PETERBOROUGH BLUE PLAQUES An updated version produced by Civic Society

Visit peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk ‘Seeking the best for a fine city’ 02 Blue plaques in & around Peterborough

City Centre 18 15 These plaques commemorate people and 01 places in Peterborough city centre and beyond. 19 20 For more information about the history 05 03 associated with each plaque please visit 14 the Peterborough Civic Society website. 22 21 06 Plaques Page 04 01. King’s School 01 02. Sage Family 02 30 03. Marjorie Pollard 03 31 04. Great Barn 03 05. Daphne Jackson 04 28 07 06. John Thompson Jnr. 05 07. Theatre Royal 06 29 08. Embassy Theatre 06 09 09. Public Library 07 10. Peterborough County Court 07 08 11. Thomas James Walker 08 12 12. Shopping Arcade 09 11 10 13. Parish Burial Ground 09 14. Deacon’s School 10 15. Cumbergate 10 16. Memorial Hospital 11 16 13 25 17. Arthur James Robertson 12 17 18. John Addy 12 19. The Guildhall 13 23 26 20. WW1 Recruitment O ice 14 31 21. ’s Gaol & King’s Lodging 14 22. St 15 24 23. Simon Gunton 16 24. ’s Hall 16 25. John Fletcher 17 27 26. Laurel Court/ 18 27. Lido 19 28. Town Hall 19 29. Angel Inn 20 32 33 30. Thomas Hake 20 31. Peterborough Museum 21 32. The Customs House 22 36 33. Town Bridge 22 34. East Station 23 35. Engine Shed 23 34 35 36. London Brick Company 24 02

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Plaque 36, London Brick Company, 36 is at the junction of London Road with St Margaret’s Road 34 35 (PE2 9DS) 01 King’s School

The King’s (The Cathedral) School was Until 1976 the School was a grammar school established by King Henry VIII in 1541 as part for around 450 boys. It then became a of the Cathedral foundation for the education coeducational Church of of “twenty poor boys”. comprehensive school. It is one of seven King’s Schools endowed The larger image above is taken from a postcard during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. circa 1906 showing the school in its current The School moved from the Minster Park Road location. The smaller image is of the Precincts to its current site in Park Road in school’s previous location in Minster Precincts. 1885 and continues to maintain close links with including educating boy and girl choristers.

01 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 02 John and Annie Sage

The Sage family lived in Gladstone Street where Stella Anne (born 1891); George John (born they kept a small bakery and shop. They were 1892); Douglas Bullen (born 1894); Frederick originally from Hackney in London and had (born 1895); Dorothy Florence (born 1897); moved to Peterborough circa 1906/7 after Elizabeth Ada (born 1901); Constance Gladys running a pub in King’s Lynn for two years. (born 1904) and Thomas Henry (born 1907) John decided to try his luck in the USA where he and their parents were never seen again. put a deposit on a farm in Jacksonville, Florida. He then returned to England to collect his family, many of whom were not keen to move. The family was due to travel on the Philadelphia, a ship which sailed out of Liverpool, but this voyage was cancelled due to a coal strike. Instead the family embarked on the Titanic 02 which hit an iceberg and sank on 4 April 1912. The only body to be recovered was that of 13-year-old Will.

Peterborough Blue Plaques 03 Marjorie Pollard

Marjorie Pollard, born in 1899, was educated in England’s 20-0 win over Wales in 1926 and at the County Grammar School for Girls, all the goals in the 8-0 defeat of Germany. Peterborough. She played hockey for She later became acting president of the All- Peterborough and and England Women’s Hockey Association and was later became one of England’s finest hockey a founding member of the England Women’s players with caps from 1921 to 1937. She was a Cricket Association. prolific goal scorer, famously scoring 13 goals

04 Great Barn

Rothesay Villas, built 1892/3, stands near the Had Boroughbury Barn survived it would site of the Boroughbury Barn, the great barn have ranked with the greatest aisled barns of the ’s manorial of England. The photograph depicts the grange; in e ect his home farm. The extensive magnificent aisled timber-framed interior with estates were divided into manors for eight bays. It was demolished in 1892 by local agricultural production and management. entrepreneur James McCullum Craig.

03 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 05 Daphne Jackson

Daphne Jackson was born in 1936 in Willesden and the National Radiological Protection Board. Avenue and educated at the County Grammar She also became active in encouraging women School for Girls and at Imperial College, London. into science and engineering and launched a In her academic career she specialised in the Women Returners Fellowship scheme to assist fundamental nature of nuclear reactions and women to resume their careers following later in the applications of nuclear physics a break. She died in 1991 but the Daphne especially to medicine. As professor of physics Jackson Trust continues her work through its at the University of Surrey she published widely, Fellowships for individuals returning to research served on many national scientific bodies STEM (science, technology, engineering and including the boards of The Science mathematics), social sciences and related and Engineering Research Council disciplines.

Peterborough Blue Plaques 04 06 John Thompson Jnr.

