Minerva Club

Last updated

The Minerva Club was a residential members club at 28a Brunswick Square in the Bloomsbury district of London. It was established by the Women's Freedom League (WFL) in 1920. [1] The executive meetings of the WFL were held at the club into the 1930s. The club was still used residentially in the late 1940s. The Brunswick Centre now occupies the site, the building having been demolished in the late 1960s. [2]

Elizabeth Knight and a Mrs Fisher founded the club. [3] Knight was responsible for the funding of the club and the purchase of the long lease of the club's Brunswick Square premises. The restaurant of the club served vegetarian food. Fellow Brunswick Square resident E.M. Forster would frequently breakfast at the club. [3] [1] The WSL's Minerva Café moved to the club at Brunswick Square with the expiration of their High Holborn lease in the 1950s. [4]

Marian Reeves managed the club from 1926. [3] Reeves was politically well connected and often hosted international visitors at the club. [3]

In 1926 the reunion meeting of the Suffragette Fellowship was held at the club. [1] Annual birthday parties to raise funds for Charlotte Despard were held at the club with Despard herself travelling from Ireland each year to attend. [5] [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunswick Square</span>

Brunswick Square is a 3-acre (1.2 ha) public garden and ancillary streets along two of its sides in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. It is overlooked by the School of Pharmacy and the Foundling Museum to the north; the Brunswick Centre to the west; and International Hall to the south. East is an enclosed area of playgrounds with further trees, Coram's Fields, associated with charity Coram Family which is just over double its size; next to that area Brunswick Square is mirrored, symmetrically by Mecklenburgh Square, likewise of 3 acres including roads. The squares are named after contemporary Queen consorts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunswick Centre</span> Residential and shopping centre in London

The Brunswick Centre is a grade II listed residential and shopping centre in Bloomsbury, London, England. It is located between Brunswick Square and Russell Square and is administratively in the London Borough of Camden.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) existed from its founding as the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1841 until 2010. The word "Royal" was added to its name in 1988. It was the statutory regulatory and professional body for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in England, Scotland and Wales. In September 2010, the regulatory powers of the Society were transferred to the newly formed General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). The RPSGB became the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) at that time and retained its professional leadership role; the "Great Britain" part of the name was dropped for day-to-day purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen Square, London</span>

Queen Square is a garden square in the Bloomsbury district of central London. Many of its buildings are associated with medicine, particularly neurology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's Freedom League</span>

The Women's Freedom League was an organisation in the United Kingdom from 1907 to 1961 which campaigned for women's suffrage, pacifism and sexual equality. It was founded by former members of the Women's Social and Political Union after the Pankhursts decided to rule without democratic support from their members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith How-Martyn</span>

Edith How-Martyn was a British suffragette and a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She was arrested in 1906 for attempting to make a speech in the House of Commons. This was one of the first acts of suffragette militancy. She met Margaret Sanger in 1915 and they created a conference in Geneva. How-Martyn toured India talking about birth control. She had no children and died in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Despard</span> British suffragist (1844–1939)

Charlotte Despard was an Anglo-Irish suffragist, socialist, pacifist, Sinn Féin activist, and novelist. She was a founding member of the Women's Freedom League, the Women's Peace Crusade, and the Irish Women's Franchise League, and an activist in a wide range of political organizations over the course of her life, including among others the Women's Social and Political Union, Humanitarian League, Labour Party, Cumann na mBan, and the Communist Party of Great Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Munro</span> British suffragist (1881–1962)

Anna Gillies Macdonald Munro was an active campaigner for temperance and the women's suffrage movement in the United Kingdom. Munro organised and was the secretary of the Women's Freedom League campaigning in Scotland. She settled in Thatcham after the First World War but was living in Aldermaston by 1933 and died in Padworth, Berkshire in 1962. She had affordable housing named after her in Thatcham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athenaeum Club, London</span> Club and Grade I listed building in United Kingdom

The Athenaeum is a private members' club in London, founded in 1824. It is primarily a club for men and women with intellectual interests, and particularly for those who have attained some distinction in science, engineering, literature or the arts. Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday were the first chairman and secretary and 51 Nobel Laureates have been members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hannah Mitchell</span> English suffragette and socialist

Hannah Mitchell was an English suffragette and socialist. Born into a poor farming family in Derbyshire, Mitchell left home at a young age to work as a seamstress in Bolton, where she became involved in the socialist movement. She worked for many years in organisations related to socialism, women's suffrage and pacifism. After World War I she was elected to Manchester City Council and worked as a magistrate, before later working for Labour Party leader, Keir Hardie.

Constance Antonina Boyle was a British journalist, campaigner for women's suffrage and women's rights, charity and welfare worker, and novelist. She was one of the pioneers of women police officers in Britain. In April 1918, she was the first woman to submit a nomination to stand for election to the House of Commons, which paved the way for other female candidates in the December 1918 general election.

College Hall is a fully catered hall of residence of the University of London. It is situated on Malet Street in the Bloomsbury district of central London. It is an intercollegiate hall, and as such provides accommodation for full-time students at constituent colleges and institutions of the University, including King's College, University College, Queen Mary, the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies amongst others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chenies Street</span> Street in Bloomsbury, London

Chenies Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, that runs between Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street. It is the location of a number of notable buildings such as Minerva House, the Drill Hall, and a memorial to The Rangers, 12th County of London Regiment. North Crescent starts and ends on the northern side of Chenies Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mabel Tuke</span> British suffragette

Mabel Kate Tuke, born Mabel Kate Lear was a British suffragette known for her role of honorary secretary of the militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).

Marian Reeves was a British feminist activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Westlake</span> English painter, engraver and activist for womens rights

Alice Westlake was an English painter, engraver and activist for women's rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agnes Husband</span>

Agnes Husband was one of Dundee's first female councillors and was a suffragette. She was awarded Freedom of the City at the age of 74 and has a plaque to her memory in the Dundee City Chambers and a portrait by Alec Grieve is in the McManus Galleries and Museum.

Elizabeth Knight was a British physician and campaigner for women's suffrage. She was treasurer and a financial supporter of the Women's Freedom League which was a non-violent and anti-war suffrage group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Sanderson</span> Scottish suffragette

Amy Sanderson née Reid (1876–1931), was a Scottish suffragette, national executive committee member of the Women's Freedom League, who was imprisoned twice. She was key speaker at the 1912 Hyde Park women's rally, after marching from Edinburgh to London, and, with Charlotte Despard and Teresa Billington-Greig, was a British delegate to the 1908 and 1923 international women's congresses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Duval</span> British suffragette

Emily Duval born Emily Hayes was a British suffragette. She twice joined the Women's Social and Political Union and she was a member of the Women's Freedom League. She served several terms of imprisonment and her family members were also suffragettes.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Elizabeth Crawford (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. p. 372. ISBN   1-135-43401-8.
  2. Country Life 9 January 1969 'Disappearing Bloomsbury' page 77
  3. 1 2 3 4 David Doughan; Peter Gordon (24 January 2007). Women, Clubs and Associations in Britain. Routledge. p. 57. ISBN   978-1-134-20437-3.
  4. 1 2 "The Minerva Café". libcom.org. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  5. "Reeves, Marian". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/63885.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

51°31′26″N0°07′23″W / 51.524°N 0.123°W / 51.524; -0.123