What did Mary Wollstonecraft blue plaque do at 45 Dolben Street?

The Story

At this modest building in Borough, Mary Wollstonecraft established one of her most ambitious ventures - a girls' school in 1784, at just 24 years old. Though the school lasted only a few years, it was here that Wollstonecraft developed many of her revolutionary ideas about female education, witnessing firsthand how young women could thrive when given serious intellectual opportunities. The experience of running this school, combined with her observations of the social constraints facing her pupils, directly influenced her groundbreaking work "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters" and laid the foundation for her later feminist masterpiece "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman." While the school ultimately failed financially, forcing her to seek employment as a governess, this building represents Wollstonecraft's first bold attempt to put her educational theories into practice and challenge the limitations placed on women's minds.