Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker.
The term is used in the United Kingdom in two senses. It may be used narrowly and specifically to refer to the "official" scheme administered by English Heritage, and for much of its history restricted to sites within Greater London; or it may be used less formally to encompass a number of similar schemes administered by organisations throughout the UK. The plaques erected are made in a variety of designs, shapes, materials and colours: some are blue, others are not. However, the term "blue plaque" is often used informally to encompass all such schemes.
History
The "official" scheme traces its origins to that launched in 1866 in London, on the initiative of the politician William Ewart, to mark the homes and workplaces of famous people. The first such scheme in the world, it has provided inspiration and model for many others. The scheme has been administered successively by the Society of Arts, the London County Council, the Greater London Council and English Heritage. It was initially focused on Greater London, although between 1998 and 2005, under a trial programme since discontinued, 34 plaques were erected elsewhere in England. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 extended the scheme to the whole of England though the plaques since erected outside of London have been put up by Historic England rather than English Heritage.Many other plaque schemes have been initiated in the United Kingdom. Some are restricted to a geographical area, others to a particular theme of historical commemoration. They are administered by a range of bodies including local authorities, civic societies, residents' associations and other organisations such as the Transport Trust, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America and the British Comic Society.
There are commemorative plaque schemes throughout the world such as those in Paris, Rome, Oslo, and Dublin and in cities in Australia, Canada, the Philippines, Russia, and the United States. These take various forms and they are more likely to be known as commemorative plaques or historical markers.
English Heritage scheme
The original blue plaque scheme was established by the Society of Arts in 1867, and since 1986 has been run by English Heritage. It is the oldest such scheme in the world.After being conceived by politician William Ewart in 1863, the scheme was initiated in 1866 by Ewart, Henry Cole and the Society of Arts, which erected plaques in a variety of shapes and colours.
The first plaque was unveiled in 1867 to commemorate Lord Byron at his birthplace, 24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square. This house was demolished in 1889. The earliest blue plaque to survive, also put up in 1867, commemorates Napoleon III in King Street, St James's. Byron's plaque was blue, but the colour was changed by the manufacturer Minton, Hollins & Co to chocolate brown to save money. The first woman to be honoured with a plaque was the actor Sarah Siddons in 1876. The plaque, placed on her house in Marylebone, London, was retrieved when the house was demolished in 1905 and is now held in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
In total, the Society of Arts put up 35 plaques, fewer than half of which survive today. The Society only erected one plaque within the square-mile of the City of London, that to Samuel Johnson on his house in Gough Square, in 1876. In 1879, it was agreed that the City of London Corporation would be responsible for erecting plaques within the City to recognise its jurisdictional independence. This demarcation has remained ever since.
In 1901, the Society of Arts scheme was taken over by the London County Council, which gave much thought to the future design of the plaques. It was eventually decided to keep the basic shape and design of the Society's plaques, but to make them uniformly blue, with a laurel wreath and the LCC's title. Though this design was used consistently from 1903 to 1938, some experimentation occurred in the 1920s, and plaques were made in bronze, stone and lead. Shape and colour also varied.
File:Sir JACK COHEN 1898-1979 Entrepreneur Founder of Tesco Stores lived here as a child.jpg|thumbnail|upright=0.9|English Heritage blue plaque erected in 2009 at 91 Ashfield Street, Whitechapel, London commemorating Jack Cohen, founder of Tesco supermarkets.
In 1921, the most common plaque design was revised, as it was discovered that glazed Royal Doulton stoneware was cheaper than the encaustic formerly used. In 1938, a new plaque design was prepared by an unnamed student at the LCC's Central School of Arts and Crafts and was approved by the committee. It omitted the decorative elements of earlier plaque designs, and allowed for lettering to be better spaced and enlarged. A white border was added to the design shortly after, and this has remained the standard ever since. No plaques were erected between 1915 and 1919, or between 1940 and 1947, owing to the two world wars. The LCC formalised the selection criteria for the scheme in 1954.
When the LCC was abolished in 1965, the scheme was taken over by the Greater London Council. The principles of the scheme changed little, but now applied to the entire, much larger, administrative county of Greater London. The GLC was also keen to broaden the range of people commemorated. The GLC erected 252 plaques, the subjects including Sylvia Pankhurst, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Mary Seacole.
In 1986, the GLC was disbanded and the blue plaques scheme passed to English Heritage. English Heritage erected more than 300 plaques in London. In January 2013 English Heritage suspended proposals for plaques owing to funding cuts. The National Trust's chairman stated that his organisation might step in to save the scheme. In the event the scheme was relaunched by English Heritage in June 2014 with private funding. Four members of the advisory panel resigned over this transmutation. Professor David Edgerton and author and critic Gillian Darley were concerned that the scheme had been "reduced to a marketing tool for English Heritage". The vice chair Dr Celina Fox and Dr Margaret Pelling stated that the scheme was "being dismantled and its previous achievements discredited".
In April 2015, English Heritage was divided into two parts, Historic England, and the new English Heritage Trust. Responsibility for the blue plaque scheme passed to the English Heritage Trust.
The 1,000th plaque, marking the offices of the Women's Freedom League, 1908–1915, was unveiled in 2023.
Criteria
To be eligible for an English Heritage blue plaque in London, the famous person concerned must:- Have been dead for 20 years. Fictional characters are not eligible;
- Be considered eminent by a majority of members of their own profession; have made an outstanding contribution to human welfare or happiness;
- Have lived or worked in that building in London for a significant period, in time or importance, within their life and work; be recognisable to the well-informed passer-by, or deserve national recognition.
With regards to the location of a plaque:
- Plaques can only be erected on the actual building inhabited by a figure, not the site where the building once stood, or on buildings that have been radically altered;
- Plaques are not placed onto boundary walls, gate piers, educational or ecclesiastic buildings, or the Inns of Court;
- Buildings marked with plaques should be visible from the public highway;
- A single person may not be commemorated with more than one blue plaque in London.
Selection process
Almost all the proposals for English Heritage blue plaques are made by members of the public who write or email the organisation before submitting a formal proposal.English Heritage's in-house historian researches the proposal, and the Blue Plaques Panel advises on which suggestions should be successful. This is composed of 12 people from various disciplines from across the country. The panel is chaired by Professor William Whyte. Other members include Richard J. Aldrich, Mihir Bose, Andrew Graham-Dixon, Claire Harman, Gus Casely-Hayford and Amy Lame. The actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry was formerly a member of the panel, and wrote the foreword to the book Lived in London: Blue Plaques and the Stories Behind Them.
Roughly a third of proposals are approved in principle, and are placed on a shortlist. Because the scheme is so popular, and because a lot of detailed research has to be carried out, it takes about three years for each case to reach the top of the shortlist. Proposals not taken forward can only be re-proposed once 10 years have elapsed.