The Pankhursts/Suffragette City

In August 1819 at least a dozen people were killed demonstrating for the right to vote at St Peter’s Fields, Manchester. Nearly a hundred years later, in 1903, the Pankhurst family, disgusted with the Independent Labour Party’s refusal to allow women to use the newly-opened Pankhurst Hall in north Manchester, founded the Women’s Political and Social Union to campaign for the right of women to have the vote in parliamentary elections.

What had been a sedate pressure group willing to stay within the law to change the law soon became hostile and aggressive. The suffragettes disrupted a Liberal Party rally in the Free Trade Hall in 1905 and two of their leaders – Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney – were jailed. Manchester had become Suffragette City, but it took a generation and many thousands of broken windows for women to secure the vote.

Tour lead by Ed Glinert, New Manchester Walks.

Tour starting point: Malmaison Hotel, Piccadilly, M1 1LZ