A Suffragette Herb Garden will be created next to the Lord Morpeth on the historic site of the Suffragette Women’s Hall.
The project was launched last weekend at an event on the site that featured herb cutting, recipe swapping, and a sewing workshop.
The event took place on the green space just outside the Lord Morpeth, on the edge of Clarion’s Randwell West Estate. This site was a key location for the East End suffragette movement which used community action to drive their campaign to give women the right to vote. The group sold cost price meals to residents from the East End from this site next to the Lord Morpeth.
The Lord Morpeth has recently unveiled a Sylvia Pankhurst mural to commemorate Pankhurst who founded the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS) which provided an ideal backdrop to the day.
In memory of this activist history, this space will be cultivated into a community herb garden for local residents to harvest. During the day, residents created a list of herbs which they regularly use and would like to be planted within the garden. The garden will follow the plan of the original kitchen to create an internal garden space for residents to use.
The current list of herbs is: thyme, sage, oregano, laurel, bay tree, coriander, parsley, thyme, mint, and rosemary.
Sarah Richards facilitated a sewing workshop, creating lavender bags and fabric posy badges, while providing a fountain of knowledge about the East End Suffragettes. Whilst sewing, she read passages from historic texts which described the suffragette women’s hall and lead discussions about how these types of community activities are still relevant today.
There was also a herb cutting workshop where a multitude of cuttings where taken from a few plants and then planted within pots and sealed with a plastic bag to retain the moisture. Once these cuttings start to grow over the next few weeks they will be potted on into larger pots, before being transferred to the Suffragette Herb Garden.
A big thanks goes to the many cafe’s and businesses in Roman Road who kindly supplied a generous donation of food for the day.
Sarah Richards
Thanks for the mention Rosie, we had a really fun day! If anyone would like to find out more about the Suffragettes who lived and worked at The Women’s Hall – head down to the Tower Hamlets History Library & Archives. The current exhibition tells the whole story of the East London Federation of Suffragettes.