Published: December 9th, 2011
by ANDREW JOHNSON

A PIONEERING group of women have celebrated the fifth anniversary of the founding of their branch of the Women’s Institute – which helped revolutionise the image of the 96-year old organisation.

The N1 branch, which meets at St James’s Church Hall in Prebend Street, were one of the first to be made up of young women mostly in their 20s helping to reinvigorate the organisation.

Until then, WI members had a reputation for being elderly, old-fashioned and out of touch.

The new generation from Angel were featured in national newspapers and on television shows, with members invited to No 10 for tea.

Along with the more traditional WI activities of baking and crafts, the N1 members also go on theatre trips, drink wine, and invited burlesque artists and female Beefeaters to speak to them. Amy Chapman, 33, the current president of the N1WI, said that each branch of the WI was different.

“The Stoke Newington branch are very ecological, while the Shoreditch branch are quite political and campaigning,” she said. “They are currently making a quilt on the theme of female genital mutilation. I think in recent years the whole make do and mend thing has come back with the recession. There are knitting groups, crafts groups and book groups.”

She said that the WI was initially a country-based organisation to bring farmers’ wives together.

The urban version, however, shouldn’t be stereotyped. While crafts and the preservation of skills, are a basic ingredient of the WI, the women in the N1 branch are young professionals, many of whom haven’t yet had children.

Amy, an audiologist, said she initially joined on her own in order to make friends. “It’s really about women supporting women,” she said. “I wouldn’t want us to be stereotyped, which is why I’m trying to keep it modern.”

The N1WI meet on the last Tuesday of every month.