By the turn of the 20th century, women’s suffrage societies had been campaigning for the vote for over 50 years.
Established in 1903 in Manchester by Emmeline Pankurst, the suffragettes were members of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Targeting the built environment was their thing. They set bombs, smashed windows and interrupted high-profile events in their campaign for women to be granted the right to vote.
Here is a selection of stories from the famous to the unknown.
Pankhurst Centre, Manchester
In October 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, invited a group of working-class women to their home in Manchester where they set up the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU).
This new organisation, with the motto ‘deeds not words’, would change the nature of the campaign for votes for women. The building now houses the Pankhurst Centre, which includes a museum of the suffrage movement.
Free Trade Hall, Manchester
The WSPU’s first act of civil disobedience came in October 1905 at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester.
Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney disrupted a Liberal party meeting and were taken to Strangeways prison after refusing to pay fines. On release, women’s suffrage was an issue of national debate.
“Twenty years of peaceful propaganda had not produced such an effect,” wrote WSPU member Hannah Mitchell. A new phase in the fight had begun.
Brighton Dome, Brighton
Suffragette leaders Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, Emmeline Pethick Lawrence and Lady Emily Lutyens all spoke to large audiences at the Dome.
It was also a site of militant activity by suffragettes who interrupted several meetings by Liberal politicians.
In November 1907, around 20 suffragettes were violently ejected from a meeting by Reginald McKenna MP. In January 1910, two suffragettes hid in the Dome overnight but were discovered before the arrival of the Prime Minister.
55 Cookridge Street (O2 Academy, formerly The Coliseum), Leeds
Situated close to Leeds Civic Hall, the former Coliseum Theatre was a regular venue for political meetings. Several women were thrown out of the building for disrupting a speech by Liberal MP John Burns in December 1907.
When Prime Minister Asquith visited Leeds in October 1908 local suffragettes and leaders of the local unemployed held a large protest meeting outside The Coliseum. Jeanie Baines, a WSPU organiser, urged the crowd to ‘break down the doors’ of the building. She was arrested and became the first woman to be tried by jury for a suffrage offence.
Downing Street, London
In June 1908, Edith New and Mary Leigh smashed windows in 10 Downing Street in protest against the way fellow demonstrators had been assaulted in Parliament Square earlier in the month.
It was the first time the suffragettes had smashed windows in the name of the cause. “It will be a bomb next time,” Leigh was reported to have said when the women were arrested.
Victoria Rooms, Bristol
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Bristol’s thriving branch of the WSPU used the Victoria Rooms for its regular meetings from 1908. The building also hosted large public events featuring national suffragette speakers including Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst and Emmeline Pethick Lawrence.
The WSPU’s use of militancy was controversial and its meetings were often targeted by groups of young men intent on disruption. In 1908 the WSPU employed professional boxers to keep medical students from interrupting Mrs Pankhurst’s speech at the Victoria Rooms.
Holloway Prison, London
In July 1909, WSPU member Marion Dunlop Wallace was the first suffragette to go on hunger strike after being sent to Holloway Prison for stamping slogans on the walls at parliament.
After this, many imprisoned suffragettes followed her lead and desperate not to create martyrs, the authorities began force-feeding them. Reports of this scandalised the Edwardian public and caused outrage, helping create sympathy for the cause.
St George’s Hall, Liverpool
In reaction to the WSPU’s campaign, political meetings by the Liberal party were tightly controlled with entry only by ticket or in some cases excluding women altogether.
In May 1909, Earl Crewe and Augustine Birrell MP were awarded honorary degrees by the University of Liverpool in a ceremony at St George’s Hall. Mary Phillips, a local suffragette, managed to get into the hall the night before and hid in the organ loft and under the stage.
After 24 hours without sleep she interrupted speeches to protest against the imprisonment of local suffragette Patricia Woodlock. It was several minutes before she was found and removed from the hall.
Houses of Parliament, London
The following year, the Houses of Parliament were the backdrop for the most violent scene in the suffragette story. A deputation of 300 peaceful women was sent to the House of Commons on 18 November 1910 and on arrival, were assaulted during a 6 hours struggle with police.
The day came to be known as Black Friday, sparking a campaign of destruction across the country. Suffragettes smashed windows in government offices and shops, set fire to letter boxes and attacked properties.
Hundreds were arrested. Mrs Pankhurst would later declare that: “the argument of the broken pane of glass is the most valuable argument in modern politics”.
Walton Prison, Liverpool
Walton Gaol was the site of one of the most important suffragette prison protests in 1910. Lady Constance Lytton, an aristocratic suffragette, believed that she was treated differently to her working-class comrades.
