The lecture was excellent – thankyou Lynda Walker and Helen Crickard – and was followed by informal drinks and informal, but informed, discussion!
Lynda’s lecture is available here.
Brian Clarke donated his painting of Wortley Hall which was raffled in aid of the statue.
This gallery contains 10 photos.
The event starts at 3.30pm. At 4pm SPMC member Megan Dobney will update you on the statue campaign. Alfio Bernabei will speak on the Italian community in Clerkenwell’s Little Italy, and Emma Beattie will speak for Sylvia!
The Sylvia Pankhurst Memorial Committee, historian Alfio Bernabei, and the management of The Gunmakers, are delighted to invite you to join us on Saturday 25 March 2023 at 3.30pm to commemorate:
In March 1923, 100 years ago, Sylvia Pankhurst spoke at what is now The Gunmakers (but was then an Italian social club “Dondi’s”) against the growing fascist threat. This was perhaps the first publicly advertised anti-fascist meeting in the United Kingdom.
Sylvia Pankhurst had a strong link with the Italian community in Clerkenwell, the so-called ‘Little Italy’ which extended to Clerkenwell Green and its surroundings.
This link with the Italian community became organic from the moment she met the Italian refugee Silvio Corio in around 1917 who subsequently became her lifelong partner.
Come and join us at 3.30pm and celebrate the progress towards raising the statue of this extraordinary woman on Clerkenwell Green. At 4pm there will be an introduction to the statue campaign (Megan Dobney), a presentation on what Little Italy in Clerkenwell looked like at the time (Alfio Bernabei, historian on the Italian community in the UK), and a theatrical presentation of Sylvia’s speech.
The rest of the afternoon is to continue the conversation and socialise!
Saturday 25 March 2023, 3.30pm at The Gunmakers, 13 Eyre Street Hill, London EC1R 5ET.
The Gunmakers offers cocktails, wine, beer and soft drinks, plus authentic Tacos and sharing plates – in other words their kitchen is awaiting your orders…
Curator’s talk
On Friday 3 March 2023 Alfio Bernabei, curator, and author of the Channel 4 documentary Dangerous Characters spoke about the exceptional life and work of the famous suffragette and the Italian social activist who became lifelong partners passionately engaged in anti-colonialism and humanitarian issues.
The exhibition is at Charing Cross Library, 4-6 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0HF (free entry) and is on until 28 April 2023.
Alfio is pictured below with Sylvia Pankhurst Memorial Committee member Mary Davis at the event.
Many thanks to the cast of “Sylvia” who had their photo taken with me and the maquette of our wonderful statue.
This revolutionary story celebrates the life of Sylvia Pankhurst – feminist, activist, pacifist, socialist, rebel – the lesser-known Pankhurst at the heart of the Suffragette movement, who changed the lives of working women and men across the world.
Book it here! https://www.oldvictheatre.com/stage/event/sylvia (on until 8 April)
Saturday 13 August 2022, 7pm at Wortley Hall, near Sheffield
Sylvia Pankhurst on War
Rachel Holmes, author of Sylvia Pankhurst, Natural Born Rebel
See details and the flyer here
Sylvia Pankhurst
Socialist, internationalist, anti-racist
The idea for a statue of Sylvia Pankhurst was born in 1988 (gasp!) when one of the now four-woman committee was near the House of Lords by the memorial to Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. No mention of Sylvia…
Sylvia is the one who truly frightens the horses.
Expelled from the Women’s Social and Political Union by her mother and sister, Sylvia was working in the impoverished East End of London with women and children, with trade unions, and, the final straw, supporting Irish socialists James Connolly and Jim Larkin and the workers of the Dublin lock out.
Lifelong socialist Ian Walters was the sculptor of our choice. Ian died in 2006 and was described by Tony Benn as “one of the greatest sculptors of his day”. The maquette was unveiled in 2000. It is beautiful and like so much of his work, full of movement and purpose.
In 2001 we gained planning permission from Westminster Council for our chosen site on College Green opposite the Houses of Parliament but we also needed the permission of both the Commons and the Lords. The Commons granted its permission but in 2003 and again in 2004 the Lords’ smoke and mirrors Administration & Works Committee refused, its chairman saying “Sylvia Pankhurst had no connection with the Lords which could justify the choice of such a prominent site”.
Time passed…
In 2015 our Patron Lord Chris Smith approached Islington Council leader Richard Watts and political support was there for a site on Clerkenwell Green. The Green was the start of London’s first May Day march in 1890, is home to the Marx Memorial Library and is dubbed “the headquarters of republicanism, revolution and ultra-non-conformity” – an excellent resonance with Sylvia.
The Council was intending to refurbish Clerkenwell Green – turning it from almost a car park to a mostly pedestrianised community space. Consultations were carried out and plans were laid. Constant reductions in the government portion of the Council’s budget meant hard times but we were moving forward. Covid arrived and everything went into slo-mo, but now we zoom forward!
The first phase of the refurbishment of the Green will start shortly – Sylvia is part of that first phase. Planning applications are in process for Sylvia and the Green and we hope to unveil Sylvia Pankhurst in late 2022 or in 2023.
During the many years of this campaign we have organised an Annual Sylvia Pankhurst Memorial Lecture in the workers’ stately home – Wortley Hall. See the “Memorial lectures” tab for details.
We have also lost some of our strongest supporters – including three Patrons: Richard Pankhurst (Sylvia’s son), and trade unionists Baroness Brenda Dean, and Rodney Bickerstaffe. But our current Patrons fight on: Labour Peers Lord Chris Smith and Baroness Margaret Prosser, Helen Pankhurst (Sylvia’s granddaughter), Maxine Peake (actress).
The Committee is older than it was also. But the end is in sight and we are happy to say that the statue is cast (by the Morris Singer Foundry) and waiting to be patinated. This statue will truly be a people’s statue – our sponsors are individuals, trade unions, and trade union branches, along with a couple of very welcome local authority grants. The unveiling will be a festival of everything that Sylvia stood for. All sponsors will be invited to attend and to bring their banners!
Never give up!
Philippa Clark, Mary David, Megan Dobney, Barbara Switzer
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/sylviastatue
Sunday 19 September 2021 3pm at the Bread & Roses pub theatre, Clapham, London
Tickets: https://www.breadandrosestheatre.co.uk/whats-on.html#event=66988878;instance=20210919150000