Museum of Women's History

Cable St, London. Wednesday 12th August 2015

Former Google diversity chief Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe had applied to Tower Hamlets Council for planning permission to open a “Museum of Women’s History” meant to celebrate suffragettes, equal-pay campaigners, and local social struggles, and got a number of historians, academics and others to advise on the project.

It was a shock when the building renovations were completed and those involved as well as the council saw from the frontage that it was instead to be a tourist trap celebrating the gruesome Victorian murders of ‘Jack the Ripper’.

*Ian Bone asks “Would you protect it if it glorified the killing of police officers”*

Many local residents, and others including descendants of the poor working class victims of the sadistic murderer where shocked, and even Tower Hamlets Council was moved to protest following its opening. Unfortunately the council found it had no power to close down what was described as a ‘sick horror attraction’.

*We have better stories’ says a poster with some images of women who should be celebrated rather than celebrating a brutal and deranged upper-class killer who attacked working class women*

But the most sustained protests came from anarchist organisation Class War who carried out a series of colourful protests outside the so-called ‘museum’, including this one in which they were joined by Action East End and Fourth Wave and other feminists.

When protesters came to the tourist attraction they found it was hidden behind a heavy metal shutter, with police standing in front guarding it, erected since the previous protest a week ago. This was in breach of planning regulations and they were some time later foreced to remove it.

Among those who spoke at the protest was East End historian David Rosenberg who spoke about the real history of women in the East End, as well as Class War’s Ian Bone and Lisa McKenzie.

After the speeches and a couple of smoke flares the protesters, including some local residents blocked the road for some time though leaving the cycle path open. Police attempted to move them with no success, the women protesting asking them whether they would defend a museum celebrating the murders of police officers.

My final comment in 2015 was:
“Protests will continue until the museum closes down or turns into what was promised, a museum of women’s history rather than of women’s degradation and brutal slaughter. It sensationalises the tragic fate of the working class victims at the hands of a deranged upper class murderer, presenting a voyeuristic experience that sickens anyone with any decency and humanity.”

Unfortunately it remains open.

Many more pictures at Class War protest Ripper ‘museum’ again.

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Rip Down the Ripper Facade! When Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe, a former former head of diversity for Google got his architects to apply for planning permission to turn a building on Cable Street in East London into a ‘Museum of Women’s History’ the application stated it would “recognise and celebrate the women of the East End who have shaped history, telling the story of how they have been instrumental in changing society. It will analyse the social, political and domestic experience from the Victorian period to the present day.” The application his architects submitted was illustrated with pictures of suffragettes and other notable women from the past.

But when the boards around the site came down in 2015, everyone was shocked to see it was instead it had been turned into a ‘Jack the Ripper Museum’, exploiting the unfortunate women who had been the victims of a series of unsolved murders in the East End in 1888. The architect who made the application and others who had been consulted made clear they had been duped into supporting the project and there were protests outside by members of the local community including the Bishop of Stepney, the Rt Rev Adrian Newman, and Tower Hamlets mayor John Biggs.

But most of the protests outside the tacky tourist attraction have been by Class War and its supporters along with feminists including London Fourth Wave Feminists who, together with Class War’s Womens Death Brigade organised the protest I photographed on June 19th 2016. These groups continued to protest after others – including Tower Hamlets Council – appear to have given up.

The council in 2016 refused retrospective planning permission for the shop front and ordered changes to the signage and the removal of a metal roller shutter, which the shop had installed after a window was broken by persons unknown in the middle of the night – not during one of the protests outside as Wikipedia (and possibly the shop owner) suggest. I think I was present at all of the various protests except for the first rather tame event which the local council had arranged to calm things down after Class War and others had widely advertised one for the following evening.

*Class War women had brought inflatable plastic hammers*

The planning decision was appealed by the shop, and even after their appeal failed the council failed to take enforcement action and it was not until 2018 that the shop front was redesigned. Bad publicity from the protests possibly contributed to the commercial failure of the shop, though there were also poor reviews from visitors who felt it not to be value for money.

*Black-clad protesters arrived set off some red smoke*

Class War did not of course ‘Rip Down the Ripper Facade’ but the action was typical of their street theatre with inflatable plastic hammers and a little coloured smoke, while the Fourth Wave Feminists came with cat masks and posters to make clear why they were opposed to the shop’s glorification and profiting from violence against women. Eggs were thrown at one of the signs the shop had been ordered to remove and the windows were liberally covered with stickers, but there was no permanent damage.

During the roughly hour long protest there were no customers who came to try and enter the shop, and none inside left. Although London was spilling over with tourists on a Sunday afternoon in June, apparently none wanted to visit this particular tourist attraction. It had been hoped it would close after it was put up for sale in April 2021, but appears still to be open.

More on My London Diary: Rip Down the Ripper Facade!

Tag: Museum of Women's History

Class War protest Ripper ‘museum’ again – 2015

Rip Down the Ripper Facade!