| Summary : Nos. 40 and 41 Museum Street, London, comprise two terraced houses, formerly three, with shops. They were built in 1855-64 by William Finch Hill and are stuccoed with rusticated pilaster strips topped with small segmental pediments. Each of the three original houses is of four storeys with two windows each. The shop front to No.40 was altered in the 20th century. The entrances in Gilbert Place and Little Russell Street have round-arched doorways with fanlights and panelled doors. There is a continuous dentil cornice, above which is a plain, continuous sill band to the first floor round-arched sash windows. Above these are circular windows enriched with swags. The second floor has a console bracketed sill band to segmental-arched sash windows and there is a console bracketed cornice beneath the third floor sash windows. The buildings have a cornice and blocking course. No. 40 Museum Street was the headquarters of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in 1910. |
More information : Nos. 40 and 41 Museum Street, London, comprise two terraced houses, formerly three, with shops. They were built in 1855-64 by William Finch Hill and are stuccoed with rusticated pilaster strips topped with small segmental pediments. Each of the three original houses is of four storeys with two windows each. There are two-window returns to Gilbert Place and Little Russell Street. The shop front to No.40 was altered in the 20th century. The entrances in Gilbert Place and Little Russell Street have round-arched doorways with fanlights and panelled doors. There is a continuous dentil cornice, above which is a plain, continuous sill band to the first floor round-arched sash windows. Above these are circular windows enriched with swags. The second floor has a console bracketed sill band to segmental-arched sash windows and there is a console bracketed cornice beneath the third floor sash windows. The buildings have a cornice and blocking course. (1)
No. 40 Museum Street was the headquarters of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in 1910. The society was founded in 1907 by Herbert Jacobs who later stood as a women's suffrage candidate in East St Pancras. According to Crawford (1999) the society sought '"..[t]o obtain for women the vote on the same terms as those on which it is now, or may in the future, be granted to men"'. While they were non-militant in their means of campaigning, they supported the work of both the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and the Women's Freedom League. The main area of work for the Men's League involved putting pressure on MPs and parliamentary candidates via letters and deputations.
In 1909 they issued a list of prominent men who were in favour of women's suffrage, among which included 83 past and present officeholders in the Liberal and Conservative parties, famous authors and high-ranking army and navy officers. By 1910, the League had ten branches around the country, including ones in Manchester, Birmingham, Sussex and Edinburgh. They became affiliated with the Federated Council of Suffrage Societies in 1912. (2)
This is an image of a membership card for the Men's League for Women's Suffrage. The object is in the collection at the Museum of London and has ID no. MoL_Z6230. To see the image of the object, click on the link in the list of sources. (3)
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