Always on
This project successfully funded on 9th October 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
A plaque for Edith Watson, Hackney Suffragette
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Aim
Help us fund a plaque for Edith Watson, a Hackney-born trailblazer and women's rights pioneer.
We are Hackney Society, a local charity committed to protecting and celebrating Hackney’s unique history.
Through our work and publications, including Women from Hackney History, we've uncovered the stories of extraordinary women too often left out of mainstream narratives.
One such woman is Edith Watson (1888–1966). Born in the Hackney Union Workhouse, Edith went on to become the first uniformed policewoman, a suffragette, journalist, and lifelong campaigner for women’s rights. She co-founded the Women’s Volunteer Police Service to protect women from violence, championed divorce law reform, exposed injustices in mental health institutions, and raised awareness of female genital mutilation decades before it was widely discussed.
Despite her many achievements, Edith was deemed "not famous enough" for a national blue plaque. That’s why we’re launching our own local plaque scheme, starting with Edith, to give long-overdue recognition to underrepresented people who shaped Hackney’s history.
Your support will help us cover the cost of designing, producing and installing the plaque at the former site of the Hackney Workhouse (now the John Howard Centre), and fund a public unveiling event with community members and local dignitaries.
This isn’t just about one plaque. It’s the beginning of a wider effort to commemorate the trailblazers whose stories matter, even if history tried to forget them.
For this plaque we are working with designers Alice Sherwin and Harry Bennett, from Studio Ground Floor They say
“It’s been an absolute privilege to work with Hackney Society on the new plaque scheme. Hackney is our home and we feel so grateful that it has communities like Hackney Society looking after it. This sense of community and history is at the heart of the plaque’s design, not only drawing on the natural hues found throughout Hackney, but taking directly from the rich typographic history of the borough. Timeless in its tone, the design embraces the spirit of Hackney whilst prioritising legibility – optimised to be street appropriate, as if they were always meant to be there (or perhaps always were). The plaque is led by a bespoke typeface ‘Hackney Daily’, courtesy of Dinamo Typefaces, inspired by Hackney’s community notice boards of the mid-to-late 20th century. Its warm, characterful letterforms balance a sense of tradition and heritage through the inclusion of a serif, but the uniqueness and progressive nature of Hackney is reflected through its unusual forms and bolder weight. Ultimately, in its own lane, like Hackney.”
Once we had our agreed design we looked for a ceramicist who could do it justice and were delighted to commission Ned Heywood and Julia Land who also make the plaques for English Heritage. Watch how they make the plaques here. They say
“The Hackney Society’s projected green plaque scheme is giving us a rare opportunity of real creative input. As we are developing a special new glaze and perfecting a novel combination of making techniques for the Hackney plaques. This is in contrast to the blue plaques we make for English Heritage, which although are technically very demanding, are made to a long-established design formula, which allows little scope for creativity."
🔗 Find out more on our webiste.
💛 Be part of making Hackney’s hidden history visible.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made