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The Suffragettes in Hyde Park

Published Tuesday 8 March 2022

The peaceful vistas of Hyde Park offer an inner-city sanctuary where visitors can slow down and listen to the quiet hum of nature. This sense of tranquillity, though, obscures a very radical history. For generations, the park has been a hotbed of political activity.

In this post to mark Women’s History Month, we explore the history of suffragette rallies in Hyde Park.

Speakers’ Corner

Speakers’ Corner, located in the north east of Hyde Park, has been a traditional site for speeches, debates and rallies since the 1800s.

Many political groups have taken advantage of this space, including trade unionists, animal rights campaigners, anti-war protestors and, more recently, supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement.


Black Lives Matter protestors in Hyde Park, 2020
Katie Crampton (WMUK), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Those who have delivered impassioned speeches to crowds at Speakers’ Corner include famous firebrands like Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and George Orwell.

Perhaps the most famous group to take advantage of this public political space, though, were the suffragettes. Hyde Park played a key role in their courageous campaign to win women the vote.

The Suffragette Movement

The suffragettes are synonymous with the early decades of the twentieth century, but the history of feminist thought in Britain stretches back much further.

As early as 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Women. This trailblazing feminist manifesto laid out the (then) radical argument that women should have equal opportunities in education, work and politics.


Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie, c.1790-1
Image: John Opie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

During the 1800s, many who shared Wollstonecraft’s views campaigned for women’s’ ‘suffrage’, or right to vote. The first petition calling for such rights was presented to Parliament in 1832.

In 1897, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was formed to galvanise the burgeoning movement. Despite these efforts, little progress had been made by the time the 20th century rolled around. Women were running out of patience

A Turning Point

On 13th October 1905, two bold young women – Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney – interrupted a political meeting in Manchester. They asked speakers, including a young politician named Winston Churchill, whether they would grant women the vote before unfurling a banner that read ‘votes for women’.

The event soon turned into a scuffle and the women were eventually arrested as a result of their actions. The suffragette campaign was launched in earnest.


Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst, c.1908
Image: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This militant movement, led by the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), believed that deeds rather than words would win women the vote.

Over the next several years the suffragettes organised rallies up and down the country, raised funds, recruited new members and published their own newspaper. As time went on, their tactics were adapted.

Suffragettes and Suffragists

Frustrated by a lack of support from politicians, they resorted to ever more militant means of protest. Windows were smashed, the contents of post offices were burned, and some suffragettes were even involved in bombing campaigns.

Scores of suffragettes were arrested for these activities, and many brave women went on hunger strike in prison to continue their protest even behind bars. The government responded with a policy of force feeding, a barbaric procedure that outraged many.


Police arrest a suffragette in London
Image: Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons


Police arrest a suffragette in 1913
Image: George Grantham Bain Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons


Police arrest a suffragette, 1914
Image: Agence Rol, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Eventually, the government agreed to release those on hunger strike when they became dangerously unwell, summoning them back to prison once they had recovered strength. Many suffragettes refused to return, and this policy was therefore nicknamed ‘the Cat and Mouse Act’.

At the same time, the long-standing NUWSS, led by Millicent Fawcett, promoted more peaceful means of protest. These women became known as ‘suffragists’, in contrast to the more radical ‘suffragettes’.


Millicent Fawcett in Hyde Park
Image: LSE Library, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Both groups would hold historic rallies in Hyde Park, a public space that played a crucial role in the campaign to win women the vote.

The Fight for Women’s Suffrage at Hyde Park

Between 1906 and 1914, the suffragettes could often be found at Hyde Park, which became a key site for their meetings, rallies and protests.

In the summer of 1906 the suffragettes held a weekly meeting near to the Reformers’ Tree in Hyde Park. This well-known tree, close to Speakers’ Corner, gained its name in the 1860s when it became a meeting point for protests organised by the Reform League. Their objective was to win all adult men the right to vote.

During one protest the tree was set on fire, and its charred stump became a notice board, rallying point for meetings and symbol of the people’s right to protest. The suffragettes continued this tradition, holding many fiery meetings here.


The site of the Reformers’ Tree today
Image: © TRP

Pankhursts in the Park

In August 1906, the Globe newspaper ran a story with the headline ‘RELEASE OF WOMEN AGITATORS FROM PRISON BY MOTORCAR’. It explained that suffragette Annie Kenney had been let out of Holloway Prison for yet another act of protest.

On her release, the Globe explained, Kenney would be one of the principal speakers at a ‘great mass meeting’ in Hyde Park: ‘The meeting, which is to be held under the reformers tree, will also be addressed by Miss Christabel Pankhurst’.

Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst were close friends and comrades – it was this formidable duo who had been arrested in Manchester for heckling Churchill. Christabel was the daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, who led the WSPU.


Emmeline Pankhurst in 1913
Image: Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons


Emmeline Pankhurst arrested in 1914
Image: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A report on the speeches later ran in the Edinburgh Evening News under the headline ‘SUFFRAGETTES IN HYDE PARK’. Around 1000 women attended, it explained, to hear Kenney talk defiantly about her time in prison.

Christabel Pankhurst gave a barn-storming speech in which she ‘rejoiced’ that the Government recognised the suffragettes as dangerous, declaring that women have more spirit than men. She concluded: ‘women, once they had got hold of anything, would not let it go.’

Women’s Sunday

In June of 1908, suffragettes from all over the country flooded into London on specially chartered trains. They were here for a ‘monster meeting’ called Women’s Sunday.

This record-breaking rally attended by up to half a million women was, at the time, the largest protest to ever have taken place in Britain. It was held on a Sunday to maximise the number of working-class women able to attend.


Suffragette procession en route to Women's Sunday, held in Hyde Park, 21 June 1908


Suffragette Dorothy Radcliffe leads a delegation to Hyde Park on Women’s Sunday
Image: Anonymous. Presume Daily Chronicle photographer but no name, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The women marched through London in seven carefully choregraphed processions. 3,000 standard bearers led the way, waving flags and banners emblazoned in green, white and violet – the iconic colours of the suffragette movement. They were accompanied by 30 bands who played jubilant tunes as the women marched.

‘The Day of the Great Shout’


Emmeline Pankhurst in Hyde Park on Women’s Sunday
Image: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A crowd of around 300,00 eventually converged in Hyde Park. 20 platforms had been erected here, enabling 100 prominent speakers to be seen by the huge crowds. Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the WSPU, was at the top of the bill.

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday
Image:
Women's Social and Political Union, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday
Image:
Mrs. S. Burgess, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday
Image:
Women's Social and Political Union, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday
Image:
Women's Social and Political Union, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday
Image:
Mrs. S. Burgess, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday

Souvenir programme from Women’s Sunday
Image:
Women's Social and Political Union, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A newspaper, the Lakes Herald, described the range of women who attended:

The speakers were drawn from all sorts and conditions of women. Some were mothers of families, others were teachers, mill and factory workers, shop assistants, clerks, journalists, novelists, musicians, a playwright, a bachelor-of-law, a tailoress and a nurse.


Suffragettes in Hyde Park on Women’s Sunday
Image: Photograph by Christina Broom © Museum of London


Suffragettes in Hyde Park on Women’s Sunday
Image: © Museum of London

At the end of the rally, a bugle sounded from a platform and the crowd cried out: ‘Votes for Women! Votes for Women! Votes for Women!’. The newspaper report concluded:

From thousands of throats the cry came, gathering in volume until it sounded like the roar of a football crowd when the home team scores a goal. Within a few minutes […] demonstration day – the day of the great shout – was over.


Suffragette Charlotte Marsh in Hyde Park on Women’s Sunday
Image: Christina Broom died 1939, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Winning the Vote

The suffragettes and suffragists took to Hyde Park many more times until the vote was finally won for some women in 1918. The Representation of the People Act, introduced that year, allowed women over 30 to vote if they met a property qualification.

It was not until the Equal Franchise Act was introduced in 1928 that all women aged over 21 were granted the same voting rights as men.

An Exciting Discovery

At the Royal Parks, we have recently discovered a historic handwritten ledger dating back to the early 1900s. This remarkable document records incidents and events in the central parks.

Excitingly, the ledger records requests from the suffragettes who frequently applied for permission to bring wagons into Hyde Park. These were used as platforms, enabling speakers to address the vast audiences that gathered to hear them speak.

The ledger has now been sent to a specialist company to be digitised, and we look forward to making it available online very soon. We are delighted to have found this important document that is a testament to the historic connection between Hyde Park and the valiant suffragettes.

The Royal Parks and the Suffragettes

Hyde Park is not the only Royal Park where you can find traces of suffragette history. A statue of Emmeline Pankhurst stands in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Houses of Parliament.


Statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, Victoria Tower Gardens
Image: Prioryman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In Brompton Cemetery you can visit the grave of Emmeline Pankhurst, which remains an important place of pilgrimage for women from around the world.


The grave of Emmeline Pankhurst, Brompton Cemetery
Image: © TRP



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