The Espérance Club, and the Maison Espérance dressmaking cooperative, were founded in the mid-1890s by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Mary Neal in response to distressing conditions for girls in the London dress trade. The club was based at 50 Cumberland Market, in the St Pancras area of London. Mary Neal had become fascinated by the

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

s and dances being collected by Cecil Sharp, and invited some traditional dancers to teach morris dancing to the young women of the Espérance Club. Thus was born the Espérance Morris, which inspired a modern London women's side, New Esperance Morris. After donating a £1,000 legacy to the club and meeting Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence,

Lady Constance Lytton Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton (12 February 1869 – 2 May 1923), usually known as Constance Lytton, was an influential British suffragette activist, writer, speaker and campaigner for prison reform, votes for women, and birth control. Sh ...

was enthused by the women's movement and thus became a leading

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

activist.BBC History, Profile of Lady Constance Lytton

References

External links

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New Esperance Morris
London based women's side continuing the tradition of Mary Neal
Photograph of the Espérance Morris Dancers, ca. 1900
a
New Esperance Morris
Defunct clubs and societies of the United Kingdom English folk dance {{folk-dance-stub