The Seat Of Power
The Londoners who campaigned across the capital for women's suffrage. #BehindEveryGreatCity
London
London was a key location for the suffrage movement, with women lobbying Parliament, and holding huge suffrage rallies at Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square. The city was home to the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) offices and, in 1906, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) also moved their headquarters to London (from Manchester) to be closer to the seat of government. London's suffrage campaigners were a varied bunch - from the middle class intellectuals of Millicent Fawcett's Kensington Society, to the factory workers of the east end.
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The vast expanse of Hyde Park, central London, where suffragists and suffragettes from around the UK congregated, demanding 'Votes for Women!'
London. Suffragette Riots at Westminster (1910) | BFI National ArchiveMayor of London
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The WSPU's original London office was at 4 Clement's Inn, on The Strand. The building is now occupied by the London School of Economics (LSE) – which also houses the Women's Library.
Plaque to commemorate the location of the headquarters of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) (1960)Original source: LSE Library
WSPU London offices (1908)Original source: LSE Library
Suffragettes outside the WSPU headquarters at Clement's Inn.
Lolita Roy
Lolita Roy was President of the London Indian Union (an Indian nationalist organisation) from 1908 until 1911. She was the wife of Piera Lal Roy, director of public prosecutions in Calcutta, and had been living in London with her children since 1901. Lolita co-organised the Indian section of the suffragettes' 1911 Coronation Procession.
Lady Frances Balfour was a member of the Liberal Women’s Suffrage Society, and was on the executive committee of the NUWSS.
She was also sister-in-law to the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, and sister-in-law of Lady Constance Lytton.
Henrietta Franklin was an education reformer, and leader of Jewish League for Woman Suffrage (JLWS).
Mary Lowndes was a stained-glass artist, who founded the Artists' Suffrage League in 1907.
Sophia Duleep Singh
Sophia Duleep Singh was a WSPU member who campaigned for women's suffrage in Richmond and Kingston upon Thames. She was the daughter of the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Sophia lived in apartment rooms at Hampton Court Palace, and was often seen selling the Suffragette newspaper outside its gates. She was also prosecuted for refusing to pay tax, as part of the Women's Tax Resistance League, whose slogan was "No Vote, No Tax".
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Minnie Lansbury is honoured by the Minnie Lansbury Memorial Clock on Electric House in Bow Road.
Maud Palmer, Countess of Selborne, was President of the Conservative and Unionist Women’s Franchise Association until 1913. After the war, she became a Justice of the Peace in Hampshire.
Ray Strachey was chair of the London Society for Women’s Suffrage. From 1916 until 1921 she was parliamentary secretary of the NUWSS, responsible for supervising the passage of the 1918 Reform Bill.
Emmeline, Christabel, Sylvia and Adela Pankhurst by Charlotte TrounceOriginal source: Mayor of London
After moving from Manchester to London in 1906, leading suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, and her daughters Christabel, Adela, and Sylvia, spent much of their time campaigning in the capital.
Palace Pandemonium (1914) - Emmeline Pankhurst | BFI National ArchiveMayor of London
Adela Pankhurst (1907/1912)Original source: LSE Library
Adela Pankhurst was the youngest and least well known of the three Pankhurst sisters.
Political differences split the Pankhurst family - with socialist sisters Adela and Sylvia falling out with their mother Emmeline and sister Christabel over the WSPU's focus on votes for middle class women.
Adela was estranged from the family and emigrated to Australia, while Sylvia turned her attention to supporting the working class women of London's east end.
Dame Margery Irene Corbett Ashby
Dame Margery Irene Corbett Ashby was a Liberal politician, and internationalist. She was secretary of NUWSS, and later President of the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance. After campaigning for the vote, Dame Corbett Ashby went on to become president of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, co-founder of the Townswomen’s Guild, president of the Women’s Freedom League, vice-president of the Fawcett Society, and president of the British Commonwealth League. She also supported the Women's Liberation Movement in the 1970s.
Dame Christabel Pankhurst
As the eldest daughter of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel was the chief strategist of the WSPU, and a brilliant orator. Nicknamed 'Queen of the Mob' by the media, Christabel was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for her militant activism.
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Between 1917 and 1919, Christabel stayed with her mother Emmeline Pankhurst at 50 Clarendon Road in Notting Hill.
Their home is today honoured with an English Heritage blue plaque.
Sadiq Khan #BehindEveryGreatCity by GLA/Caroline TeoOriginal source: Mayor of London
The political landscape of London and the UK looks very different today as a result of these courageous Londoners and their tireless campaigning.
#BehindEveryGreatCity: celebrating the centenary of the first women winning the right to vote and tackling gender inequality in London www.london.gov.uk/behindeverygreatcity
