No. 400 Old Ford Road, London, was the headquarters of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS), opening on 5 May 1914. Evidence suggests that the building was demolished some time after 1916.
The ELFS was an organisation lead by Sylvia Pankhurst which campaigned for women's suffrage. She believed that the most successful way to achieve enfranchisement was by building support for the camapign among the working class women of the East End.
No. 400 Old Ford Road, London, was the headquarters of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS) which opened on 5 May 1914.
The ELFS was an organisation lead by Sylvia Pankhurst which campaigned for women's suffrage. She believed that the most successful way to achieve enfranchisement was to rouse support among the working class women of the East End.
The ELFS was initially been run under the umbrella of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), however in Janurary 1914 Christabel Pankhurst asked them to separate from the WSPU. An ELF minute taken at the meeting where this decision was taken was quoted as saying:
'We had more faith in what could be done by stirring up working women than was felt at headquarters, while they had most faith in what could be done for the vote by people of means of influence.'
Unlike the WSPU, the ELFS had a democratic structure, while their policy was to '...combine large-scale public demonstrations with public militancy, that is, window-smashing that attracted immediate arrest, rather than secret arson.'
During the First World War the ELFS carried out humanitarian work and campaigned for 'Human Suffrage' which would enfranchise all men and women over 21. They changed their name to the Worker's Suffrage Federation in March 1916.
Another East London Federation of Suffragettes initiative launched in the early years of the War were ‘cost price’ restaurants, which served nutritious hot food for very low prices. “Cost price” was intended as a “slogan against profiteering”, and the Federation aimed to serve “two-penny, two-course meals to adults, penny meals to children, at midday; and each evening a pint of hot soup and a chunk of bread for a penny; to be consumed on the premises or taken home.”
The first restaurant was opened at 400 Old Ford Road, with others following at the other women’s centres at 20 Railway Street in Poplar and 53 Leonard Street in Bromley. All three became very popular, and the provision of meals for over 100 people each mealtime with very scant facilities was no mean feat. As writer Miles Franklin observed admiringly: “Dear me, what courage, industry and sheer grit it takes to keep clean these ramshackle, mouldy places with the tin-pot means of accomplishment at hand.”