Plaque Guide

What is it?

PlaqueGuide.com provides biographical portraits of plaques that have been erected by cities across the world to commemorate the fantastic achievements of their previous inhabitants and the positive and lasting contribution they have made to our present day welfare and happiness.

Plaque Guide was launched by David in July 2010 and is sponsored by the Ordnance Survey and the Technology Strategy Board.

David Coughlan

Prior to founding Plaque Guide in 2010, David worked for the Research Councils UK developing document exchange web services. David then took a year off to develop his Plaque Guide idea and after entering his prototype website in the 2009 GeoVation Challenge. David won 3rd place and was awarded seed funding by Ordnance Survey in January 2010 to develop his idea further.

GeoVation Awards

The GeoVation Awards Programme encourages and supports innovation for social, economic and environmental benefit through the use of Geography.

Judges

• James Alexander

  Founder of Green Thing and zopa.com

• Garry Gale

  Head of Geospatial Engineering, Yahoo!

• Steve Coast

  Founder of OpenStreetMap

• James Cutler

  CEO of eMapSite

• Peter terHaar

  Director of Products at Ordnance Survey

• Steven Feldman

  GeoVation Champion and Chair of the GeoVation Judging Panel

• Chris Parker

  Head of Research & Innovation at Ordnance Survey

• Ian Holt

  Senior Research Scientist and Technical Product Manager at Ordnance Survey

1. GeoVation Plaque Guide Shortlisted in top ten
2. GeoVation Showcase on YouTube
3. GeoVation Plaque Guide scoops third prize of £3,000 seed funding

On the Podium

"Achieving a podium in the Royal Geographical Society's Lowther Lodge lecture theatre in such exalted company and surroundings was naturally a huge honour and confidence-booster. I feel very proud and privileged to be on the receiving end of the GeoVation network's invaluable support, funding and encouragement in developing my humble little dream into an exciting new public service."

geo.me

geo.me, a UK startup specialising in location-centric web services, were fellow GeoVation 2009 finalists. Following the event, David Coughlan collaborated with geo.me to design the production Plaque Guide website. The healthy and agile working relationship that has developed between Plaque Guide and geo.me is a testament to the spirit of collaboration fostered by the GeoVation Awards.

Features

1. Maps - choice of standard, terrain, hybrid, aerial and night.
2. Smart search - by name, category, notoriety and lots more.
3. Wikipedia - detailed biographies of the plaques and markers.
4. Google Street View - jump into the map and have a wander around.
5. Directions - walking or driving with nearest train stations.
6. Contribute and Feedback - crowd-sourcing tool.
7. Administration - maintain your site online.
8. Webservice - raw plaque and marker data available in all the popular data exchange formats (XML, JSON etc).
9. Mobile App - for iPhone/iPad/Android/Blackberry - on the drawing-board with radar and augmented reality modes.

If you are an App developer and want to be involved then please get in touch.

History matters

London Blue Plaques act as permanent portals that connect us with the city's remarkable past and heritage. They invoke a sense of place and a sense of time. They encourage our youthful generations to look back and that helps them define their own identities as individuals, communities and nations. Allowing them to better understand the modern world around them and their role as responsible and productive citizens within it.

Plaques gently remind us all during our busy days that the inherited principles that we take for granted and hold so dear were born out of the blood, suffering and amazing achievements of the men and women that came before us. So it is our job and challenge to pass on this information in a fun and exciting way that engages and inspires every generation's youth.

Plaques enable us to tread the pathways and walk in the footsteps of our influential ancestors that would otherwise have been lost in time and forgotten. They are valuable educational tools which help make sense of the world we live in today. Behind each conceals a fantastic life story and very often entire societies so unsurprisingly they are very popular tourist attractions in their own right. Their very existence on the buildings they adorn also benefit from the strict protection that Grade I listed status provides.

Plaque Guide's mission is clear. It is to invite, challenge and encourage all residents of every city in the world to contribute their own plaques.

Sponsors

1. Ordnance Survey
2. Ideas in Transit
3. Technology Strategy Board
4. ESRI UK

Links

1. History Association
2. Guardian
3. Ordnance Survey

Kind words

"The standard of entries was fantastic and the scope of them far-reaching and varied. Each of the finalists can and should be proud of getting to the finals and being able to showcase their geo-vision."
Gary Gale. Director of Engineering at Yahoo.

"We launched GeoVation because we believe that geography can play an important part in addressing some big challenges. It's very exciting that such brilliant ideas have now been given the means to bring their projects to life. Our team are all looking forward to helping them to succeed over the next few months."
John Abbott. Ordnance Survey.

"You may say that Stephen Fry supports your idea."
Jo Crocker. PA to Stephen Fry.

"It's a lovely idea! I liked it a lot."
Jerry Brotton. Professor of Renaissance Studies, School of English & Drama, Queen Mary, University of London.

