founded the Working Girls Home, a hostel in Drury Lane, London, and she established various crèches and clinics for women including what was described as 'the Home for Feeble-Minded girls' at Bodmin. Cultural heritage In 1880, Emma Cons, re-opened what is now the Old Vic Theatre in Lambeth, south London, as the Royal Victoria Coffee and Music Hall. It was "a cheap and decent place of amusement on strict temperance lines". Through this initiative, she brought the plays of William Shakespeare and also opera to working class people. In 1882, Samuel Morley began to take an interest in the affairs of the theatre, and in 1884 he joined the executive committee. He contributed a large amount of money to the scheme, and his business advice was of value. Morley College developed from the lectures given at the Old Vic. In 1896, Cons devoted her autumn holiday in Cyprus to trying to help refugee Armenians, who had fled from persecution in Turkey. In 1908, Cons became the first woman to speak at the Institute of Directors, on behalf of the South London Dwellings Company. Personal life Emma Cons died on 24 July 1912, of a cerebral haemorrhage, at Chippen's Bank, Hever, Kent, home of her friend, Ethel Everest. Her niece, Lilian Baylis (1874–1937), assisted in running the Old Vic. Her sister, Ellen Cons (1840–1920), was also closely associated with many philanthropic schemes, and was one of the governors of the Old Vic. Plaques to Emma Cons Plaques honouring Emma Cons are displayed outside the Old Vic on the corner with Waterloo Road and in the basement area bar. Another round blue plaque was put up by the Greater London Council, on the street wall of 136 Seymour Place, Marylebone, where she lived and worked. Today, the building is WLM Seymour Place. References External links Old Vic history Morton Place, Lambeth (home) Ladies First information British theatre managers and producers Women theatre managers and producers British socialists British educational theorists Women of the Victorian era Members of London County Council Businesspeople from London 1838 births 1912 deaths Model dwellings Progressive Party (London) politicians British reformers British social reformers 19th-century theatre managers 19th-century English businesspeople Women councillors in England