The world’s first refuge for abused women, is one so unfairly shrouded in controversy. The refuge was not a hundred million pound industry, nor an institution sanitised of men; but a small, derelict community centre in Chiswick, London, founded by the iconoclastic pioneer of the domestic violence movement, @pizzeyerin. By her own words, Erin had no idea what she was doing, beyond wanting to create a space for women to come together and enact societal change. An so, ‘Chiswick Womens Aid’ was a house where women could cook for and talk with another, share stories and support, petition local councils, and raise children; to which any and all women had a key and could access. Erin never thought it would become the worlds first refuge for abused women, but when Cathy arrived at her door covered in bruises, she took her in, and in so doing, took domestic abuse out from behind closed doors, and into the full limelight of society for the first time… This is her story, and that of Cathy, who knocked on Erin’s door more than 50 years ago. What do you think? Images by Getty, Hulton Deutsch Corbis and Marketa Luskacova

2025-12-06