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

Nessie Stewart-Brown

Nessie Stewart-Brown

Suffragist and Liberal Party politician. Co-founder of Liverpool Women’s Suffrage Society, and led Women’s Liberal Federation branches in Liverpool. Born as Nessie Muspratt near Liverpool. 1888 Mar...

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Ernest Boulton

Ernest Boulton

Boulton and Frederick Park were 'Stella & Fanny', the celebrated Victorian cross-dressers. Born at Kings Road, Tottenham.  Boulton's cross-dressing began very early and his parents seem to hav...

Person, Gender Issues, Theatre

1 memorial
Justice for Lai Dai Han

Justice for Lai Dai Han

This group campaigns for an independent UN-led investigation into allegations of widespread sexual violence by South Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War. The group commissioned the Mother and Ch...

Group, Gender Issues, Law, Social Welfare

1 memorial
Mrs Mallet

Mrs Mallet

Concerned for the poor of Lambeth and was a district visitor in 1864 trying to identify families in need. She organized a refuge for women and then started to prepare penny dinners. She also ran mo...

Person, Gender Issues, Social Welfare

1 memorial
Women's Social and Political Union

Women's Social and Political Union

The leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage, founded in 1903, was known from 1906 as the suffragettes. These were the women who set fire to post boxes, broke windows in promi...

Group, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration

4 memorials

Previously viewed

Essex Street & Essex Hall

Essex Street & Essex Hall

WC2, Essex Street, Essex Hall

This plaque was first erected at 7 Essex Street in 1962 and then re-erected here, at Essex Hall in 1964.

10 subjects commemorated