Fifteen Trailblazing London Women – LondonLifeTravelGirl

I love exploring London, and one of the highlights is finding tributes to the amazing women who have made their mark on this great city. Earlier this week, I strolled past the iconic Queen’s House in Greenwich which stands here today as a tribute to several influential queens of our city’s past. Of course they are only a few of the many women who have made a difference for London, and it was lovely to see the daffodils in full bloom across the Queen’s House lawn reminding us to have hope for the future.

So, in honour of Women’s History Month, here are fifteen inspiring women who have each shaped London’s history as trailblazers in their fields, from 2000 years ago right through to today:

Monarchy – I couldn’t make a list of trailblazers without mentioning a literal London trailblazer — I mean like she burnt the place to the ground! Boudicca’s husband was King of the Iceni People here 2000 years ago, but when he died and left his kingdom to his two daughters, the Romans decided to take over. They plundered property, flogged Boudicca and raped her daughters. So Boudicca led her army across England driving out the Romans until she arrived in London and sent it up in flames. Today a fab statue of Boudicca charging in her chariot towards Parliament stands as a reminder of what can happen if you scorn the wrong woman!
Nursing – Across the river from Parliament is another statue honouring Mary Seacole, the first named black woman to be given a statue in London. Mary dedicated her life to healing people around the world despite financial failures and racial prejudice along the way. With decades of nursing experience across London, the Caribbean and Central America, she applied to join the Crimean War nurses but was repeatedly rejected. So, she raised her own funds instead and went anyway!! She was adored by the soldiers she nursed, and when she returned from the war destitute and in poor health, the public came to her aid with thousands of Londoners attending a fundraiser in her honour.
Horseracing – When you think of Royal Ascot it often comes with visions of elegant ladies and their gorgeous hats. However, I’m sure it won’t surprise you that for more than 200 years all of the Ascot bookies were men. That is, until the impressive Helen Vernet came along and in 1920 became the first woman in UK racing history to pass the ‘fit and proper’ test and be granted a bookmaking license. She went on to be so successful that the powerhouse betting firm Ladbrokes made her a partner, and she continued working the races until she was 80 years old!
Ballet – A stroll down the King’s Road in Chelsea will take you past the Pheasantry club and a blue plaque honouring its former owner Princess Serafine Astafieva. She wasn’t actually a princess but she was a famous Russian ballet dancer who moved to London and opened her dance studio here. Serafine went on to elevate British ballet onto the world stage by developing British dancers to compete with the Russian celebs of the day, including the first ever Brit to become principal dancer of a ballet company, and the only two British women ever to be given the rare global title of Prima Ballerina Assoluta. Today her studio is a restaurant and music venue, but the dance floor, barre and mirrors remain as a nod to Serafine’s place in performance arts history.
Finance – Just around the corner from the Bank of England there’s a blue plaque marking the site of the former offices of Mary Harris Smith FCA, the world’s first female chartered accountant. Mary met all of the qualifications to become a CA in 1891 but her application was rejected solely because she was a woman. Nevertheless, she set up her own successful business and built a loyal clientele including many prominent women’s organisations. She continued her fight to be recognised on equal footing with men and decades later at the age of 76 she was finally admitted as a chartered accountant and got the creds she deserved.
Hospitality – Indian-born restaurateur Asma Khan arrived in London in 1991 and earned a PhD in British Constitutional Law – clearly one smart cookie! But instead of going into law, she decided to become one smart cook and opened up a supper club which later became the restaurant Darjeeling Express, offering South Asian home cooking specialties. Her all-female staff of home cooks run the kitchen, and the restaurant supports the non-profit Second Daughters Fund which fights social stigma and encourages families in India to celebrate the birth of a second daughter. Asma was the first British chef profiled on the ‘Chef’s Table’ and her story was so moving it was nominated for an Emmy. Last year she was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people.
Fashion – Not far from the historic Spitalfields Market on a little side street is the former home of Anna Maria Garthwaite. Talk about some serious girlpower! Anna Maria was a completely self-taught artist who arrived in London in 1728 and built an international fashion business from scratch at a time when women in business were pretty much unheard of. She created over 1000 silk designs in high demand not only in London but exported across Europe and further abroad – including to her fan Martha Dandridge (the not-yet wife of George Washinton in the not-yet USA). You can find a collection of Anna Maria’s silks on permanent display at the V&A Museum.
Science – Just off Fulham Road is the former home of the brilliant scientist Rosalind Franklin. Rosalind’s pioneering research at King’s College London led to one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time – DNA structure. Sadly, she died young of ovarian cancer (likely because of x-ray exposure during her research) and when her colleagues later received the Nobel Prize for their collective work, Rosalind was not named. Fortunately one of those guys, Francis Crick, pointed out how crucial her work was to their discovery, or she might have been written out of history altogether!
