Wandsworth residents are being encouraged to participate in a guided tour around Lavender Hill, Battersea to visit the former houses of influential women.

Nine significant women from the world of politics, arts and social history lived in the Lavender Hill area at a stage in their life, including an actress, an activist and a councillor.

The Lavender Hill walk on Sunday, April 15 is a celebration of the century anniversary since women got the vote in 1918.

Jeanne Rathbone, who has lived in Battersea for more than 50 years, has organised the walk.

She said: “It is a century for the vote for women. When I started researching and putting the walk together I saw how interlinked they all were. I am on a mission to get these women celebrated and commemorated. I want to introduce as many people as I can to my new best friends.”

Here is some information about the women who resided in Lavender Hill.

Jeanie Nassau Senior was the first women civil servant and philanthropist. She was appointed as government inspector of workhouses in 1873 by president of the Local Government Board James Stansfeld.

Her associates included novelist George Eliot, artist G.F. Watts and social reformers Octavia Hill and Florence Nightingale.

Suffragette Charlotte Despard was a founding member of the Women’s Freedom League. Charlotte was initially part of the Women’s Social and Political Union run by Emmeline Pankhurst, but disagreed with the militant tactics used by the group.

Caroline Ganley MP was the first working class women in parliament. She was a school manager and was one of London’s first female magistrates. Later this year she will be commemorated with a Battersea Society blue plaque on her home in Thirsk road.

Marie Spartali was a pre-Raphaelite painter who created over one hundred and fifty paintings. She’s considered to be the greatest Pre-Raphaelite female artist and lived at the Shrubbery which is now apartments.

Deaconess Isabella Gilmore was an English church women who oversaw the revival of the Deaconess Order in the Anglican Communion. She served in the poorest parishes in South London for nearly two decades and was the sister of textile designer William Morris.

Hollywood actress Elsa Lanchester lived at 27 Leahwaite Road. Her most famous role was The Bride of Frankenstein in 1935 and her mother Edith Lanchester was an English socialist, notoriously known for being incarcerated in the Priory Hospital in Roehampton by her family after she planned to marry an Irish labourer.

Laura Barker was a composer, who lived at Lavender Sweep House. She was married to Tom Taylor, who play was being performed in front of US President Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated in 1865.

Pamela Hansford Johnson CBE was a novelist who lived at 53 Battersea Rise. She wrote 27 novels during her life and her first novel This Bed Thy Centre was published in 1935.

The walk, which is free to join, will begin at 2pm on Sunday, April 15, starting at Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill.

To take part contact Jeanne Rathbone on jeanne.rathbone@gmail.com or 020 72282327.