page_title: Caxton Hall
section_title: History of its social and political use
hierarchical_section_title: Caxton Hall / History of its social and political use
caption_attribution_description: English: The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), part of the British Suffragette movement held a ‘Women's Parliament’ at Caxton Hall at the beginning of each parliamentary session from 1907, with a subsequent procession to the Houses of Parliament and an attempt (always unsuccessful) to deliver a petition to the prime minister in person
context_page_description: Caxton Hall is a building on the corner of Caxton Street and Palmer Street, in Westminster, London, England. It is a Grade II listed building primarily noted for its historical associations. It hosted many mainstream and fringe political and artistic events and after the Second World War was the most popular register office used by high society and celebrities who required a civil marriage.
context_section_description: The building was the location of the First Pan-African Conference in 1900.
   
  The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), part of the British Suffragette movement, held a ‘Women's Parliament’ at Caxton Hall at the beginning of each parliamentary session from 1907, with a subsequent procession to the Houses of Parliament and an attempt (always unsuccessful) to deliver a petition to the prime minister in person. Caxton Hall's central role in the militant suffrage movement is now commemorated by a bronzed scroll sculpture that stands nearby in Christchurch Gardens open space. 
  In 1910 the occultist Aleister Crowley staged his Rites of Eleusis at Caxton Hall. The series of performances took place over six weeks, and received mixed reviews.
  On 10 October 1925, Harry Pollitt, founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain was married here to Marjorie Brewer. Their best man and witness was Percy Glading, who would later be imprisoned for spying for the OGPU.
  During the Second World War it was used by the Ministry of Information as a venue for press conferences held by Winston Churchill and his ministers. This wartime role is marked by a commemorative plaque unveiled in 1991. In 1940 it was the site of the assassination of Michael O'Dwyer, former Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab in India by Indian nationalist Udham Singh, as an act of revenge for the 1919 Amritsar massacre.
  It was the location of the press conference that the Russell–Einstein Manifesto was released in 1955 in response to the threat of nuclear war and humanity destroying itself.
  On 12 May 1960, over 1,000 people attended the first public meeting of the Homosexual Law Reform Society.
  The National Front was formed at a meeting in Caxton Hall, Westminster on 7 February 1967.
  It was also used as a central London register office for weddings from October 1933 to 1978. Notable people who were married there include; Donald Campbell (two marriages), Harrison Marks, Billy Butlin, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Dors, Peter Sellers, Bernard Bresslaw, Roger Moore, Orson Welles, Joan Collins, Adam Faith, Barry Gibb and Ringo Starr. On 18 August 1952, future Prime Minister Anthony Eden married Clarissa Spencer-Churchill, the niece of the then Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
caption: Suffragette meeting at Caxton Hall in 1908, view of the platform.
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