page_title: Blue plaque
section_title: Elsewhere
hierarchical_section_title: Blue plaque / In the United Kingdom / Other schemes / Elsewhere
caption_attribution_description: English: Gateshead Blue Plaque erected in honour of William Clarke, Industrialist, in 2005. The plaque is located on the south wall of the Dell, Sheriff Hill, Gateshead
context_page_description: A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term is used in the United Kingdom in two different senses. It may be used narrowly and specifically to refer to the "official" scheme administered by English Heritage, and currently restricted to sites within Greater London; or it may be used less formally to encompass a number of similar schemes administered by organisations throughout the UK.
  The "official" scheme traces its origins to that launched in 1866 in London, on the initiative of the politician William Ewart, to mark the homes and workplaces of famous people. It has been administered successively by the Society of Arts, the London County Council, the Greater London Council and English Heritage. It remains focused on London, although between 1998 and 2005, under a trial programme since discontinued, 34 plaques were erected elsewhere in England. The first such scheme in the world, it has directly or indirectly provided the inspiration and model for many others.
context_section_description: The Birmingham Civic Society provides a blue plaque scheme in and around Birmingham: there are over 90 plaques commemorating notable former Birmingham residents and historical places of interest.
  A scheme in Manchester is co-ordinated by Manchester Art Gallery, to whom nominations can be submitted. Plaques must be funded by those who propose them. From 1960 to 1984 all plaques were ceramic, and blue in colour. From 1985, they were made of cast aluminium, colour-coded to reflect the type of commemoration (blue for people; red for events in the city's social history; black for buildings of architectural or historic interest; green for other subjects). After a period of abeyance, the scheme has been revived and all plaques are now patinated bronze.
  A blue plaque at Oldham's Tommyfield Market (Greater Manchester) marks the 1860s origin of the fish and chip shop and fast food industries.
  Bournemouth Borough Council has unveiled more than 30 blue plaques. Its first plaque was unveiled on 31 October 1937 to Lewis Tregonwell, who built the first house in what is now Bournemouth. Two further plaques followed in 1957 and 1975 to writer Robert Louis Stevenson and poet Rupert Brooke respectively. The first blue plaque was unveiled on 30 June 1985 dedicated to Percy Florence Shelley.
  The Hertfordshire town of Berkhamsted unveiled a set of 32 blue plaques in 2000 on some of the town's most significant buildings, including Berkhamsted Castle, the birthplace of writer Graham Greene and buildings associated with the poet William Cowper, John Incent (a Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral) and Clementine Churchill. The plaques feature in a Heritage Trail promoted by the town's council.
  Wolverhampton has over 90 blue plaques erected by the Wolverhampton Civic and Historical Society in a scheme which started in 1983. One of the more unusual plaques marks the location of the World Altitude Balloon Record on Friday 5 September 1862.
  The Essex town of Loughton inaugurated a scheme in 1997 following a programme allowing for three new plaques a year; 42 had been erected by 2019. The aim is to stimulate public interest in the town's heritage. Among the Loughton blue plaques is that to Mary Anne Clarke, which is in fact a pair of identical plaques, one on the back, and one on the front, of her house, Loughton Lodge.
  In 2005, Malvern Civic Society and Malvern Hills District council announced that blue plaques would be placed on buildings in Malvern that were associated with famous people, including Franklin D. Roosevelt. Since then blue plaques have been erected to commemorate C. S. Lewis, Florence Nightingale, Charles Darwin and Haile Selassie.
  In 2010, Derbyshire County Council allowed its residents to vote via the Internet on a shortlist of notable historical figures to be commemorated in a local blue plaque scheme. The first six plaques commemorated industrialist Richard Arkwright junior (Bakewell), Olave Baden-Powell and the "Father of Railways" George Stephenson (Chesterfield), the mathematical prodigy Jedediah Buxton (Elmton), actor Arthur Lowe (Hayfield), and architect Joseph Paxton (Chatsworth House).
  A long-running blue plaque scheme is in operation in Gateshead. Run by the council, the scheme was registered with English Heritage in 1970 and 29 blue plaques were installed between the inception of the scheme in 1977 and the publication of a commemorative document in 2010. The Gateshead scheme aims to highlight notable persons who lived in the borough, notable buildings within it and important historical events. Some of those commemorated through the scheme include Geordie Ridley, author of the Blaydon Races, William Wailes, a noted 19th century proponent of stained glass who lived in a "fairytale mansion" at Saltwell Park, the industrialist and co-founder of Clarke Chapman, William Clarke and Sir Joseph Swan, the inventor of the incandescent light bulb whose house in Low Fell was the first in the world to be illuminated by electric light.
  Further Gateshead blue plaques have since been erected. In 2011 plaques commemorating William Henry Brockett, 
caption: A Gateshead blue plaque honouring William Clarke
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