I spy with my little eye something that is blue… You’ll find that many of London’s buildings sport a round blue plaque on their exterior, and each one commemorates a famous person or historical event connected with the site.
Now run by English Heritage, the London blue plaques scheme was started in 1866 and is thought to be the oldest of its kind in the world.
Across the capital over 950 plaques, on buildings humble and grand, honour the notable men and women who have lived or worked in them. Discover some of the people commemorated with blue plaques, or search for a plaque, below.
With nearly a thousand permanent plaques on display, you could spend your whole vacation hunting them all down.
In 2022, the blue plaques scheme has celebrated working-class figures with exceptional stories. New plaques have commemorated the Match Girls’ Strike, which took place at the Bryant and May works in Bow in 1888; the Ayahs’ Home in Hackney for stranded South and East Asian nannies; the self-taught physicist and telecommunications theorist Oliver Heaviside; and the former Hanwell Asylum, where Dr John Conolly transformed the care of mental illness.
Other 2022 plaques commemorate the ‘Grand Old Man of India’ Dadabhai Naoroji; the astronomers Walter and Annie Maunder; artist and designer Enid Marx; the philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin; landscape gardener Fanny Wilkinson; pioneering television producer Grace Wyndham Goldie; and Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, one of the most influential international lawyers of the 20th century.
The English Heritage London blue plaques scheme is generously supported by David Pearl and members of the public.
