Suffragette Season at the Houses of Parliament

September 22, 2015

Carey Mulligan at Houses of Parliament — Filming Suffragette at the Houses of Parliament. Credit:L UKParliament/Stefan Hill

The Houses of Parliament celebrate the UK release of Suffragette with a special programme of events, tours and talks throughout October.

Filming Suffragette at the Houses of Parliament. Credit:L UKParliament/Stefan Hill — Filming Suffragette with Carey Mulligan at the Houses of Parliament. Credit: UKParliament/Stefan Hill

The remarkable women who changed British history are remembered in new feature film Suffragette, which opens in the UK on 12 October.

Directed by Sarah Gavron and starring Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter, the film is inspired by the true stories of the foot soldiers of the women’s suffrage movement and their fight for the right to vote.

To celebrate the release of Suffragette, which includes scenes filmed at the Palace of Westminster, the Houses of Parliament is running a Suffragette Season of special events and themed tours this October…

• At the Suffragette Soirée, which takes place on 7 October 2015 at 6.30pm, a unique suffragette-themed tour of the House of Commons will be followed by a three-course dinner in the elegant Members’ Dining Room. The House of Commons’ chefs have adapted the menu from a public banquet chaired by the most famous of suffragettes, Emmeline Pankhurst (played in the film by Meryl Streep), on 12 May 1911 and given it a modern twist. The 1911 banquet was in honour of the Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Lady Mayoress and marked their visit to London to present the Petition of the Corporation of Dublin in support of the Woman Suffrage Bill at the Bar of the House of Commons. Tickets for this one-off dining event are £97.

• At the More than Suffragettes event on 8 and 9 October at 2pm, after a 30-minute introductory tour covering the Lords Chamber and Commons Chamber, visitors will hear about the campaign by suffragettes and suffragists for the vote in Parliament and how Parliament remembers this campaign today. The speakers are Mari Takayanagi from the Parliamentary Archives, Melanie Unwin from the Parliamentary Art Collection and Mary Branson, artist-in-residence to women’s suffrage. Tickets are priced at £25.

• Designed especially for families visiting Parliament, Votes for Women! family tours will take place on Saturday afternoons in October at 2pm and 3pm. The afternoon begins with a 45-minute tour through the House of Lords and the House of Commons followed by a range of optional Votes for Women-themed activities. The Votes for Women! family tours are ideal for children aged seven and over. Tickets are free for children and £10 for adults.

• Parliament’s regular guided tour through both Houses has been adapted to focus on the journey from early petitioning about women’s suffrage through to the UK’s first (and so far) only female prime minister and the prominent role of women in Parliament today: From Petitions to Prime Minister: A Short History of Women in Parliament will take place on Saturday afternoons in October at 1pm. Tickets are £25.

Tickets are bookable online or by phone on 020 7219 4114, except for the Suffragette Soirée, which is phone bookings only.

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