Blue plaque

Greater London Council event plaque[19] at Alexandra Palace, commemorating the launch of BBC Television in 1936 (erected 1977)

To be eligible for an English Heritage blue plaque in London, the famous person concerned must:[20]

• Have been dead for 20 years or have passed the centenary of their birth. 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 (excluding the City of London and Whitehall) 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.

In cases of foreigners and overseas visitors, candidates should be of international reputation or significant standing in their own country.

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.[20]

Other schemes have different criteria, which are often less restrictive: in particular, it is common under other schemes for plaques to be erected to mark the sites of demolished buildings.

English Heritage plaque[21] at 40 Falkner Square, Liverpool, commemorating Peter Ellis, architect (erected 2001)

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.[22]

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 (as at September 2023) include Richard J. Aldrich, Mihir Bose, Andrew Graham-Dixon, Claire Harman, Gus Casely-Hayford and Amy Lame.[23] 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 (2009).[24]

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.[20]

From 1923, soon after the standardisation of the design in 1921, the plaques were manufactured by Royal Doulton which continued their production until 1955.[25] From 1984 until 2015 they were made by Frank Ashworth at his studio in Cornwall, and were then inscribed by his wife.[26] From 1955 to 1985 the lettering for the plaques was designed in the Roman lettering style by Henry Hooper.[27][28] Since 2015, the plaques have been made by Ned Heywood, a potter, at his workshop in Chepstow, Wales.[18] Each plaque is made entirely by hand.[29][30]

A small minority of GLC and English Heritage plaques have been erected to commemorate events which took place at particular locations rather than the famous people who lived there.

In 1998, English Heritage initiated a trial national plaques scheme, and over the following years erected 34 plaques in Birmingham, Merseyside, Southampton and Portsmouth. The scheme was discontinued in 2005, although English Heritage continued to provide advice and guidance to individuals and organisations outside of London wanting to develop local schemes.[31] In September 2023 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced the reintroduction of a national scheme, with Historic England as the leader developer.[32]

The Corporation of London continues to run its own plaque scheme for the City of London, where English Heritage does not erect plaques. City of London plaques are blue and ceramic, but are rectangular in shape and carry the City of London coat of arms.[3][34] Because of the rapidity of change in the built environment within the City, a high proportion of Corporation of London plaques mark the sites of former buildings.

Many of the 32 London boroughs also now have their own schemes, running alongside the English Heritage scheme. Westminster City Council runs a green plaque scheme, each plaque being sponsored by a group with a particular interest in its subject.[35] The London Borough of Southwark started its own blue plaque scheme in 2003, under which the borough awards plaques through popular vote following public nomination: living people may be commemorated.[36] The London Borough of Islington has a similar green heritage plaque scheme, initiated in 2010.[37]

Other plaques may be erected by smaller groups, such as residents' associations. In 2007 the Hampstead Garden Suburb Residents Association erected a blue plaque in memory of Prime Minister Harold Wilson at 12 Southway as part of the suburb's centenary celebrations.

• 
  Corporation of London plaque on the site of Lloyd's Coffee House in Lombard Street
• 
  City of Westminster green plaque at 18 Cavendish Square, Marylebone, commemorating Josef Dallos, contact lens pioneer (erected 2010)
• 
  Corporation of London plaque on the site of John Keats' birthplace
• 
  City of Westminster green plaque commemorating Laura Ashley

• 
  A Gateshead blue plaque commemorating William Clarke, co-founder of the engineering firm Clarke Chapman.
• 
  Plaque in Oldham marking the origin of the fish and chip shop and the fast food industry.
• 
  The first Swindon Heritage blue plaque, commemorating suffragette Edith New, who was one of the first two suffragettes to use vandalism as a tactic.
• 
  Oxfordshire blue plaque commemorating the first sub-4-minute mile run by Roger Bannister on 6 May 1954 at the University of Oxford's Iffley Road track.

In Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council and the Ulster History Circle are among a small number of groups administering blue plaques.[74] Established in 1983, the Ulster History Circle has erected around 260.[75][76] Its scope extends into the Republic of Ireland, covering all nine counties of Ulster, the northern province in Ireland.[77] Elsewhere in the Republic, schemes are operated through local authorities[78] and civic societies.[79]

Historic Environment Scotland, the Scottish heritage agency, has previously operated a national commemorative plaques scheme but, as of 2023, this was inactive.[80] Regional schemes are run by local authorities.[81][82]

Wales does not operate a national blue plaque scheme, although Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the Senedd, called in 2022 for the introduction of a country-wide approach.[83] Regional schemes are operated by local authorities[84][85] and civic societies.[86]

• 
  Blue plaque in Belfast commemorating Isabella Tod, founder of the Irish Women's Suffrage Society
• 
  Blue plaque in Jedburgh commemorating John Ainslie, surveyor and cartographer
• 
  Blue plaque in Rhiwbina Garden Village commemorating Iorwerth Peate, first director of St Fagans National Museum of History
• 
  Blue plaque commemorating Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin, poet, at Waterford County Waterford

There also exist several nationwide schemes sponsored by special-interest bodies, which erect plaques at sites or buildings with historical associations within their particular sphere of activity.

• The Transport Trust's Red Wheel scheme erects red plaques on sites of significance in the evolution of transport.[87]
• The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America erects blue plaques on sites associated with notable music hall and variety artistes, mainly in the London area.
• The British Comedy Society (previously known as the Dead Comics' Society) erects blue plaques on the former homes of well-known comedians, including those of Sid James and John Le Mesurier.
• The Royal Society of Chemistry's Chemical Landmark Scheme erects hexagonal blue plaques to mark sites where the chemical sciences are considered to have made a significant contribution to health, wealth, or quality of life.[88]
• The Institute of Physics installs circular blue plaques to celebrate physicists' lives or work at various locations in the Great Britain and Ireland. Plaques exist in Edinburgh for Thomas Henderson and Thomas David Anderson, at Glasgow for Alexander Wilson and William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, at Eskdalemuir Observatory for Lewis Fry Richardson, at the birthplace of Charles Thomson Rees Wilson in the Pentland Hills, at Leeds for William Henry Bragg and at Aberdeen for George Paget Thomson.[89] In 2015, Peter Higgs unveiled his own plaque, installed on the building in which he had predicted the Higgs boson.[90]
• Rainbow plaques commemorate LGBT people, events or sites. They have been erected by different bodies, but are distinguished by having rainbow colours around the circumference.[91][92]

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  Transport Trust plaque at Hythe Pier and Railway, Hythe, Hampshire, the oldest working pier railway in the world
• 
  Royal Society of Chemistry plaque on the Chemistry Department of University College London, recording the work carried out there by Sir Christopher Ingold (erected 2008)
• 
  Institute of Physics plaque on the Parkinson Building, University of Leeds, recording the work carried out there by Sir William Henry Bragg
• 
  Rainbow plaque outside Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York, erected by York Civic Trust in 2018 to commemorate Anne Lister and Ann Walker