"Congratulation for your work which is absolutely amazing!"
Gabrielle Mulas-Thorogood. Présidente Association Corse du Royaume-Uni Pasquale Paoli.

Ordnance Survey

For their impressive OpenSpace Application Programming Interface (API) providing a lovely rich and detailed map.

1. OpenSpace Home
2. OpenSpace Forum

Google

For their impressive and FREE Application Programming Interface (API) providing Map and Street Views together with Image, Video, Web and Book search results.

1. What is the Google Maps API?

Design and Art Work

Images

Wikipedia

For providing their FREE Encyclopedia.

London Blue Plaque History

The Blue Plaque Scheme was first raised in the House of Commons on 17 July 1863 by William Ewart, who proposed inscribing "on those houses in London which have been inhabited by celebrated persons, the names of such persons".

On 6th August 1864 'A London Wayfarer' wrote to 'The Builder' in support of Ewart's idea, emphasising the "duty which the society of the present generation owe to the next and succeeding ones". Another correspondent felt that marking "in a permanent manner" the houses of notable persons would be "the means of saving many a relic which will otherwise be ruthlessly swept away".

The Scheme was founded a few years later in 1866 by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) so that the plaques might give pleasure to "travellers up and down in omnibuses" and that they "might sometimes prove an agreeable and instructive mode of beguiling a somewhat dull and not very rapid progress through the streets".

The persons to be commemorated with "memorial tablets" should have "made some important positive contribution to human welfare and happiness" and must "deserve national recognition".

1901~1965 London County Council (LCC)

The London County Council (LCC) inherited the scheme in 1901. The then serving Clerk, Sir Lawrence Gomme, who was a vital figure in the early history of the scheme, encouraged the LCC to see them as "one of the most important matters in which the council, under the powers of two Acts of Parliament authorising such work, can with advantage take action". Adding that although the inherited list had "some remarkable omissions", it could be "taken as a nucleus for the Council to work on".

The scheme gained a democratic base after Gomme further recommended that "a register should be kept of suggested houses, including therein any suggestions from members of the Council or the public press or which might occur to myself or to the librarian in the course of investigations into the history of a particular locality".

The first Chairman of the LCC Lord Rosemery gave three reasons why the LCC would continue the scheme: first, that the tablets added to the amenities of London streets by calling attention to houses or places with interesting associations; second, that they provided the means of honouring famous Londoners or famous visitors to London; and third, that they could give accurate information about London History based on official records. Sir Howard Roberts later added a fourth in 1954: the presence of a tablet can serve as an incentive to the preservation of buildings of historical interest threatened with demolition.

Gomme predicted that the work on the 'Survey of London' in 1910 would provide "a systematic, if slow and piecemeal, topographical survey of houses with historical associations".

1965~1986 Greater London Council (GLC)

The Greater London Council (GLC) inherited the scheme in 1965.

1986~present English Heritage (EH)

English Heritage inherited the scheme in 1986 after the abolition of the GLC, by which time 530 plaques had been erected. The LCC maintaining the plaques "have proved their value" adding the 'twenty-year' rule stating that the person must have been dead for twenty years or have passed the centenary of their birth., thereby ensuring the person's name and reputation will stand the test of time. English Heritage receives about a hundred suggestions for blue plaques each year, nearly all from the members of the general public. If you want to propose a plaque yourself the English Heritage selection criteria are persons should:

• Be regarded as eminent by a majority of members of their own profession or calling.
• Have made an important positive contribution to human welfare or happiness.
• Have resided in London for a significant period, in time or importance, within their life and work.
• Have had such exceptional and outstanding personalities that the well-informed passer-by immediately recognises their names.
• Deserve Recognition.

London

The minute you arrive and settle into London you become a Londoner and the broad range of persons remembered says as much about the hospitable nature of London as it does about the people that have sought refuge in it throughout the centuries. Benjamin Disraeli famously once described London as a 'roost for every bird' and that still holds true today.

The sculptor Sir William Reed Dick wrote in 1953, "in their full range these plaques build up a many-sided picture of the city's achievements, bringing home to one a more complete idea of the activities of different ages. Buildings are, after all, more than just bricks and mortar: they are the theatres in which our lives are enacted".

Sources and Recommended Reading

The above extracts and quotes have been taken from two highly recommended books: Lived in London: Blue plaques and the stories behind them. By English Heritage. Edited by Emily Cole with a forward by Stephen Fry; and The London Blue Plaque Guide. By Nick Rennison.

It is hoped that this website, and future smart-phone application, will compliment the research already performed by many a scholar in producing books not unlike Lived in London, which Stephen Fry described as "a perfect companion for anyone who has ever looked up and wondered..."

Lived In London - Blue Plaques and the stories behind them

The London Blue Plaque Guide