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You are here: UK History > Blue Plaques
One way to find out more about Britain’s heritage is to keep your eyes peeled for Blue Plaques that can be seen dotted around cities and towns across the country.
The Blue Plaque scheme began in London and is run by English Heritage. The point of the plaques was to celebrate links between notable figures and the buildings in the capital where they lives or worked. Since the scheme was launched it has become incredibly popular with Blue Plaque trails and hunts being a huge part of people’s itineraries when visiting London. Due to this popularity, a number of similar schemes have been launched in other parts of the UK, with plaques of various colours all run by local history groups.
English Heritage has run the blue...Read More
One way to find out more about Britain’s heritage is to keep your eyes peeled for Blue Plaques that can be seen dotted around cities and towns across the country.
The Blue Plaque scheme began in London and is run by English Heritage. The point of the plaques was to celebrate links between notable figures and the buildings in the capital where they lives or worked. Since the scheme was launched it has become incredibly popular with Blue Plaque trails and hunts being a huge part of people’s itineraries when visiting London. Due to this popularity, a number of similar schemes have been launched in other parts of the UK, with plaques of various colours all run by local history groups.
English Heritage has run the blue plaques in London since 1986, when they took over the scheme. It had been running for around 120 years before that being run by a number of different organisations.
In order to receive a plaque, the proposed recipient must have died at least 20 years ago. Installing a plaque is as much a celebration of the person than a place, so plaques are only put up if there is a surviving building closely associated with the person in question. The only exception to this rule is the plaque erected for Napolean III – he was still alive when it went up!
Many of the London Blue Plaques are hand made in Cornwall and you can always tell which ones are part of the original scheme by looking out for the inscription. Each one in the original Blue Plaque scheme will feature the name of the four organisations that have run it, so the Society of Arts, the London City Council, the Greater London Council or English Heritage.
There are over 900 official plaques in London alone! So there are plenty of opportunities to go on a hunt or trail to find all the ones near you. Not only that, but if you are following a trail, there are eighteen houses in the capital which have more than one plaque! Some examples of this include 29 Fitzroy Square, which features plaques for both George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf. Some notable people have two plaques to their name, including Mahatma Ghandi, and others have three! Former prime ministers, Lord Palmerston and William Gladstone are two such people.
While there are a number of plaques dedicated to pop stars, politicians, writers and other notables, you won’t have heard of everyone who has one. The Namer of Clouds for instance, Luke Howard, has a Blue Plaque on his former home – you’ll find it at 7 Bruce Grove in Tottenham.
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