This week marks the 175th anniversary of the Monster Chartist Rally in Kennington Park. Chartism was a working class movement aimed at giving all men (not women unfortunately, that came later) over 21+ the right to vote. They also sought to professionalise Parliament by ensuring that MP’s get paid. This would allow regular working people ( read – men) to become MP’s as opposed to it only being a viable option if you were a property owner and had spare time on your hands during the day.
The Chartists came together on 10 April, 1848 and this so thoroughly freaked out a government who feared a revolution that they called the army to Kennington Park and later recruited thousands of special constables. They even carted off poor old Queen Vic to the Isle of Wight for her own protection. To commemorate this event, the Friends of Kennington Park have put together a spiffy guided tour complete with podcast that outlines how the day unfolded and what happened afterwards. The whole walk takes only half an hour and like most great things we recommend is free.
While you’re in Kennington Park building grey matter why not pop over to the History Hut at the southern end of the park? Not to be confused with the nearby Hound Hut (which we once confused for an sex shop) or indeed Pizza Hut, the Hut is full of fascinating factoids about our beloved neck of the woods over the years.
