016 MARKING TIME WITH LOCAL LANDMARKS
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The writing’s
ON THE WALL
Beside clocks with a history,
commemorative plaques
of various shapes and colours can be found across Kent,
usually marking the location of a notable former resident. The idea of a commemorative plaque scheme was fi rst put to the House of Commons in 1863; three years later the Society of Arts (later the Royal Society of Arts) took the scheme and in the 35 years that the RSA managed the scheme, it put up 35 plaques. At the turn of the 20th century, London County Council (LCC) took over the scheme and formalised the selection criteria. It became known as the “Indication of Houses of Historical Interest in London”, a name that lasted until the Second World War. As the scheme was expanded
geographically, the commemorations became more diverse, recognising fi gures such as Sylvia Pankhurst, campaigner for women’s rights.
It is the Blue Plaques Panel which
decides who is worthy of a commemoration: recipients must have been dead for at least 20 years and must have lived at the location they are being connected with for a long time – or during an important period of their career. English Heritage took over the
scheme in 1986 and to date more than 900 offi cial plaques have been put up in London by English Heritage and its predecessors since the scheme began in 1866. A series of commemorative claret-
coloured plaques was erected across various sites in Tunbridge Wells, marking buildings of particular signifi cance in the town’s history and celebrating the lives of the many notable local fi gures. One, on the front of a Tunbridge Wells restaurant, states that author “William Makepeace Thackeray Novelist, essayist and author of Vanity Fair, Henry Esmond, Pendennis, The Newcomes and The Virginians stayed here 1860”.
OTHER LOCAL PLAQUES
• The former Chislehurst home of William Willett, renowned house- builder and the initiator of British Summer Time. • Another, in Sevenoaks, is at a house once occupied by author HG Wells [Lived in this house in 1894 whilst writing The Time Machine]. • Music venue, The Forum, on Tunbridge Wells Common was established 1993 and a plaque on the building marks that: “Joeyfat were the fi rst band on stage. They performed Piecemeal
here at 8.48pm on 15th January 1993. Forum founder member Jason Dorman played the bass guitar”. • A plaque at the former home of social reform pioneer and suffragette Amelia Scott is on the side of a house in London Road, Southborough. During her lifetime, from 1860-1929, Ms Scott was also vice-president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies for Tunbridge Wells.
• See how many you can spot in your local area and fi nd out more about English Heritage’s Blue Plaque scheme at
english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/
• West Malling’s local history society has allocated a series of unoffi cial blue plaques to a range of buildings in the town, one of the most colourful being a simple kebab house. Why? It was one of the locations used in the Beatles’ 1967 fi lm Magical Mystery Tour; John Lennon and Ringo Starr are fi lmed in the building (once a newsagent) in the opening sequence of the fi lm. The vinyl markers also carry unique QR codes, allowing smartphone users to learn more about the history behind the plaques in 12 different languages.
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