Little remains of HM Prison Holloway. Once the largest women's prison in western Europe, Holloway formed a sprawling penal complex in north London, growing in infamy in the early 20th century for housing incarcerated women who had dared to demand the right to vote: the legendary suffragettes.
For acts of militant activism, including civil disobedience, vandalism, property destruction, and arson – all to bring awareness to the campaign for women’s suffrage – figures like Emmeline Pankhurst, Emily Davison, and Mary Richardson were imprisoned behind the turreted Victorian Gothic prison gates.
Image: Suffragettes taking exercise in the yard of HM Prison Holloway. From left: Margaret Scott, Jane Short (the alias used by Rachel Peace), Margaret McFarlane, and Olive Hockin. Courtesy: Museum of London.
Faced with derision and abuse on the outside, suffragettes fared no better locked within. Incidents of torture and force-feeding were rampant, as many suffragettes refused to eat in an attempt to draw attention and a response from authorities.
Activities for imprisoned suffragettes were restricted to labor and brief bouts of exercise in the central yard. To summon the women to either, a quick strike was given to the bell hung in the gatehouse of the prison yard.
Image: The brass Holloway Bell with an iron clapper, cast c. 1852 and mounted with a fist clenched over a circular scroll, once hung in Holloway Prison, where hundreds of suffragettes were imprisoned due to their actions campaigning for women’s right to vote. Identification No. 2016.91/3. Courtesy: Museum of London.
Approximately a foot in height, the brass bell’s diminutive stature belied the piercing sound of its ring. When sounded by an internal iron clapper, the bell could be heard throughout the adjacent buildings and open spaces. The bell’s most defining feature is its mount, which takes the form a fist clutching a rolled scroll. The bell would have been hung via a bolt through the cross section of the wrist.
At the prison’s closure in 2016, the bell was accessioned into the Social Working History collection of the Museum of London. It was first showcased in the 2018 “Collecting for London” exhibition, now closed.
Video: “Collecting for London | The Holloway Bell” produced by the Museum of London depicts the 1852 bell with a voiceover of the poem “The Women in Prison” by Kathleen Emerson, an Irish suffragette imprisoned in HM Prison Holloway in 1912 for window-breaking.
Cover image: The brass Holloway Bell with an iron clapper, cast c. 1852 and mounted with a fist clenched over a circular scroll, is handled by Museum of London conservator Natasha Fenner. Identification No. 2016.91/3. Courtesy: Museum of London.
