Walking with Women:

Call for Submissions

What is the Project?

In preparation for the International Women's Day celebrations in March 2012, Shape East are putting together a new walking tour of Cambridge City Centre in association with support artist Hollie McNish

The tour will be entitled:
Walking with Women: Trapped in the City

It will be printed in booklet form for free public use.

The aim of the tour is to highlight the role which women have played in making the city what it is today, by combining a selection of exciting and often forgotten female histories with historic and architectural information about the buildings or spaces in which these histories took place. Brief details of the proposed stops for the tour are below.

How can you help?

Currently, we are calling female architects, historians or knowledgable people who feel they would like to contribute to this tour guide. Specifically we would like anyone who could sumbit:

1. 200 MAX words on the architecture of any of the buildings / places listed below.
2. 200 MAX words on the history of any of the buildings listed below.
3. Any miscellaneous historic information you may feel would be of interest to the given histories.

We are working with support artist, poet Hollie McNish and a selection of local guest poets to combine these factual accounts of the places and spaces with poems relating the tales of the women, based on the 10 histories below. If you feel you have another or more recent building-related history which should desperately be on this tour, please also feel free to get in touch. We may be able to add other stops depending on funding.

We feel very passionate about bringing to life the female side of our city, as well as using this guide as a way to showcase the number of great female architects, historians and poets currently residing in our city.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Contact: Hollie on 01223 462 606 / h.mcnish@shape-east.org.uk

PLEASE NOTE: DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FRIDAY 20TH JANUARY 2012

Brief descriptions of the tour stops

1. 1770
Regent Street, Cambridge.
The Old Police Station was formerly an historic female workhouse called the 'Spinning House', where many local townswomen were placed after being arbitrarily stopped and arrested. In 1770 5 women were falsely arrested and led a series of lawsuits against this institution. The lawsuits paved the way for its 1901 closure and the end to many priveleges of the University over female townsfolk.

2. 1785
St Andrew's Street Church, Cambridge
Martha Peckard and the actions of the Women's Branch for the Abolition of the Slave Trade including the petitions, sermons and publications delivered in this space.

3. 1879
Castle End Mission, St Peter's Street
Mrs Whibly and her work in the establishment of the Castle End Mission and Working Men's Institute to help educate illiterate men in the impoverished area of Cambridge.

4. 1890
Senate House Building
The announcement of Phillippa Fawcett surpassing her male counterparts in the Mathematics Tripos Examinations and it's worldwide news coverage.

5. 1913
Magdalene Bridge
The suffrage Pilgrimage led by the National Union of Women Suffrage Societies saw the march of over 50,000 women from their respective counties to Hyde Park, London. Cambridge was the East of England starting point, marching through the city centre up Bridge Street and to London.

6. 1936
The Cambridge Folk Museum, previously White Horse Inn
The Cambridge Folk Museum was founded in 1936 to preserve evidence of ways of life which were fast disappearing. The Museum owes its birth to three remarkable women.

7. 1943
Old Exam Hall, Downing Street
Edna, a 19 year old ambulance driver, who drove troops to temporary medical aid in this building was one of many Women Civil Defence Drivers transporting wounded troops, evacuating bombed areas and working with other organisations, including Cambridge Girls Land Army, in the war effort.

8. 1950
1 Kings Parade
Meetings of the 'Dining Group' leading to the establishment of Lucy Cavendish College for older women students and reformatory ideas of older females returning to education.

9. 1953
The Eagle Pub, 8 Bene't Street
In 1953 the discovery of DNA was announced in this location.

10. 1959
ADC Theatre, Park Street.
Eleanor Bron appeared on stage as part of the Cambridge Footlights comedy group. She was the first women ever allowed in this comedy circuit and raised the bar for females in comedy.

Further Information:

For further information about the project, please contact: h.mcnish@shape-east.org.uk