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

Sir Noel Coward

Sir Noel Coward

Actor, playwright, composer, film director, author, singer. Born Helmsdale, 5 Waldegrave Road, Teddington. Died at home in Jamaica, where he was buried. Obsessed with the theatre, he was a child a...

Person, Cinema, Gender Issues, Music / songs, Seriously Famous, Theatre, Jamaica

4 memorials
Ada Nield Chew

Ada Nield Chew

Working-class, factory worker, promoter of women’s trade unions. Born on a farm in North Staffordshire as Ada Nield. 1897 married George Chew ​(d.1940) who was also an organiser​ with the Independe...

Person, Gender Issues

1 memorial
Annot Robinson

Annot Robinson

Suffragette and pacifist. Born as Annot Erskine Wilkie in Scotland. Nicknamed Annie. Trained and worked as a teacher. She was sentenced to six months for trying to break in to the House of Commons....

Person, Gender Issues, Peace, Scotland

1 memorial
Barbara Harmer

Barbara Harmer

The first qualified female supersonic pilot and the first to fly Concorde. Born at the house with the plaque, she was raised in Bognor Regis and left school aged 15 to become a hairdresser but the...

Person, Gender Issues, Transport

1 memorial
Helena Swanwick

Helena Swanwick

Feminist and pacifist. NUWSS, editor of Common Cause, internationalist, pacifist. Mainly metropolitan based. Born in Munich as Helena Maria Lucy Sickert, sister to Walter Sickert, and granddaughte...

Person, Gender Issues, Peace, Germany

1 memorial