London provides the perfect opportunity to discover not only the stories of famous women who have left their mark on London and society but also the hidden stories of the women who toiled ceaselessly and who might not be known individually but as a community have left an indelible mark on the development of London.
From ‘The Wonderful Women of Whitechapel’, the first women’s history walking tour for the Women’s Library back in 2006, the range of tours has expanded each year and they provide a wonderful backdrop to the variety of women who have shaped our capital city.
The stories include famous names such as the suffragette Pankhursts, politicians and activists such as Nancy Astor and Annie Besant, literary ladies including Virginia Woolf, wealthy philanthropists from the Rothschild family and contemporary artists such as Tracey Emin. There are lesser known names too but no less important. The social work of Mary Hughes and the Lester sisters, the nursing advances of Eva Luckes, the work with animals by Maria Dickin and social reformers including Henrietta Barnett and Octavia Hill.
These names are known but the tours can also highlight the women whose names are unknown but whose work and lives have shaped London. Whether working in factories and striking for better conditions, working below stairs as servants or shopping in the new department stores, they have all played their role.
These tours, while profiling women, also allow you revisit a favourite area of London but to discover its feminine side!
Public Tours - Go Women’s London
WONDERFUL WOMEN OF WESTMINSTER
Tuesday 8th September, 2.30pm
This walk encounters women who battled, campaigned, fought and talked. From Boudicca, proud atop her chariot, to the Pankhursts striving for votes for women and Nancy Astor and Margaret Thatcher becoming important firsts in the House of Commons there was nothing these ladies could not achieve. Their stories together with society ladies' and social workers', not to mention WT Stead and his exposure of child prostitution in his Maiden Tribute make for a fascinating tour.
£12.00/£20 for two. Book via MSCC / 020 8922 2900
** BACK BY POPLAR DEMAND - BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT **
THE UNTOLD STORY: WOMEN’S LONDON
Thursdays - October 22nd to November 19th, 11.00am
This series of walks gives centre stage to women whose experiences have left their mark on London. Visiting areas as diverse as Whitechapel, Westminster, Bow, Borough and Hampstead Garden Suburb you will 'meet' personalities such as Mary Hughes, Nancy Astor, Sylvia Pankhurst, Octavia Hill and Henrietta Barnett and in Belgravia those unnamed women who worked and lived above and below stairs.
£33.00/£53.00/£75.00 for the five tours. Book via City Lit / 020 7831 7831
WOMEN’S LIBRARY
The Women’s Library moved to their new home in 2013 and opened for business in 2014. The LSE will be incorporating the collection into their Library with a designated reading room and exhibition space for their new special collection.
KEEP UP TO DATE WITH PROGRESS ON THE NEW SPACE HERE
For details of public tours
and how to book see Public Tours
Group Tours
Select your Group Tour from the list below and then please use Booking a Tour to make your enquiry.
BATTLING BELLES OF BOW
Follow in the footsteps of Sylvia Pankhurst who chose east London as the starting point for her campaign for women's suffrage and seeing the plight of the working women and mothers also established a creche, restaurant and model toy factory in the area. East End women were key to the success of the Suffragette movement and the route highlights their supporters and their workplaces including the famous Bryant & May Match Factory, site of the Match girls' strike of 1888.
BLOOMSBURY WOMEN
Long associated with the Bloomsbury Group who 'lived in squares and loved in triangles', Bloomsbury has also been home to many other women who lived, loved and worked there. On this leisurely walk you will 'meet' educational, medical, society and, of course, literary ladies including Virginia Woolf, Mary Kingsley, Christina Rossetti and Lady Ottoline Morell.
MERCY, MISSIONS AND MEDICINE
For centuries, women have been involved with improving the health of the overworked poor in east London. Discover the sites associated with those who came to the East End to make a difference, including Alice Model at the Jewish Maternity Hospital, the Sisters of Mercy at Providence Row and home grown angels too such as Hannah Billig. Covering present day initiatives we also go further back to the original St Mary Spital and the Huguenots who pioneered improvements to medical and opthalmic instruments in the 17th century.
PEARLY QUEENS TO KINGSLEY HALL - BROMLEY BY BOW
For those of you prepared to go a bit off the beaten track this under-visited area of Bromley-by-Bow offers a wonderful variety of history and stories - suffragettes, almshouses and royal hunting lodges. The walk ends with a visit and tour of Kingsley Hall hearing of its associations with Doris and Muriel Lester and Mahatma Ghandi, who lodged here during his visit to London in the 1930s.
