Edited by Steven Oliver, Friday 16 October 2026 at 20:18
A shopping trip in York this summer allowed me a chance to reflect on the city's part in the Women's suffrage movement.
This 'blue plaque' now marks the first location for York's branch of the WSPU on Coney Street. There was a piano warehouse at that address in 1910 so the WSPU presumably had a room or rooms on one of the upper floors.
Suffragettes had apparently staged a demonstration the previous year during the York Pageant, favoured places in York for their public meetings were Exhibition Square, the de Grey Rooms, the Assembly Rooms and the Exhibition Buildings. They also took part in more violent protests, including posting letter bombs and attacking pillar boxes using phosphorus!
There is more information on York suffragettes here.
York Suffragettes
A shopping trip in York this summer allowed me a chance to reflect on the city's part in the Women's suffrage movement.
This 'blue plaque' now marks the first location for York's branch of the WSPU on Coney Street. There was a piano warehouse at that address in 1910 so the WSPU presumably had a room or rooms on one of the upper floors.
Suffragettes had apparently staged a demonstration the previous year during the York Pageant, favoured places in York for their public meetings were Exhibition Square, the de Grey Rooms, the Assembly Rooms and the Exhibition Buildings. They also took part in more violent protests, including posting letter bombs and attacking pillar boxes using phosphorus!
There is more information on York suffragettes here.