17/09/2026
⛺ A peace camp at Hackney Town Hall in 1984
In February 1984, a group called the Hackney Greenham Women staged a 24-hour peace camp outside Hackney Town Hall to protest against nuclear weapons.
They supported a wider national peace movement to campaign against the stationing of nuclear weapons in Britain.
📸Women’s Peace Camp outside Hackney Town Hall in February 1984 © David Hoffman, 1984
David Hoffman
🧘♂️A sit-in protest against the arrival of nuclear weapons at Greenham Common in 1983
The Greenham Common Peace Camp started in 1981 to protest US nuclear cruise missiles being stationed at
RAF bases at Greenham Common in Berkshire and RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire.
A group called ‘Women for Life on Earth’ marched 120 miles from Cardiff to Greenham Common and founded a peace camp at the Greenham Common base where they caused disruption around the base fences.
While the camp relied on a core group living onsite at Greenham Common, they were visited and supported by a national network. A large group of women from Hackney joined the peace camp and played a major role in the peace movement.
Despite national protests and heavy media coverage, the nuclear missiles arrived at the RAF bases in November 1983.
📸 A sit-in at Greenham Common Airbase 1983 to protest the arrival of nuclear weapons. Courtesy of The Rio Cinema Archive
🫕 A second peace camp at Hackney Town Hall, 1984
As campaigning spread from the site of Greenham Common to local areas, the Hackney branch of the Greenham Common women grew.
There were 11 active groups in the borough, such as Women Oppose Nuclear Threat (WONT), a group based in Dalston. While each group worked independently, they coordinated joint actions in support of the wider movement.
The Hackney Greenham Women held their own peace camps at Hackney Town Hall to raise awareness for the real threats of nuclear war: one in February 1984 for 24 hours and then again in May 1984 for four days.
This show of local action helped fuel support at home with membership to the Hackney Greenham Common groups rising. In September 1984, they organised for several coaches to take women from Hackney
📸 The Hackney Womyn’s Peace Camp at Hackney Town Hall, 28-31 May 1984. Courtesy of Rio Cinema Archive
🚙The Dalston Blockade
In March 1984, Hackney Greenham Women staged two road blockades at Dalston Junction.
They aligned these blockades with the same times as a convoy of nuclear cruise missile launchers travelling on the roads of Britain as part of a practice exercise. They wanted to raise awareness of the fact that there would be nuclear weapons passing on the roads of Britain.
Holding up traffic at Dalston Junction, both blockades lasted between 10 and 20 minutes. While there was a heavy police presence, there were no arrests.
📸 The Dalston Blockade: Greenham Common Women holding up traffic at Dalston Junction to campaign against nuclear weapons. Hackney People Press, 1983, Photographer unknown. Image source: Hackney Archives.
