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.

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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. 

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Bowler plaque - Match Girls

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

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Fairfield Works

Fairfield Works Fairfield Road. The scene of the match girls strike of 1888. ...

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Hanbury Hall - blue oval plaque

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

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Hanbury Hall - white plaque - removed

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

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Other Subjects

Suffragettes' Women's Hall

Suffragettes' Women's Hall

This 1893 map (extract here) shows a hall, Salisbury Hall, beside the pub (Morpeth Arms) set back behind a house on Old Ford Road.  This 1870 map shows the hall labelled 'Bethal Chapel (Baptist)'. ...

Building, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration, Religion

1 memorial
Mary Macarthur

Mary Macarthur

Suffragist and trades unionist. Born Mary Reid Macarthur in Glasgow. She was the general secretary of the Women's Trade Union League and was involved in the formation of the National Federation of ...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration, Scotland

2 memorials
Boo Armstrong

Boo Armstrong

Born as Rachel Armstrong she grew up in Ealing. As an adult lived in Camden - the photo shows her on her canal boat Moonshine on which she lived in the Cumberland Basin from 1999. The Picture sourc...

Person, Gender Issues, Medicine

1 memorial
Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou

Author and poet.  Born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St Louis, Missouri, USA. She died, aged 86 years, on 28 May 2014 at her home in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina, USA. Her body was cr...

Person, Gender Issues, Poetry, USA

1 memorial
Frederick Park

Frederick Park

Park and Ernest Boulton were 'Fanny and Stella', the celebrated Victorian cross-dressers. Little is available about Park but see Boulton for their joint activities.

Person, Gender Issues, Theatre

1 memorial