Thursday, August 07, 2003
Famous places within 5 minutes walk of my house
Number 6 - Sylvia Pankhurst's meeting hall
This is Tower Hamlets Register Office on the Bow Road. Most Saturday mornings you'll find a wedding party here, spilling out onto the pavement, complete with fresh-faced East End geezers who've clearly never squeezed into a Burtons suit before. Previously this building was Bromley Public Hall, a series of halls and meeting rooms for the use of the local community. Back in 1913 you'd probably have found a crowd of angry Suffragettes inside instead, busy planning their next public demonstration. The increasingly violent nature of Sylvia Pankhurst's protests eventually encouraged Poplar council to ban the women from meeting on their premises, not that this stopped the women from meeting on their premises of course. It wasn't long before the local police turned up in force (exactly 90 years ago last week in fact), breaking in to put an end to the regular gatherings once and for all. Sylvia was forced to hide in a nearby stable overnight, before escaping the following morning concealed inside a sack on the back of a woodcart. Mob rule wasn't flash in those days. (Might be tonight though. Maybe see you there? But hopefully not you. Report here later.)
<< click for Newer posts
click for Older Posts >>
click to return to the main page
