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

Association of Women Pharmacists

Association of Women Pharmacists

The Pharmaceutical Journal has "a short history of pharmacy and women".

Group, Gender Issues, Medicine

1 memorial
Annie Kenney

Annie Kenney

Working-class suffragette from Manchester, member of the WSPU and one of the most prominent women in the movement. Born Oldham. 1918, after some women had won the vote, she married James Taylor (18...

Person, Gender Issues

1 memorial
Lillian Lenton

Lillian Lenton

Suffrage campaigner and hunger striker.

Person, Gender Issues

1 memorial
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
Noël Barclay

Noël Barclay

Central President of the Mothers' Union in 1925. We found reference to a publication probably authored by her: Barclay, E. Noel, Marriage and Divorce (1936).

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration

1 memorial