Doing a spot of historic plaque spotting on our travels.
Travelling around as much as Emily and I do its inevitable things leap out of the surrounding area and catch our eye.
While we are primarily interested in visiting each and every seaside in the UK (175 and counting) and all of the country’s Miniature Golf courses (currently at
536) over the years our interest has been piqued by a wide-range of other bits and pieces.
The latest ‘thing’ that’s piqued our interest is Plaques.
Last year I bought a book called
'Signs of life', by Dave Askwith and Alex Normanton, that contained photos of spoof signs and mock street furniture the pair had created and put up around the country. One of the photos showed a faux 'English Heritage' Blue Plaque commemorating the ‘famous’ Jacob von Hogflume (1864-1909) – a noted Time Traveller who lived at the site of the blue plaque in
Golden Square, London in the year 2063! Oh yes he exists, he’s even on
twitter so he must be real.
Sadly when I visited the location in the book the plaque was no longer there, instead I snapped this legitimate blue plaque put up by
English Heritage.
 |
| The Marquess of Pombal lived here. Jacob Von Hogflume will live there in the future |
Historic plaques come in a number of shapes, sizes and colours, and act as historical markers commemorating links between famous people or events. There is a range of criteria as to how one gets installed and by who, and we’ve spotted a lot of different types on our travels. One of my favourite ‘spots’ to date was in Enfield, Middlesex recently.
.JPG "Me and the plaque that commemorates Reg 'Stan Butler' Varney's use of the world's first cash machine in Enfield!") |
| Me and the plaque that commemorates Reg 'Stan Butler' Varney's use of the world's first cash machine in Enfield! |
Ahead of our visit I’d consulted the excellent
Londonist website for ideas of places to go and things to see in Enfield. As well as the great riverside pub –
The Crown and Horseshoes – the
Londonist article reminded me that Enfield’s branch of Barclay’s bank was the location of the world’s very first cash machine – opened and used by Reg Varney in 1967!
Do check out the
Open Plaques website for details of plaques worldwide. If you spot any that aren’t on the site do let them know as they are keen for more
contributors.
So far we've spotted a variety of plaques including blue, green, red, black, brown, gold, silver ones; ones that are official, some unofficial; round ones, square ones, rectangular one, oval ones; plain ones and some more fancy. And by the looks of the
Open Plaques website and community there are thousands more to find!
As well as the English Heritage plaques we've spotted those put up by the Cecil Court Traders' Association, the Stone Federation, the City of Westminster, Westminster City Council, Hastings Borough Council, the London County Council, Bournemouth Borough Council, Worthing Borough Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Walton Community Forum, Barnard Council Town Council, The Corporation of the City of London, The Ipswich Society, the Greater London Council, Barclays Bank Plc, Luton Borough Council, the African Caribbean Community Development Forum, the Rotary Clubs of Worthing and Worthing Steyne, Heritage in Sutton and the Republic of Texas!
Here’s a selection of our favourite plaques spotted so far…
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.jpg "A wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man in Stockport")
.jpg "A wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man in Stockport")
.jpg "A wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man in Stockport")
+-+Copy.jpg "The Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man at the Golden Disc Amusement Arcade in Ayr, Scotland")
.JPG "Me and the plaque that commemorates Reg 'Stan Butler' Varney's use of the world's first cash machine in Enfield!")
.JPG "At the headquarters of the Monster Raving Loony Party in Llanyrtd Wells, Wales with my World Alternative Games Egg Throwing Championship winning team-mate Jas Kukielka")
.JPG "One of the many plaques on the Barnard Castle Blue Plaque Trail")
.jpg "Cecil Court Traders' Association in London has a number of historic plaques")
.jpg "Cecil Court Traders' Association in London has a number of historic plaques")
.jpg "Cecil Court Traders' Association in London has a number of historic plaques")
.jpg "Chatham House didn't keep this huge blue plaque quiet")
.jpg "The Old Bank House in Hastings, East Sussex")
.jpg "The Communications Building in London's Leicester Square has two brown plaques for Sir Joshua Reynolds")
.jpg "A fuller view of the lower brown plaque for Sir Joshua Reynolds")
.jpg "The Piece of Cheese Cottage in Hastings, East Sussex")
.jpg "One of The Ipswich Society's new blue plaques")
.jpg "A rectangular blue plaque in Luton, Bedfordshire")
.JPG "The new Minigolf course in Barnard Castle, County Durham has a plaque in memory of the man responsible for bringing Minigolf to the town")
.JPG "A close-up of the dedication plaque to Alan Wilkinson on the Barnard Castle Minigolf course")
.jpg "The train station in Needham Market, Suffolk has a variety of blue plaques on the station house building")
.jpg "Blue plaque at the Tom Cribb pub on Panton Street in London")
.jpg "Blue board/plaque at the Tom Cribb pub in London")
.jpg "Gold plaque at the Tom Cribb pub in London")
.JPG "Heritage in Sutton has put up quite a few very interesting red plaques around Carshalton")
.JPG "One of the redder red plaques in Carshalton")
.jpg "A small and high up plaque in Hastings' Old Town")
.jpg "The house where T.E. Lawrence lived in Westminster, London")
.jpg "The City of Westminster has a lot of green plaques dotted around the borough")
.jpg "There's an intriguing plaque at Pickering Place in London")
.jpg "A close-up of the Texas Legation gold plaque in London")
.jpg "One of Worthing's many plaques")
.jpg "A nice plaque on a nice building in Worthing, West Sussex")
.jpg "Hastings has a Winkle Island")
.jpg "The Pedestrian Shopping Street in Hastings was re-opened by Carry on... star Bernard Bresslaw in 1987!")
.JPG "The blue plaque at the train station in Walton on the Naze in Essex")
.JPG "A close-up of the Walton Station Hotel blue plaque")