By Helena Graham July 2026
Front row, l to r: Kath Brigg, Bev Reynolds, Cindy Le Bideau, Liz Coy, Ruth Overton, Carole Lucas, Jane Coleman, Mary Gill. On the wall: Suzanne Chiechomski. London, 1993 © Carole Lucas
The 1990s was a tumultuous decade. On the international scene, Bill Clinton was elected as the US President in 1992 and the European Union was created with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, both offering a glimmer of hope. In the same year, however, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina began, John Major won a surprising victory for the Conservatives, and the value of sterling plummeted on Black Wednesday. Britain was still reeling from Thatcher’s rule, a time when greed was good and that there was no such thing as society. Public services were underfunded, Section 28 which prohibited the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ by local councils was in force, and the AIDS crisis continued.
Hackney stood out at this time. It hadn’t yet been gentrified. There was serious poverty and radical politics. The squatting community was still large, many supporting Class War, the Animal Liberation Front and general anarcho-punk activities. There were, and still are, large Jewish, Caribbean, Kurdish, Turkish and Vietnamese communities. Ridley Road market, established in 1880, was, and still is, a busy Afro-Caribbean market. Centreprise, radical bookshop and community centre, could be found on Dalston Road though this closed down in 2013. The Rio, an independent cinema from 1976, on Kingsland High Street showed arthouse films and continues to do so to this day. London Fields was not the trendy honey spot it currently is, was unlit at night and dangerous for women to walk alone in and Broadway market definitely had a very different feel to it.
In the 1990s, renting or buying property in Hackney was much more affordable than other parts of London. As a consequence, the area attracted large numbers of women, particularly lesbians. There were many gay-friendly spaces and women-only evenings in local pubs, such as the Duke of Wellington on Balls Pond Road, and these became a magnet for radical women and an important part of our social lives and our community.
Poster showing the Duke of Wellington pub, Balls Pond Road, Hackney © Carole Lucas, 2022
It was in this context that the Hackney Women Harriers was formed, in 1992. Running was not the mass participation activity it is now, and women runners on inner-city streets were greeted with abuse and ridicule from passing men, and even risked assault on the dark streets at night. Somehow, a small group of us – Hackney women who wanted the freedom to run freely in our own community – found each other and took back our streets.
Walking in the footsteps of earlier Hackney residents, mighty figures like Mary Wollstonecraft and Sheila Rowbottom, we made our own small contribution to women’s equality by empowering women to get fit, excel at racing and fully live the lives they wanted to. We pounded the pathways of Hackney Marshes, ran along the River Lea and all round the streets and canal paths of Hackney. We faced abuse and the occasional thrown stone but together we ran on, supporting each other in our running, our work lives and our, often messy, love lives.
Ten years after it started, HWH was winding up. By 2002, Hackney was changing. Many of us had sold up and moved out, taking advantage of the booming property prices in the Hackney area. Gentrification gathered pace. The women-only and gay-friendly spaces were closing down. The world was changing too. Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa, the Labour Party won a landslide general election, Hong Kong was handed back after 150 years of British rule to China, Princess Diana died, the Good Friday Agreement was signed, Google was founded and the ‘war on terror’ began after the September 11 attacks in the US. One thing still remained, though. It was not until 2003 that Section 28 – introduced in 1988 – was repealed. Another thing – we carried on running.
My Harrier Story
I joined Hackney Women Harriers (HWH) right from the start. I was a relatively new teacher who’d moved from Thurrock, Essex into a lesbian shared house just behind Homerton Hospital, though I was still teaching in Essex and commuting daily against the traffic. Given the climate of Section 28 and the open hostility to LGBTQ+ people, I wanted to live in a more lesbian friendly area – which Hackney definitely was. There was a contact number in The Pink Paper, I think, and Carole organised our first run in Victoria Park, where fifteen to twenty of us turned up. The atmosphere was immediately friendly and fun. In fact, a couple ran round the park holding a can of lager each in their hands. Afterwards we went to The Duke of Wellington, a very busy and lesbian friendly pub on The Balls Pond Road, for drinks and crafty fags in the toilets. I stayed with the club until the end, and was even the Chair for a while. I took part in many races, including the London marathon, and my proudest moment was when we were the First Ladies Team in the Borehamwood Half Marathon in 1996 and I was the first female veteran.
HWH were a fantastic group of women, and it was a brilliant way to regularly meet other lesbians out of the club and pub scene. Some great, lasting friendships and special memories were made.
Front row l to r: Helena Graham, unknow, Bev Reynolds, Kath Brigg
Back row, l to r: Liz Coy, Carole Lucas, Jan Aitchison, Suki Ali
Borehamwood Half Marathon, 1996, © Carole Lucas