - and her businessman husband Richard during the late 19th century. At this time, discussion and persuasion were seen as the best way to get the vote, and the Pankhursts held gatherings of socialists, suffragists and radicals while in residence (their main home was in industrial Manchester). Now part of the Kimpton London Hotel, the facade bears a plaque dedicated to Mrs Pankhurst.

After Richard’s death, Emmeline Pankhurst moved to London permanently with a more aggressive attitude, vowing to take the fight to the heart of government. “Deeds not words” was the motto of her new Women’s Social and Political Union, which she founded in 1903, aged 45. She brought with her three adult daughters, Christabel, Sylvia and Adela, and set up home and an HQ with her friends Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence. The London School of Economics now stands on the site.

Mrs Pankhurst’s oldest daughter Christabel was her closest ally. A law graduate who was both charismatic and persuasive, she inspired near-religious adoration within the WSPU. “Do not beg, do not grovel,” she told women. Instead, she strategised a series of confrontations and aggressions that led the Daily Mail to coin the term suffragettes for her followers. She concentrated her efforts on middle- and upper-class women believing they would attract the best publicity and later work to improve other women’s lives.

Photo: LSE Library

White for purity, green for hope and purple for regal dignity: these were the colours chosen for the suffragette’s campaign by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. The strategy was to dress in fashionable, feminine styles to quash slurs that they were ugly, masculine types. As the idea caught on, Selfridges and Liberty sold ribbon and accessories in suffragette colours. It was fashionable to buy ‘secret’ pieces such as embroidered stockings while jewellers Mappin & Webb created special suffragette pieces.

Rosette: property of LSE Library

Spectacular events raised awareness. On 21 June 1908, half a million women poured into Hyde Park - many having arrived in London on chartered steam trains - for the UK’s largest protest in history, Women’s Sunday. Mrs Pankhurst headlined a bill of 100 speakers. According to the Lakes Herald, present were teachers, mill and factory workers, shop assistants, clerks, journalists, novelists, musicians, a playwright, a bachelor-of-law, a tailoress and a nurse”, and the day ended with a cheer like “the roar of a football crowd”.

Photo: Christina Broom, LSE Library

Being a suffragette could be a risky business. In order to protect Mrs Pankhurst from arrest and attack, a special unit called The Bodyguard was set up and trained by Edith Garrud, a jui-jisui expert from North London. She was well known for showing off her techniques, sometimes dressed as a suffragette, in music hall performances, although she was a member of the less confrontational Women’s Freedom League rather than the WSPU. A metal sculpture of Edith stands outside Finsbury Park Station.

Photo: A Trip Up My Sleeve

Votes for Women was the WSPU’s newspaper (they later launched The Suffragette), which was originally edited and financed by Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence. It was sold by volunteers on the street who were frequently abused or moved from the pavement into the gutter by the police. Despite this, the newspaper reached a peak circulation of 33,000 in 1909. Famous selling sites for WSPU newspapers in London include Hampton Court Palace and the Oval Cricket Ground.

Spectacular events raised awareness. On 21 June 1908, half a million poured into Hyde Park - many having arrived in London on chartered steam trains - for the UK’s largest protest in history, Women’s Sunday. Mrs Pankhurst headlined a bill of 100 speakers. According to the Lakes Herald, present were teachers, mill and factory workers, shop assistants, clerks journalists, novelists, musicians, a playwright, a bachelor-of-law, a tailoress and a nurse”, and the day ended with a cheer like “the roar of a football crowd”.

Photo: Christina Broom, LSE Library

Being a suffragette could be a risky business. In order to protect Mrs Pankhurst from arrest and attack, a special unit called The Bodyguard was set up and trained by Edith Garrud, a jui-jisui expert from North London. She was well known for showing off her techniques, sometimes dressed as a suffragette, in music hall performances, although she was a member of the less confrontational Women’s Freedom League rather than the WSPU. A metal sculpture of Edith stands outside Finsbury Park Station.

Photo: A Trip Up My Sleeve