Caxton Hall

Caxton Hall

Former town hall built in 1878–82 by the architects Lee and Smith, located on Caxton Street in the City of Westminster. The building is constructed in red brick and pink sandstone with slate roofs, designed in an ambitious but coarse Francois I style. It comprises two main storeys over a basement, with two additional attic storeys that rise into elaborately shaped pavilion roofs finished with iron crestings. The façade is five bays wide, with a central mid-20th century entrance porch and canopy. Windows are set in panelled pilaster surrounds, and the outer bays feature canted bay windows. Moulded string friezes and cornices throughout are enriched with carved decoration, well executed but somewhat mechanical in character.

The building is historically significant as a key site in the campaign for women's suffrage in Britain. After moving to London in January 1906, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU)—founded by Emmeline Pankhurst and others in Manchester in 1903—held its first major London meeting at Caxton Hall on 19 February 1906, attended by over 400 women, mainly from the East End of London. Following this meeting, participants marched to the House of Commons to attempt to lobby MPs.

On 13 February 1907, the WSPU inaugurated its first 'Women's Parliament' at Caxton Hall, a symbolic name emphasising women's exclusion from Westminster Parliament. These highly publicised gatherings were arranged to coincide with significant events at Westminster. Suffragettes travelled from across the country as branch delegates, with their fares often subsidised by local collections to enable working women to participate. After each meeting, small deputations would march from Caxton Hall to the House of Commons to present resolutions, invariably resulting in police presence and arrests.

The WSPU held ten Women's Parliaments at Caxton Hall between February 1907 and November 1911. Particularly violent police treatment in 1910 led campaigners to escalate their militancy. Following the tenth Women's Parliament in 1911, coordinated mass window-smashing by suffragettes at government buildings marked a significant intensification of the WSPU's attacks on property.

The Women's Freedom League, Britain's second militant suffrage society and a splinter group from the WSPU formed in 1908, also used Caxton Hall for regular 'At Home' meetings of its London branch. The building hosted 'Green White and Gold' fairs—large fundraising bazaars named after the Freedom League's colours—which continued into the 1930s.

The building was subsequently used as a Registry Office. This entry was amended in 2018 as part of centenary commemorations of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.