Hackney’s first Young Speaker Rose Ilunga attended one of her first events on Saturday as women took over Well Street Market.

%image(15031928, type="article-full", alt="Ellie Hope selling goods on the Morningside and Gascoyne Youth Clubs stall. Picture: Ian Rathbone")

The event is thought to be the first time in Britain a street market has been run by an all-female line-up.

Taking the mic, Rose told the crowd: “I’ve seen the women running the stalls and the shops and I’ve found it empowering and truly inspiring.

“I hope other young women will see they too can achieve power.”

The idea was to celebrate the centenary of some women getting the right to vote, as well as to inspire more young women to launch start-ups.

%image(15031929, type="article-full", alt="Young Speaker Rose Ilunga at one of her first events. She said: "I've seen the women running the stalls and the shops and I've found it empowering and truly inspiring and I hope that other young women will see they too can achieve power." Picture: Ian Rathbone")

In Hackney just 20pc of small-to-medium enterprises are run by women, and for start-ups that falls to only 6pc.

In a speech, Cllr Carole Williams said: “We’ve come a long way since February 1918 but we’ve still a long way to go.

“That Parliamentary change was brought about by innovative people like those who have organised this market.”