Minerva Café Explained

Minerva Café
Established:1916
Street-Address:144 High Holborn
City:London
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Country:United Kingdom
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The Minerva Café was a vegetarian cafe founded by suffragettes at 144 High Holborn in London's Holborn district.

History

The Minerva Café was founded by the Women's Freedom League in June 1916. The president of the group was vegetarian Charlotte Despard.[1]

The British Socialist Party and the Communist Workers Party of Sylvia Pankhurst also met at the cafe. The cafe produced a "considerable" profit used to fund the Women's Freedom League activities.[2] Constance Markievicz spoke at the cafe in February 1923 at a meeting of the Irish Self-Determination League.[3] The Australian writer Miles Franklin worked as a cook at the cafe.[4]

In 1918, when the Representation of the People Act passed, the Minerva Café served a meal of vegetable soup, lentil cutlets, and rhubarb tarts.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Richardson . Elsa . 2021 . Cranks, Clerks, and Suffragettes: The Vegetarian Restaurant in British Culture and Fiction 1880–1914 . Literature and Medicine.
  2. Web site: The Minerva Café. libcom.org. en. 2018-12-26.
  3. Book: Lauren Arrington. Revolutionary Lives: Constance and Casimir Markievicz. 24 November 2015. Princeton University Press. 978-0-691-16124-2. 234.
  4. Book: Ross Davies. Three Brilliant Careers: Nell Malone Miles Franklin Kath Ussher. 5 January 2015. Boolarong Press. 978-1-925046-82-3. 49.