Event    From 2/7/1888  To 16/7/1888

Matchgirls' strike

A strike of the women and teenage girls working at the Bryant and May Factory. Annie Besant had published an article about the poor working conditions at the factory, 'White Slavery in London'. This angered the management who tried to get the workers to formally refute the article. When they refused the management sacked one of them and the strike was on. They held meetings at Christ Church Hall and were supported by Eleanor Marx, Annie Besant and members of the Fabian Society including Shaw and Sidney Webb.

Diamond Geezer has a much fuller account.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Matchgirls' strike

Commemorated ati

Annie Besant - E3

This plaque was lost sometime July 2021 - August 2022. 

Read More

Bowler plaque - Match Girls

The plaque punningly represents "match girls" - very nice. Hanbury Hall is wh...

Read More

Fairfield Works

This plaque was lost sometime July 2021 - August 2022.

Read More

Hanbury Hall - blue oval plaque

This plaque has a shortened version of the text on the old white plaque.

Read More

Hanbury Hall - white plaque - removed

Christ Church Hall Built in 1719 as a French Hugeonot {sic} church it stood b...

Read More

Other Subjects

Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan

Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan

Prominent botanist and mycologist (fungi). Leader of the first women's army corps. Dame Helen Charlotte Isabella Gwynne-Vaughan, GBE   During WW1 she served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and...

Person, Armed Forces, Gender Issues, Science

1 memorial
Laurence Housman

Laurence Housman

Radical playwright, writer, illustrator, socialist, pacifist and founding member of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage. The photo shows Housman in 1914. Brother to A. E. Housman. Studied art an...

Person, Art, Gender Issues, Theatre

1 memorial
Anna Haslam

Anna Haslam

Co-founder of the Irishwomen’s Suffrage and Local Government Association. Born Anna Maria Fisher in County Cork, Ireland, to a large Quaker family already involved in social welfare and reform. Mar...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration, Ireland

1 memorial
OutRage!

OutRage!

From the picture source website: "OutRage! is the world's longest surviving queer rights direct action group. Our witty, imaginative, daring, and irreverent style of non-violent civil disobedience...

Group, Gender Issues

1 memorial
First gay rights demonstration

First gay rights demonstration

The first gay rights demonstration in Britain took place in Highbury Fields when about 150 members of the Gay Liberation Front held a torchlight rally against police harassment. Louis Eakes of the ...

Event, Gender Issues

1 memorial