Politics – You won’t find a statue or blue plaque honouring Diane Abbott because she’s still going! Born in London to a British-Jamaican family, Diane excelled at Cambridge before moving into politics. She started working for the Civil Service and then became a reporter and press officer for the Greater London Council. She was elected to Westminster City Council and then in 1987 she became the first black woman elected a Member of Parliament – and she has been re-elected in every general election since. In the last election in 2024 she once again retained her seat and became ‘Mother of the House’ as the longest continuously serving female MP.
Medicine – If you stroll down Berkeley Street you’ll pass by the former home of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman to qualify as a physician and a surgeon. Talk about not taking no for an answer! Elizabeth was repeatedly rejected by medical schools so she hired private tutors instead, and then thanks to a loophole in the regulations she was able to sit the exams (receiving the highest marks I would add). She was granted a license by the Society of Apothecaries, who then immediately amended its regulations to prevent other women obtaining a license. She couldn’t work at a hospital so she set up her own private practice – and eventually her own hospital for women and children, and then her own medical school to train women!
Mountaineering – London girl Adriana Brownlee is a literal rock star, and she’s still only 24 years old! She began climbing at the age of nine, completing the National Three Peaks Challenge in under 22 hours. She had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro before she turned 18, and then climbed both the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc together in just two and a half days! In 2020 she became the youngest woman to summit K2, and decided she wanted to climb all of the biggies; so she called her university and told them she wasn’t coming back, and then called her parents and told them she wasn’t coming home. She reached her dream summit of Mt Everest in 2021 and last October became the first British woman – and the youngest woman in the world – to have climbed all 14 of the ‘eight-thousanders’ (the mountains over 8000 metres).
Education – The fashion displays at the Victoria and Albert Museum include a lovely coral ‘arrival’ suit made for Beryl Gilroy, a teacher from British Guiana who immigrated to London as part of the Windrush Generation. She had a flair for fashion and wanted to look her best when she arrived in 1951. But, no matter how professional she might look, finding work was challenging for an immigrant. So she worked as a maid, a factory worker and a dishwasher until she was finally given the chance to teach, becoming the first black female teacher in London – and ultimately London’s first black Head Teacher, a recognised novelist, psychotherapist and author of children’s books for all races. A truly remarkable woman!
Construction – The Old Royal Naval College is steeped in naval history, so you’d think it’s all about heroic men, but there are nods to pioneering women as well. One of my faves is that when the ornate Nelson Pediment was commissioned to celebrate the life of Admiral Nelson, they didn’t use marble but instead selected Coade Stone, a high quality artificial stone that was very popular at the time, and was invented here in London at a factory owned and run by a woman – Eleanor Coade. At a time when women were expected to stick to the garment industry, Eleanor not only took the manufacturing industry by storm but became one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 18^th century, with a legacy that’s literally carved in stone and can still be seen across London today.
Sport – The Wimbledon Championships are an iconic feature of the London calendar, and tennis has become one of the few sports where female champions are known by name. But that wasn’t always the case, and here’s a name you should definitely know – Charlotte Cooper! Not only did Cooper win Wimbledon multiple times, in 1900 she became the first woman in the world to win Olympic gold! Even more impressive is that all of her titles except her first were won after going completely deaf. Then, in 1908, after a 7-year pause to raise two young children, and despite being unable to hear the sound of the ball coming off the racket, she returned to Wimbledon and claimed the title for a fifth time, making her the oldest woman to this day to ever win Wimbledon!
Music – When Abbey Road Studios is mentioned, most think of the Beatles, but so many amazing artists have recorded there. One of them is the American-born jazz singer Adelaide Hall who took London by storm in 1938 and stayed for the rest of her life, becoming the highest paid female entertainer of her time! Adelaide had a jazz club on Regent Street that was a fave of the future Queen Elizabeth II (where she taught the Princess to dance the Charleston). But my fave Adelaide Hall story happened not too far from my own front door at the Lewisham Hippodrome during World War II, when a Luftwaffe air strike started during her performance. Adelaide recalled ‘even though we could hear bombs exploding outside the theatre, we carried on…until the all-clear sounded at 3:45 in the morning!’ She sang 54 encores that night. It’s no wonder she was recently named one of Britain’s most inspirational black women throughout history.

Trailblazing London Women

So there you have it — fifteen trailblazing women from fifteen different fields. I hope you’ve found their stories inspiring! Of course, this list is just a small start. Here’s to the many women of yesterday and today that have made London – and the world – a better place!