Pankhurst Centre

The Pankhurst Centre stands in Manchester’s North West England. It is a pair of Victorian villas on Nelson Street, where Emmeline Pankhurst once lived with her daughters Sylvia, Christabel and Adela. In 1903 she founded the suffragette movement here after her husband’s death in 1898. The building became Grade II* listed in 1974 and survived a 1978 threat of demolition through public protest. Today it houses a museum and Manchester Women’s Aid, merging in 2014 to support women’s services. The centre is worth the journey because it was the birthplace of the Women’s Social and Political Union. In 1987 Barbara Castle and Helen Pankhurst opened the restored parlour as a memorial. A 2021 redevelopment restored two galleries and the parlour to Edwardian style. The only museum of its kind tells the story of votes for women. Volunteers run the centre on donations alone, with no public funding. Visitors find the Pankhurst Parlour furnished as it was in the Edwardian era. A women-only drop-in runs every Wednesday afternoon for learning and socialising. The new garden, designed by Janet Leigh, opened in 2018 to mark the centenary of Votes for Women. It offers a quiet space for women and children supported by Manchester Women’s Aid. The centre remains a place where the fight for women’s rights is remembered and continued.