On the morning of Saturday March 17th, and on the inside of the large steamy windows of the Teahouse Theatre Vauxhall, something very special took place. Amidst the hubbub of a typical Saturday brunch service, Egham Rangers hosted the very first Libertea Tea Party. Freddie, the manager of the Teahouse, a tall man with impressive beard, a cup of tea always in hand, big smile and kind welcome, organised three tables to be set up with cake stands, filled with scones, brownies and sandwiches and big pots of breakfast tea. Around the tables were the cafes usual punters, sharing the weeks’ news with one another, dogs and cats milling around people’s ankles. This atmosphere of usual chatter added to the unique quality of the tea party because we have a dream of Libertea tea parties becoming a regular feature in teahouses like Freddie’s all across London and the South East of England region.
Before we go any further, it’s important to explain the importance of the tea-party, both to the Suffragist Movements, and to us here at Libertea. In the difficult years in the run up to women gaining the vote, the campaigners found it increasingly difficult to gather together in public. Meeting together was hugely important as it was only together that they could discuss the campaign, offer one another support and ideas, hash out various political issues, and be there shoulder to shoulder with one another. However, there was a real threat of arrest or violence for these women to meet and so they had to be careful. And so, they decided to reclaim the tearoom as a safe, male-free space for them to meet in. We will never know the conversations that occurred in these tearooms, but we can fairly assume that some of the words shared over tea between these women made history and changed our society forever.
For us here at Libertea we were inspired by the Suffragist’s use of tearooms and so decided to create something a little similar for the next generation of women. We know that coming together, talking, laughing, sharing experiences and support, is powerful. We also know that nothing beats a good cuppa and slice of cake. We wanted Egham Rangers to have the chance to meet some truly inspirational women and allow that natural meeting to unfold. We also knew that as the older generation, we would likely find ample amounts of wonderful women wanting to offer support to the younger generation. For the future of this project, the Libertea Teaparty concept has become an integral part of what we will be offering to other units and communities in the form of our new regional Libertea Girlguiding Badge. As part of the Badge, other units will host their own tea-parties, invite their own inspirational women, bake cakes, brew tea, and sit down and get talking. What preceded the tea party was a lot of emails. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. To ensure we gave the Rangers an opportunity of real worth, we invited as many inspirational women as we could think of (and we would encourage others to do the same: aim for the stars (literally) and you will be amazed at what kind of women see the worth in what you’re trying to do). We were humbled by the women who accepted our invitation to tea…
Laura Darrall: founder of the #itaffectsme global mental health campaign
Tonia Daley-Campbell: a familiar face at Libertea: Tonia gave us more of her precious time to revisit us and bring her birthday-woman mum! Trish, Tonia’s mum, was happy to get roped in last minute and share her own experiences and wisdom with the Rangers too. Tonia is a community activist, actress, author, agent, youth mentor, mum& foster mum, sister, wife, daughter…. an all-round wonder woman!
Samantha Baines: BBC broadcaster, actress, author, comedian extraordinaire. Samantha arrived at the teahouse straight from the BBC broadcasting house, fresh from the road on tour, having had little to no sleep and made us all laugh and reclaim our vaginas (watch the video: it will make sense!)
Sophie Clayton: Ursula’s beautiful sister-in-law and mummy to Ursula’s gorgeous nephew. As well as this, Sophie has been very successful in her career in finance, an industry that is notoriously male-centric. Sophie has worked with the ‘30% initiative’, which works hard towards having 30% of the highest roles in banking held by women. Currently it’s significantly under that, and it’s women like Sophie that are paving the way for the next generation of women to gain access to these professional environments that hitherto were all male. Go Sophie!
Diane Atkinson: a leading Suffragette historian and author, Diane was the historical advisor on the Hollywood movie ‘Suffragette’ (2015). Diane is a familiar face at many women’s events across the UK and we felt genuinely honoured for her to join us, and even more honoured when she wore one of our Egham Ranger sashes! Such a beautiful woman, inside and out.
All these women joined us out of the sheer kindness of their hearts and their support of what we are trying to do here at Libertea: empower these young women to know their worth and stand up and speak out for what they believe in. There was nothing but warmth, love and kindness inside the Teahouse Theatre that day (that and a few cats!).
Thanks to Freddie, conversation flowed freely around delicious scones, brownies, cakes and sandwiches galore, and the tea was delicious. We were also lucky enough to have Ian film the event for us so that we could share this all with you. We hope the below video inspires you to get your own tea-party brewing…good luck and enjoy.
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