Storyhouse Women: Reclaim the Night Banner Making and March

Come and make your voice heard for this year’s Reclaim the Night in Chester. Empowering Women to feel safe at night in Chester.

Everyone is welcome to join us this year on Friday 21 November 7pm and march with us to Reclaim the Night!

Meet outside the Town Hall at 7pm when we will go on a march down Werburgh Street and end at The Cross for a Vigil.

Join us before the march in the Garret Bar from 5.30pm-6.30pm for banner making.

Come and make your voice heard for this year’s Reclaim the Night in Chester.

Join us indoors at Storyhouse afterwards for a brew and aftercare.

What is ‘Reclaim the Night’?

Reclaim the Night is a movement started in Leeds in 1977 as part of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Marches demanding that women be able to move throughout public spaces at night took place across England until the 1990s. Later, the organisation was revived and sponsors annual and national marches against rape and sexual violence against women.

The first Reclaim the Night protests took place in Leeds on 12 November 1977. The marches were in part a response to the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ murders, and the police response which instructed women to stay out of public spaces after dark. A dozen marches took place that same night in other cities, encouraged by the efforts of women in Leeds. Women carried signs such as “No Curfew on Women – Curfew on Men.”

In 2021, Reclaim the Night Leeds tried to stage a Vigil in response to the death of Sarah Everard, but this was stopped by police; the protest turned virtual and took place online. Over 28,000 people attended the online event, which was streamed across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Women still face widespread violence from day to day harassment in the street to sexual assault, rape and murder. And we remain in a climate where this is still normalised as acceptable ‘banter’, where prosecutions for assaults are decreasing, and specialist services for women are under attack. This is unacceptable and women everywhere are making a stand.

Reclaim the Night is our annual campaign against sexual harassment and gender-based violence. Each year, we take the streets to march for an end of sexual violence and ensure safety and autonomy for all women and marginalised genders in Chester.