ST JAMES'S FOR LADIES
Always associated with gentlemen, St James’s has a wealth of associations for ladies too. The tour profiles such varied personalities as Nell Gwynn, the mistress of Charles II, Ada Lovelace, an early computer expert, architect Alison Smithson and Rosa Lewis, the ‘Duchess of Jermyn Street’. St James’s is also famous for its historic shops and these also feature prominently during the walk.
STORIES BEHIND THE STORES
Napoleon called the British 'a nation of shopkeepers'. Today we are also a nation of shoppers and our tour, in and around London's premier shopping street, discovers how shopping has developed in London and how small shops from centuries ago have become household names across the world. The tour includes the first store in London to allow browsing, an 'olde English sweet shoppe' and how to tell if the Royal Family shops at your favourite store.
SUFFRAGE, SCIENCE AND THE STAGE: WOMEN IN AND AROUND THE LSE
Celebrate the move of the Women's Library to its new home at the LSE on this brand new walk. Discover an array of fascinating ladies who lived, worked, performed and studied in and around Covent Garden including the suffragettes Emmelines Pankhurst and Pethick-Lawrence, scientist Rosalind Franklin, actresses and royal mistresses Nell Gwyn and Dorothy Jordan at Drury Lane Theatre and Beatrice Webb at the LSE itself.
SUFFERING TO SALVATION
Walking tours of East London often focus on the horrific sites of crime and murder, and overlook the other spaces and places in which women lived, worked and campaigned. From Victorian prostitution to and charitable missions to the daily life for women, this walk takes in a range of women's experiences in the East End and offers an alternative perspective on the area.
UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS
Belgravia is one of the most exclusive areas of London, but at the end of the 19th century it was also home to an army of domestic servants, most of them women and girls. The basement stairs and attic windows of the grand houses are a reminder of when those in service lived at the top but worked at the bottom. This tour gives centre stage to the work and lives of cooks, maids and tweenies.
WESTMINSTER WOMEN
In and around the backstreets of Westminster discover the stories behind independent women who broke down the barriers to entry into Parliament or, from outside the House of Commons strived to make a difference to women’s lives. The feisty women met en route include the Pankhursts, Nancy Astor, Eleanor Rathbone, Stella Isaacs and to date the first and only female British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Society ladies are also represented when you ‘meet’ party hostess Sybil Colefax.
WOMEN IN THE FRAME
New for 2014 this tour at the National Portrait Gallery has already become one of the most popular. Through artists and sitters discover the fascinating journey of women in Britain from the Tudors to the present day. From regal monarchs, social campaigners, medical innovators and society hostesses to the sculptors and artists, Rachel profiles her favourites including Mrs Thrale, Dame Kelly Holmes, Odette, Ellen Terry and Radclyffe Hall.
WOMEN OF WORTH
Discover Jewish and non-Jewish women alike who made an impact on the Jewish community of the East End. Ending at the Kindertransport memorial at Liverpool Street Station we will have visited en route sites of Whitechapel and Spitalfields including those associated with Alice Model and her maternity hospital, Miriam Moses and her youth work, the philanthropy of the Rothschild ladies and the actresses of the Yiddish theatre.
WONDERFUL WOMEN OF WHITECHAPEL
This popular tour visits sites associated with women who have defined Whitechapel and Spitalfields. Hear the stories of such significant figures as Eva Luckes and Edith Cavell at the London Hospital; radical campaigner Annie Besant; and philanthropists Mary Hughes and Miriam Moses. The walk also explores locations related to influential characters in the contemporary cultural scene such as artist Tracey Emin and author Monica Ali.
info@golondontours.com
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SOHO VICE
Saturday 8th August
JEWISH HACKNEY
Sunday 23rd August
UNIQUELY EUSTON
Sunday 23rd August
SOHO OF THE 60s
Saturday 5th September
WESTMINSTER WOMEN
Tuesday 8th September
STITCH STITCH STITCH
Saturday 12th September
LAMBETH LIVES
Series of tours
Thursdays September/October
ST JOHN’S WOOD
Sunday 20th September
CHARING CROSS
‘Let’s all go down the Strand’
Sunday 20th September
BESPOKE TO BOUTIQUE,
SAVILE ROW TO SOHO
Saturday 26th September
and more
