39. West St Reading

Postcard with photograph of a Women's Social and Political Union shop. At the bottom right of the card is printed '39 West St. Reading'. Outside the premises stand two women, the one on the left wearing a sash proclaiming 'Votes For Women'. From 1910 Catherine Margesson was organiser of the Reading branch of the WSPU. Displayed in the window is a range of merchandise and posters, including one advertising a 'Monster Demonstration' in Hyde Park on Saturday July 23, 1910.
Handwritten on the back is 'Hope you enjoyed the meeting last night - Shall I see you on Tuesday? I shall go up on Monday so as to attend the afternoon meeting, am spending the night with Vera, so am expecting a high old time! I don't think they will have room for us all in Holloway Castle! Yours in the Cause, Mabel North'. A Mabel North is included in the ‘Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914’, a list compiled by the Suffragette Fellowship in around 1950. Holloway Castle means Holloway Prison, where many London suffragettes served their sentences.
The postcard’s recipient Minnie Turner was a member of the WSPU and of the Tax Resistance League. She ran her home at Sea View, Victoria Road, Brighton as a boarding house specifically aimed at suffragettes.