Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets

Today I was booked to go on a Suffragette Tour of the east end of London. I did not want to leave Luke alone for too long but he said he was fine and I should go - except that last night he broke out in a rash from head to toe, and this morning it was worse. (It's a common side effect of glandular fever). Other than the rash he was feeling okay, so after dosing him on antihistamines I went up to London.

Many people think that the British suffragettes were mostly women from upper- and middle-class backgrounds, but the working class women of the east end of London were also very involved. They built a true mass movement for equality that drew support from the whole community, including men. They adopted new tactics that focused more on lobbying and mass mobilisation than individual acts of heroism, as a spell in prison was too high a price to pay for women supporting their family on 25 shillings a week and three weeks behind on the rent.

Our walking tour started in Bethnal Green and took us through Victoria Park, which has been voted the people's choice of their favourite park in London for the past two years in a row. This is a view of the bird sculptures on the lake, and the broken chunks of ice on the frozen lake shows you just how cold it was! I have added extras of the golden light on Regents Canal which borders the park and the Pagoda which was rebuilt in 2010 when the original Victorian one fell into disrepair as a result of bombings during World war II. Victoria Park is where the suffragettes held rallies and on 24 May 1914 was the site of the “Women’s May Day” march.

We visited the Bryant and May match factory - nowadays it has been converted into smart residential units. This is where the London match girls' strike took place in 1888, where they demanded better working conditions - a first step in gaining women's rights.

It was very interesting, but we walked quite far and it was very cold. A hot cup of tea in the Pavilion Café in the park was very welcome after the tour.