Walking A Dangerous Road

The recent death of Sarah Everard sparked outrage, with protests breaking out across the United Kingdom. NELL DARBY argues that women’s safety in public spaces has never been assured, with the threat of violence stalking the streets from the Victorian era to the present day

- Nell Darby

With the disappearance and death of Sarah Everard in south London in March, women’s safety – and their rights to use public spaces without the fear of coming to harm – have dominated news headlines and social media. Sarah was walking from Clapham to Brixton, a journey that should have taken her 50 minutes. How could a woman go missing simply walking home from a friend’s house?

More than 70 per cent of women in the UK say they have experienced sexual harassment in public. Debate about this case has brought forward numerous stories from other women about instances where they have felt threatened in public spaces, together with comments implying that a woman on her own should not have been walking at night in an urban space. Although men are also victims of assault in public spaces, it is rare for a male victim to be blamed for being in the “wrong” place at the wrong time – and arguments about women’s use of public spaces, and their safety within them, are nothing new.

Public space has historically been a male space, designed, built and shaped by men for their own use. This can be seen in even the smallest of details in the Victorian city, from the absence of wide enough pavements and pedestrian space to push baby carriages and perambulators, to public toilets in 19th-century London catering overwhelmingly to men.