The Pankhurst Centre

This is the 4-room house museum of the famed Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. Although tiny, it's fantastic. The staff are welcoming, helpful, charming & passionate advocates for women's rights. I loved the colorful REBEL! t-shirts so much I bought one myself. The cafe/tearoom features a wide choice of teas you basically make yourself, a few biscuits & some fruit & nut bars. It's quirky in that definitely British way. You'll love it. The largest room features a timeline of the Suffragette movement, its success with the labour movement to improve worker's rights, and how that very energy has carried into the peace movement. The front room is the family room describing the Pankhurst family, their activities & their influences during the Victorian era, as well as post-WWI. The middle room offers an engaging 15-minute summary of Suffragette history as well as Pankhurst's passionate part in its tumultuous events as they strove to gain the right to vote in the face of media ridicule & brutal government over-reaction, an over-reaction that only served to radicalize otherwise normal upper-middle-class mothers. The back parlor is a gorgeous Art Nouveau room with amazing wainscoting, a beautiful wallpaper of twisting plants, and original period furniture. This is the very room in which Pankhurst held the first meeting of the Suffragettes, committing themselves to the struggle for women's rights. The museum is a bit hard to find as it's hidden at the back of a hospital parking lot. But walk towards the street corner. You'll see a gate that takes you through the calm & tidy Suffragette garden along a side path that twists around the building to the front door. In the summer you'll want to follow the museum's advice & purchase your £5 ticket in advance, as the place could get crowded very quickly. This tiny museum is surprisingly relevant in light of today's events in both the US & the UK. I highly recommend for both women & men. And remember: REBEL. Stand up lawfully for women's civil rights. Refuse to go backwards.