Emmeline Pankhurst lived at 62 Nelson Street with her children, Christabel, Sylvia, Adela and Harry, and two domestic servants, a cook named Ellen Coyle and a maid named Mary Leaver. In the 1901 census, two of Emmeline’s brothers and one of her nephews are also recorded at the address.

However, it is the events of October 1903 that transformed 62 Nelson Street from a family home to a site of historical significance.

On 10th October 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst invited a small group of her friends to a meeting at her home, where they agreed to form a new organisation to campaign for women’s voting rights. The organisation would be named the Women’s Social and Political Union (later dubbed ‘Suffragettes’ by the Daily Mail), and 62 Nelson Street would serve as its headquarters for the first few years. In 1905, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney set out from Nelson Street to attend (and disrupt) a meeting of the Liberal Party at the Free Trade Hall, leading to the first arrests and imprisonments of the suffragette campaign.

Emmeline Pankhurst left Manchester in 1907 to join her daughters Christabel and Sylvia in London, and the WSPU headquarters relocated to the capital. 62 Nelson Street was advertised for rent once again.

Over the decades, 62 Nelson Street passed through many different occupants and plans as the surrounding area transformed into Manchester’s major hospital district. Despite its history being recognised with listed status, the building ultimately faced demolition proposals as redevelopment pressures grew.

After the last tenants had moved out in the late 1960s, 60-62 Nelson Street sat empty and gradually began to fall into dereliction. Activists, including student anarchists and feminists, squatted the property, but the health authority continued to pursue applications for demolition.

Manchester Council granted permission for a change of use of 62 Nelson Street from a residential property to a community resource centre in 1977, and a campaign was launched to fundraise for a trust to be set up to protect the building. Letters were written to female politicians asking for support, and petitions were signed by people who didn’t want to see the home of the suffragette movement demolished.

In 1981, the campaigners were successful in finally stopping the planned demolition. After this, the Pankhurst Trust were able to secure a lease on the building, agreeing to pay the landlord (then the health authority, now the hospital trust) the peppercorn rent of one suffragette sash per year. Listed building consent was secured to transform the building into a museum, meeting rooms and offices. Construction jobs, apprenticeships and training were offered to women to help rebuild and renovate the building. Linda Carver, one of the women who took part in the construction work, described the advert she answered as a ‘call to arms for the women of Manchester’.

On 10th October 1987, 60-62 Nelson Street opened as the Pankhurst Museum and resource centre. Since 2014, the building has been run by the Pankhurst Trust (incorporating Manchester Women’s Aid) as a museum, office headquarters and to deliver support for domestic abuse survivors.