Manchester: Emmeline and Elizabeth

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On our first full day in Manchester last November we ticked off two of my ‘must-sees’, the Pankhurst Museum and Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, starting with the former.

The Pankhurst Museum

Pankhurst Museum
Pankhurst Museum, Nelson Street, Manchester

Tucked away in the grounds of a hospital, two brick houses at 60-62 Nelson Street have been preserved, saved from demolition by a long community campaign. Why? In 1898 number 62 was rented by Emmeline Pankhurst and her family, and on 10th October 1903, she invited a small group of her friends to a meeting here, where they agreed to form a new organisation to campaign for women’s voting rights. The Women’s Social and Political Union was nicknamed the ‘Suffragettes’ and 62 Nelson Street served as its headquarters for the first few years. The rest, as they say, is history.

On 10th October 1987, 60-62 Nelson Street opened as the Pankhurst Museum and Resource Centre, and since 2014 it has been run by the Pankhurst Trust (incorporating Manchester Women’s Aid) as a museum, office headquarters, and to deliver support for domestic abuse survivors. Emmeline’s study is set up as it might have been, with the rest of the museum dedicated to displays and audio-visual material telling her story and that of her three daughters, Christabel, Sylvia, and Adela.

Emmeline’s study
WSPU membership card

The museum also has a small tearoom and shop and a garden with suitable ironwork.

Tea with Sisterhood
Votes for Women!
Garden bench: Deeds not Words
Garden bench: Shoulder to Shoulder
Vote!

I’ve wanted to visit this museum for a long time, and I wasn’t disappointed. ‘My’ Suffragette, Jessie Stephen, had connections with the Pankhursts. She was one of the bodyguards for Emmeline when she came to speak at Glasgow City Halls, and was recruited by Sylvia to work for her East London Federation of Suffragettes during the First World War. Jessie and Sylvia had similar radical and pacifist views (unlike the rest of the Pankhursts) but I think there was a clash of two strong personalities. In her unpublished autobiography Jessie said Sylvia was ‘as hard as nails’ and almost as autocratic as her mother and sister Christabel.

It wasn’t our only encounter with Emmeline – she also appears as a statue in St Peter’s Square and in street art. I suppose she does look quite autocratic …

Mural on Cathedral Street
Statue in St Peter’s square
Mosaic at Afflecks

Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

I’ve been a fan of Elizabeth Gaskell since the 1972 TV adaptation of her novel Cranford. (It was remade in 2007 and, unusually, I liked both versions equally.) Mrs Gaskell’s house was therefore another place I was determined to visit.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
Blue plaque

Elizabeth Gaskell was born in 1810 and married, in 1832, William Gaskell, the Assistant Minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel in Manchester. This house, on Plymouth Grove, was the family’s third home and at the time was near open fields. Today Manchester surrounds it. Elizabeth lived here from 1850 until her death in 1865, and all but one of her books were published in this period. William, amongst other things, was chairman of the Portico Library and was obliged to borrow books on behalf of his wife who, as a woman, was not allowed to join!

The house was mostly set up as it would have been in Elizabeth’s time. A highlight was being photographed in William’s study. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, and the guide in the room also knew Glasgow well so we had a good chat.

Anabel in William’s study
John in William’s study

In one of the rooms upstairs is a beautiful quilt made by Dr Sarah-Joy Ford to celebrate the 10-year anniversary in October 2024 of the house being opened to the public following its restoration. In another is an exhibition of textiles celebrating trailblazing women, including a poster featuring the five other women, including Elizabeth Gaskell, who were shortlisted to be commemorated by a statue. The winner was Emmeline Pankhurst as seen above.

Quilt by Sarah-Joy Ford
Trailblazing Women
Trailblazing Women
Trailblazing Women

Two women’s history museums in one day is quite intense! We also visited four libraries while in Manchester, though not all on the same day. I was sad to miss the Portico Library mentioned above – we couldn’t quite fit it in – but the others were of great historical interest. Coming next!

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  4. Pingback: This week’s small pleasures #427 – Thistles and Kiwis

  8. I really admire the women who fought so hard for women’s right to vote, both my own country, and in others. For centuries, women have been considered second-class citizens, so to change that took real courage. Have you ever read “Fallen Angels” by Tracy Chevalier? The characters and story are very good, and the women’s Suffrage movement is a key part of the story.

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  16. Hi, Anabel – Both the Pankhurst Museum and Elizabeth Gaskell’s House sound like incredible places to visit. I like how you connected personal stories to the exhibits. I’m greatly enjoying this journey through these historic sites—looking forward to the next part of your adventure.

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  18. A warm (well, hot and wet!) hello from south of Sydney, Australia! Have been to London and surrounds many, many times but not to Manchester. Know both names well of course but, looking at your photos and reading your tale, have to go back to learn more . . . and obviously borrow ‘Cranford’ from the library . . .

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  24. I wish I was more like you and had planned where to visit on days out! Wonderful to read about these two museums and so pleased to know they have been so well preserved for all to admire and cherish.

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  25. Very impressed with the table quilt. It would’ve interesting to chat with those suffragettes and even our family elders who were alive during the 1970s and still able to recall events. Being younger we were far too self absorbed which is regrettable.

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  27. ‘Cranford’ was my maternal grandparent’s favourite book and they even named their first house that after they were married. I do like her books – ‘North and South’ sticks with me in particular (as well as Cranford of course). I would love to visit her home.

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  29. I’m sure neither of these places can have been open in my student days. I certainly never went if they were, and as I did a postgrad in Museum Studies there that would have been an unforgiveable lapse. I do hope the John Rylands Library is coming up in your next post. That’s somewhere that’s changed hugely from my student days, when it was a favourite haunt when feeling studious, though dark, a little dingy (in a good way) and unknown to most in the city, I guess. Best followed by a visit to the Grapes afterwards for a filling bowl of chilli for 2/6d!

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  30. I’ve generally only been to Manchester for work, plus once for the Christmas markets, and I didn’t even know these museums existed! Both look fascinating. I suspect Emmeline had to be rather autocratic to pull such a diverse group of women together and unite them behind this common cause 🙂 I too am a fan of Elizabeth Gaskell, having first got interested in her as a friend and biographer of Charlotte Bronte. Cranford is great, but have you read North and South too, which I liked even more?

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