English Heritage – Some of our Blue Plaques are Missing

London is littered with Blue Plaques on buildings announcing to all that pass that Someone Famous once lived or worked there. But quite a lot of them have gone missing over the years, and now English Heritage wants to know what happened to them.

Now, English Heritage is calling on the public to help uncover information which could lead to the return of lost plaques, if they survive.

Plaques that are no longer installed on a building may have been lost due to war damage, demolition or during refurbishments. English Hertige is asking for the surviving plaques to be returned so they can be conserved and even re-installed at an alternative address if any can be found.

The appeal comes as they announce a new plaque to surgeon, Joseph Lister, whose original plaque disappeared (for the second time) during building work in 2017.

Most of the ‘lost’ plaques date from the time when the London County Council ran the scheme, and will bear that name on them, or the initials ‘LCC’. Plaques that are no longer installed on a building may have been lost due to war damage, demolition or during refurbishments.

And most are ceramic roundels – like the plaques of today – but may be blue, brown or terracotta in colour.

The very first blue plaque was awarded to the poet Lord Byron in 1867, but his house in Holles Street, near Cavendish Square, was demolished in 1889, and his plaque was lost.

Some other lost plaques include:

• Sir David Wilkie (lost 1931)
• Henry Handel Richardson (1963)
• William Hogarth (1920s)
• Strype Street, home of the historian and biographer John Strype (by 2005)
• Francis Trevelyan Buckland (1961)
• Francis Baily (1952)
• John Milton (1901)
• Arthur Sullivan (1964)
• Charles Turner (1990s)

Members of the public with any information on missing plaques should contact [email protected].