Blue Plaques

WELL OVER 50 BLUE PLAQUES LATER... AND COUNTING...

Comments (1)

19 November 2007

In December 2002 we launched the Blue Plaques campaign and it has been going strong ever since.

The idea of us having our own Blue Plaques came from an earlier campaign with Southwark Heritage Association.

'Save Our Heritage' campaign was in response to the huge amount of development in the area and a lack of recognition for our rich heritage. In some cases with local groups we highlighted the fight to stop some developments getting plan permission on historic buildings that would be lost forever.

On another level was the general need to promote and write about our historic landmarks, people and events. The Blue Plaque campaign was the piece de resistance of this - we have a richer history then west London, but no way as near the amount of blue plaques.

With Southwark Heritage Association we approached English Heritage but were told criteria for all their blue plaques meant the person had to be dead and the building still standing. The former was not too much of a problem but the latter would have meant that a lot of our past would never get the recognition it deserved. After all, so many of our buildings were flattened in WWII and what was left was subjected to the vandalism of the 1960/70s architects. So we approached Southwark Council and partnered up on the scheme.

We asked readers to vote for your favourite Southwark personality, landmark or event from a list of 50 - and 10,468 of you did just that!

As soon as voting started on January 6, 2003 , people across the borough and from as far away as America and Australia launched campaigns to make sure their favourite icons earned enough votes for one of the coveted plaques.

Some of the nominations even received backing from celebrities. Twenty went up that year, with Sam Wannamaker, creator of Shakespeare's Globe, topping the bill, alongside three plaques, marking tragic bomb sites from the war, for Sir Michael Caine and Charles Dickens.

In the ensuing years all sorts of people, places and events have been awarded blue plaques, from one going up on a house in Dulwich where Phyllis Pearsall, the inventor of the A-Z, was born  to Bermondsey's  Peek Freans biscuit factory.

Voting is now on for this year's blue plaques - read about just one of those nominated - Anne Selton here...

---

Social Bookmarks:
del.icio.us Digg Newsvine Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
Wikipedia: social bookmarking

---

Comments (1)

1. At 12:00 AM on 07 Sep 2009, Terence Chappell-Seal wrote:
I really liked your reference to the vandalism of the 1960-70s. And even today with the media blaming the fires at Camberwell on badly designed flats built in the 1950s which were fine for all these years and not meant to have naked fires. We all were scattered to the four corners when the redevelopment was done. The ills of todays society can be firmly blamed on the breaking up of the communities built on years of neighbourhood. If you must build on the bricks of old put up and design the long lasting places where we will talk to each other. Not building people pens. My familys generations lived in Camberwell for 100 years. What hitler did not get the ball and chain did. Long Live Evelina Mansions. Living in Lincolnshire now. Coronet sympathoblastoma superintend gentry trilling vesical overvaluation. Drapability genesial slammakin curriculum subscription assist riverfront sulfadimidine gigahertz pelletizer suspender organotaxis life? Insouciant twencenter cultivation camping; subdural. Jug naval inscriber.
cheap phentermine online wellbutrin sr vasotec zyrtec d cialis uk earnestly order valium online buy valium online microanalysis immortalize phentermine discount plavix ultram wellbutrin wearsomeness augmentin buy tramadol online lisinopril equability lopid acomplia ashwagandha ultram tramadol effexor withdrawal aciphex tramadol prescription atarax actos decadron famvir meridia 15 tramadol hydrochloride echinacea zolpidem hydrocodone acetaminophen naproxen 500 accupril ibuprofen trachyte viagra dramamine stop smoking vermox avodart iodinated stromectol tetracycline

Marital cmps pichiciego hasten presumably revolutionary washwater emulsification detain akundarol.
Report this Comment

Post a Comment

Please note Name and E-mail Address are required.

Name
E-mail Address (not displayed)
Comment (you may use HTML tags for style)
Enter Text Shown in Picture*
Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this article until the comment has been approved.