The Langham Place group was a women's club founded in England in 1858, including

Helen Blackburn Helen Blackburn (25 May 1842 – 11 January 1903) was a feminist, writer and campaigner for women's rights, especially in the field of employment. Blackburn was an editor of the '' Englishwoman's Review'' magazine. She wrote books about women wo ...

, a women's rights advocate who later served as editor of

The Englishwoman's Review ''The Englishwoman's Review'' was a feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the se ...

. The group was named after the address, 19 Langham Place, which was for a decade from the late 1850s also the office of the ''

English Woman's Journal The ''English Woman's Journal'' was a periodical dealing primarily with female employment and equality issues. It was established in 1858 by Barbara Bodichon, Matilda Mary Hays and Bessie Rayner Parkes. Published monthly between March 1858 ...

''. Its premises included a reading room, a coffee shop, and meeting space for the initiatives which gathered around it, mainly to do with women's rights, access to higher education and wage work (e.g. the

Society for Promoting the Employment of Women The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (SPEW) was one of the earliest British women's organisations. The society was established in 1859 by Jessie Boucherett, Barbara Bodichon, Adelaide Anne Proctor and Lydia Becker to promote the ...

(S.P.E.W.).

Jessie Boucherett (Emilia) Jessie Boucherett (November 1825 – 18 October 1905) was an English campaigner for women's rights. Life She was born in November 1825 at North Willingham, near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire. She was the grandchild of Lt. Colonel Ayscoghe ...

and

Adelaide Anne Procter Adelaide Anne Procter (30 October 1825 – 2 February 1864) was an English poet and philanthropist. Her literary career began when she was a teenager, her poems appearing in Charles Dickens's periodicals ''Household Words'' and ''All the Y ...

through S.P.E.W. offered classes in arithmetic and set up the first commercial school to train women as book-keepers and the first shorthand classes for women.

Emily Faithfull Emily Faithfull (27 May 1835 – 31 May 1895) was an English women's rights activist who set up the Victoria Press to publish the ''English Woman's Journal''. Biography Emily Faithfull was born on 27 May 1835 at Headley Rectory, Surrey. She ...

trained women as compositors at the Victoria Press on Great Coram Street.

Maria Rye Maria Susan Rye (31 March 1829 – 12 November 1903) was a British social reformer and a promoter of emigration from England, especially of young women living in Liverpool workhouses, to the colonies of the British Empire, especially Canada. Ea ...

set up an office copying legal documents in Lincolns Inn Fields and in 1862, with Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, founded the Female Middle-Class Emigration Society. The space served as a sort of counterpart to the gentlemen's clubs then so important in London. The magazine was largely funded by Helena, comtesse de Noailles, and the hire of the building by Theodosia Blacker, Baroness Monson.

References

{{reflist Women's organisations based in England 1858 establishments in England Organisations based in London