….spotting London’s blue plaques
Blue plaques commemorate the lives and homes of London’s most interesting inhabitants. Strolling around near our Long Acre store we can see plaques dedicated to famous figures including Benjamin Franklyn, Samuel Pepys and Margot Fonteyn to name just a few.
English Heritage accepts nominations from the public concerning people who deserve plaques. The criteria states that the recipient must have died over 20 years ago.
Something to look out for:
There are four plaques dedicated to figures associated with the London Underground, all of which contain the ‘Johnston’ typeface, a font that was developed especially for the London Underground by Edward Johnston.
Also, not all blue plaques are blue. Since the scheme began 150 years ago the plaques have been lots of different shapes, sizes and colours before settling on the blue round ceramic ones that have become so iconic.
This English Heritage book celebrates 150 years of their blue plaques with information on people and places as well as maps and lots of photographic images.
We have organised a blue plaque tour of Bloomsbury, led by blue plaque historian, Howard Spencer. The walking tour will leave our Long Acre store at 12pm tomorrow (Thursday 27th October), for tickets see: eventbrite.co.uk
