Newington Green Primary School green plaque pays tribute to early femimist Mary Wollstonecraft

Published: 4th March, 2011
by TERRY MESSENGER

EIGHTEENTH Century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who founded a school for girls in Islington, is to be honoured with one of the borough’s green plaques.

The plaque will go up at Newington Green Primary School in Matthias Road, near the site of Wollstonecraft’s original school at Newington Green.

It will be unveiled on Tuesday, International Women’s Day, a global event celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women. 

Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in which she argued that women are not naturally inferior to men, and that men and women should be treated equally. 

These were revolutionary thoughts when the book was published in 1792.

Town Hall leader Catherine West will attend the at 2pm unveiling.

She said: “It’s thanks to people like Mary Wollstonecraft that society gradually began to change its views on women’s rights. 

“I’m very pleased that we’ll be able to mark her impact on Islington with this lasting memorial and everyone is welcome to come along.”

The school for girls was built on the south-east corner of Newington Green although nothing remains of it today.

Wollstonecraft died at the age of 38. Her daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, later Mary Shelley, became an accomplished writer herself, best known for Frankenstein.

Green plaques are Islington Council’s equivalent of blue plaques, the English Heritage commemorative scheme.

International Women’s Day is also being marked at Islington Town Hall on Upper Street with an exhibition from the Mexican Women’s Art Collective which opens tomorrow (Saturday).  

A council spokeswoman said:  “Their paintings capture the history and culture of indigenous women and explore the relationship of women to each other.

The exhibition runs for two weeks.