How Alice Paul's Mitchell Library rooftop protest is being commemorated in Glasgow

American suffrage leader Alice Paul had planned to break in to the building – at the time, it was the St Andrew’s Halls – the following evening, to disrupt a political speech being given by the Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Crewe, to an all-male audience.

A newspaper clipping of Alice Paul's rooftop protest in 1909 (Image: Glasgow Life)

Climbing up some precariously balanced planks beside a workman’s hut, she had stayed out all night and the bemused builders who spotted her just assumed she was someone who had got drunk and was sleeping it off.

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When Alice explained what she was doing, they supported her and agreed to keep quiet about her presence. Unfortunately, when their supervisor turned up, he called the police and she was arrested. Her vigil made headlines all around the world.

Now, this key moment in suffragette history has been captured in model form.

Franki Finch with the model (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest)

American writer Rebecca Otto commissioned Glasgow modelmaker Franki Finch of Finch and Fouracre to make a series of models of St Andrew’s Halls and the neighbouring Mitchell Library as it looked inside its construction site by mid-1909, to help visualise Alice’s movements on the night. 

Original drawings and photos held in the city’s Special Collections, part of Glasgow Life - the charity responsible for culture and sport in Glasgow - enabled Franki to study how the Mitchell was constructed. A chance photograph led her to architect Bruce Kennedy, who had studied St Andrew’s Halls at Glasgow School of Art and was able to supply drawings.

Some of the vast suffragette literature collection at the Mitchell Library (Image: Newsquest)

Using both sources, Franki produced a 1:375 scale model of both buildings, which can be lifted to reveal their ground floor plans from 1909.  It reveals the location of the Great Hall inside St Andrew’s Halls and its proximity to Alice’s likely hiding place on the roof.

St Andrew’s Halls was a large concert auditorium seating 4500 people, built in 1877. It was almost destroyed by fire in 1962. The Mitchell Library was built on the eastern half of the block between 1907 and 1911. After the 1962 fire, only the facade to Granville Street remained, and the Mitchell was extended to occupy the whole block, incorporating the remaining facade.

Rebecca asked Franki to make a second replica model, which has been accepted into Glasgow Museums Collections.

It will enhance the city’s suffrage collection of newspaper articles, letters, photographs, and objects, which tell the story of the historic movement and its achievements and help people understand how the original Mitchell Library operated before the St. Andrew’s Halls fire of October 1962. The model is available to view – contact Special Collections at the Mitchell Library for more information.

Susan Taylor, Librarian with Glasgow Life, said: “This model is a welcome addition to Glasgow’s suffrage movement collection.

“The archives are full of enthralling items about things that happened right here in the city, like Alice’s valiant exploits. It’s amazing she didn’t fall.

“It really helps to bring hidden stories about the suffrage movement on our doorstep to life. We are very grateful to Rebecca and Franki for gifting a model to Glasgow.”

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Franki said: “This was a really fascinating project to work on. The first part of my commission was to study the original drawings and photos held in the Mitchell Archives. It’s amazing to see the model on show in the building which it depicts, and I am delighted the library plans to have some of my work in its archives.”

A group of suffragettes at a rally in Glasgow (Image: Newsquest)

Alice Paul was instrumental in the US suffrage movement, helping to secure American women the right to vote in 1920. Although her attempt to disrupt Lord Crewe’s budget address was thwarted, her roof vigil made headlines and she and others were successful in causing a major disturbance that day in 1909. 

Rebecca added: “Two women rose from the Mitchell Library’s massive construction site in 1909.  The statue, Literature, was hoisted to the North Dome by crane in May and Alice Paul reached her perch in August by climbing two planks after midnight. 

“The world knows Alice's serious side: too often jailed, hunger striking or force-fed, founder of the National Woman’s Party and World Woman’s Party, who helped win women’s voting rights, wrote the US Equal Rights Amendment, and challenged the United Nations to foster equality for all.

“I wanted to know Alice inside a construction site, the night she discovered the trailblazer she’d become.”

Alice was not the only notable suffragette to arrive at a Glasgow event by unorthodox means. On March 9, 1914, one of the strongest voices in the UK suffrage movement, Emmeline Pankhurst, came to St Andrew’s Halls to address a large meeting of the Women’s Social and Political Union, the suffragette organisation she helped to found in 1903. She was smuggled into the hall inside a laundry basket and appeared on stage before the police rushed in.

Emmeline’s daughters Adela and Sylvia both came to Glasgow too – the former, less well known than her older sisters and mother, was a key figure in bringing the issue of Votes for Women to public attention in Scotland; and the latter spoke at Glasgow Green, in 1916, alongside leading Scottish figures Agnes Dollan and Helen Crawfurd.

Glasgow’s Special Collections and City Archives, held at the Mitchell Library, include the official records of various local authorities as well as many private archive collections.