She disguised herself as Jane Warton and took part in a protest outside Walton Gaol where two suffragettes were being held. She threw stones at the windows of the governor’s house and was arrested. Her medical examination as ‘Jane’ was cursory and did not pick up a pre-existing heart condition that had previously rendered her exempt from being forcibly fed.
Manchester Art Gallery
On 3 April 1913 Lillian Forrester, Annie Briggs and Evelyn Manesta were discovered smashing the glass of paintings at Manchester Art Gallery. This was the first attack by suffragettes on art works, and the damage to 13 pictures was estimated at £100.
Upon their arrest, the women explained that they were acting in protest at a prison sentence given to Mrs Pankhurst. Forrester and Manesta were sentenced to three months in prison.
While imprisoned, their photographs were taken and distributed to public galleries, identifying the women as potential threats.
Epsom Downs Racecourse, Surrey
The most famous incident in the suffragette struggle came in the summer of 1913. On 4 June, Emily Wilding Davison ran in front of the king’s horse at the Derby at Epsom Racecourse.
Davison never regained consciousness and died four days later.
The WSPU organised a heroine’s funeral attended by thousands of mourners with ten bands accompanying her coffin from Victoria station to King’s Cross.
The nation was transfixed; just as the government was attempting to stop hunger-striking suffragettes from dying in prison through the ‘Cat and Mouse’ Act, Davison had provided the suffrage movement with its first martyr.
Royal Botanic Gardens
The Royal Botanic Gardens, or Kew Gardens, was the site of militant protests by the WSPU.
On 10 February 1913, 3 Orchard Houses at Kew were attacked overnight – windows were smashed and flowers scattered. An envelope reading ‘votes for women’ was left at the scene.
Two weeks later a fire was started at the Tea Pavilion in the early hours of the morning. Two women, Olive Wharry and Lillian Lenton were seen running from the scene carrying bags containing paraffin, a hammer and a saw. Both women were convicted and imprisoned.
Tower of London
In February 1913, Leonora Cohen of Leeds attacked the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.
She entered the Jewel Room with a hidden iron bar and smashed the case containing the coronation regalia. During her trial at the London Sessions, she defended herself and presented a witness who claimed the damage was less than five pounds. The jury couldn’t agree on the exact amount, so Leonora was acquitted.
Spinners’ Hall, Bolton
The incident at Spinners’ Hall was typical of a suffragette bomb attack.
On 5 July 1913, a package containing gun powder was put through the letterbox but landed on a tiled floor where the fuse went out.
A report of the incident was reprinted in the WSPU’s newspaper ‘The Suffragette’, suggesting that Union was responsible for the bomb.
Smeaton’s Tower, Plymouth
Plymouth may have been a suffragette target as Emmeline Pankhurst was arrested there on her return from a speaking tour of the USA.
On 19 April 1913, a homemade bomb was found at the entrance to Smeaton’s Tower. Painted on the outside were the slogans ‘votes for women’. The attack failed as the lit wick blew out before the bomb could ignite.
The Grand Hotel, Birmingham
Several political meetings held at The Grand Hotel were disrupted by suffragettes. In July 1913 the visit of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith sparked a week of militant protests. Pillar boxes were damaged, and an empty house was destroyed by fire.
On 21 July, suffragettes gathered outside The Grand Hotel, where Asquith was speaking at a formal dinner. Windows were smashed at the hotel and in nearby streets, resulting in several arrests.
Her Majesty’s Theatre, Haymarket, London
The WSPU often protested at theatres, especially after 1913 when many public halls refused to host suffragette meetings. Theatres provided an audience, and mass protests in the West End received lots of press coverage.
Her Majesty’s Theatre Haymarket saw some of the most notable protests. In 1914, during a performance attended by King George V, Queen Mary, and Princess Mary, one woman tried to give a petition to the King. The play was interrupted when suffragette leaflets were thrown from the gallery.
Westminster Abbey, Greater London
Westminster Abbey was the scene of a number of WSPU protests.
Services were disrupted several times in 1913 and 1914. During one protest, a woman chained herself to her chair when the Archbishop of Canterbury was preaching. Both she and the chair were carried out of the building by vergers.
In June 1914, the 13th century Coronation Chair was damaged by a bomb.
National Gallery, London
In a symbolic act of destruction, in March 1914, Mary Richardson took a meat cleaver to a Velázquez painting in the National Gallery in London.
She later explained that she had “tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the government destroying Mrs Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history”.
The struggle for suffrage was halted during the First World War, but on 6 February 1918 the Government introduced votes for women aged over 30.
All women over the age of 21 were finally given the right to vote in June 1928.
Further reading
- Read more about HerStories
- Find out about buildings that celebrate Victorian and Edwardian working women
- A History of Feminism Through 5 Objects
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