A blog by Oonagh Gay about her walk for an important East London project.

I was delighted to be asked by Poplar HARCA to devise a walk to celebrate the Women East project in conjunction with Bow Arts. There was a pop up in an empty shop in Bromley High Street, on the site where Sylvia Pankhurst first kicked off some direct action and highlighted the need for women to gain political power in February 1913! The pop up had a resident artist, who worked with the local women and girls to produce some empowering artwork. The project is described here.

The walk was called Women and Power: The East End Experience and was part of the Visible Voices Community Day. I adapted my Radical Women of the East End walk to fit the project, so we visited Kingsley Hall where Muriel and Doris Lester developed innovative community-based projects, and round the corner at the Children’s House learnt about Clara Grant, a local headmistress, who had significant input into education policy, as well as offering local children bundles of simple toys in her desire to foster learning through play. Here are some photos from the day: