Caxton Hall
51°29′54.98″N 0°8′4.66″W / 51.4986056°N 0.1346278°W
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 for its historical associations.
It was opened as Westminster Town Hall in 1883 and then was used as well for a variety of purposes including as a concert hall and venue for public meetings.
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.
Alister Crowley and friends celebrated the Rites of Eleusis in the hall in in October and November, 1910.
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.
In World War II it was used by the Ministry of Information as a venue for press conferences held by Winston Churchill and his ministers.
The National Front, an openly neo-nazi British political party was formed at a meeting in Caxton Hall, Westminster on 7th February 1967.
It was also used as a central London registry office until 1979, and many famous people were married there including Donald Campbell (two marriages), Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Dors, Peter Sellers, Roger Moore, Adam Faith, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Future Prime Minister Anthony Eden wedded the niece of the then Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Clarissa Churchill-Spencer there on 18 August 1952.
It was redeveloped as apartments and offices in 2006, but the facade and former registry office were restored and retained. [1]
References
References
- Mr. Eden weds niece of the Prime Minister ITN News 18 August 1952
- Caxton Hall in Westminster and the marriage of Diana Dors to Dennis Hamilton Nickel in the machine. Accessed July 2011
- MoLAS 2004 Report Caxton Hall . Accessed July 2011