The Lindens, built c.1865, was the home of master-builder John Thompson Jnr. Thompson and Sons’ first major project was the re-ordering Peterborough Cathedral’s Choir in the 1820’s followed by work to the Choir of . John Thompson Snr. died in 1853, John Jnr. taking over full control of the firm. From then on the operation burgeoned and the watchword, when architect and client faced structural challenge, became “Get Thompson of Peterborough”. Major Cathedral restoration projects followed at Hereford, Chester, Ripon, Lichfield, Bangor and Peterborough and at many major parish churches. New building work included the chapel of Balliol College, Oxford (architect William Butterfield), Glasgow University (Sir G.G. Scott) and W.H. Crossland’s Royal Holloway College. John Thompson Jnr. died in 1898 having been an Alderman of the city and twice its Mayor. The firm continued until it was forced into voluntary liquidation in 1931 whilst The main road north out of Peterborough constructing Peterborough Town Hall. towards Lincoln (the only direction in which a In 1920 The Lindens was bought by Alfred constrained town centre could expand) began John Paten, a prominent local wine and spirit to be developed from the mid-19th century merchant and hotelier. Used as a military with a new church - St Mark’s - and the hospital during World War 2, it was bequeathed distinctive group of substantial semi- by him to the City in 1953. detached brick villas opposite.

05 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 07 Theatre Royal

Originally on this site stood an enormous hall requiring a large hall (when it was called the used as an indoor roller skating rink. To its Fitzwilliam Hall) and theatrical performances. south, where the current Central Library is, was The theatre architect John Priestley Briggs an outdoor rink. These rinks opened in April remodelled the building in 1899 and 1913. It 1877, but the popularity of roller skating waned, was known as The Grand (1916-19) and then the and the indoor rink began to stage public events Theatre Royal & Empire until it closed in 1959.

08 Embassy Theatre David Evelyn Nye, a cinema architect, designed of the building with a wide fan-shaped the Embassy. It was the only theatre he auditorium behind. Fourteen dressing rooms designed and had its first performance in occupied six floors at the apex of the building. November 1937. Its original capacity was 1484 The Beatles played here twice in the 1960s. The seats in stalls, balcony and circle. The site theatre closed in 1965 and had a short life as a required that the stage occupied the corner three-screen cinema in the 1980s.

Peterborough Blue Plaques 06 09 Public Library

This was the first purpose-built public library The Library was designed by Hall & Phillips and the second library to serve the city. It of London and the building contract awarded replaced a library which had been part of the to Cracknells Builders. The library served the Fitzwilliam Hall/Theatre Royal and fronted Park public here until replaced by the new Central Road. This shows the o icial opening on 29 May Library opened by HRH the Duke of 1906 by Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist and Gloucester in 1990. philanthropist who had provided the funding.

10 Peterborough County Court

The government architect’s plans for this Service by the Court of Probate Act, 1857. Other building are headed “Peterborough County premises had been used for these two ‘courts’ Court and Probate Registry”. Some 60 County from those dates until combined in this building Courts were established nationally by an Act in 1873. The functions transferred to the new of 1846, and the granting of Probate was taken Crown Court between Road and the out of Diocesan hands into those of the Civil Key Theatre in 1986.

07 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 11 Thomas James Walker

Dr Thomas James Walker, a distinguished As an antiquarian he undertook local medical practitioner and antiquarian, was exploration and wrote the deinitive history of born in a house on this site in 1835. the Napoleonic POW Camp at Norman Cross. He attended King’s School and trained He served in the 6th Northamptonshire Rile as a doctor at universities in Edinburgh, Volunteer Corps for 36 years, retiring as London and Vienna. lieutenant-colonel. On returning to Peterborough in 1860 he He championed various local causes, including entered general practice with his father in this a public library, and was invested with the building. He was also a surgeon specialising in Freedom of the City of Peterborough on his diseases of the throat and larynx, and honorary 80th birthday in 1915. He and his wife Mary had surgeon to Peterborough Inirmary from 15 children. Four of his sons became doctors and 1862 until 1906. continued the medical practice here until 1958.

Peterborough Blue Plaques 08 12 Shopping Arcade

Until Westgate Arcade was created any attempt sought to reap the economic benefits to reach Westgate via the then dog-legged of improved access. Cumbergate (both were ancient streets) would A late contribution to this particular building have deposited the confused traveller into Long type, Westgate Arcade adopts a broadly Causeway. Thus, in the 1920s, a joint enterprise Neo-Georgian or Regency idiom. by local architect Alan Ruddle and Fitzwilliam Estates, who shared the land ownership,

13 Parish Burial Ground

You are standing on the site of Peterborough’s the burial of parishioners until a new cemetery burial ground laid out in 1805. Prior to this was established between Eastfield Road and Peterborough people were buried in the lay Broadway. Part of it was lost to the building of cemetery to the north of the Cathedral but this Crescent Bridge in 1913, the rest to the Crescent site became very overcrowded and so the new Bridge roundabout in the 1970s. three-acre site was purchased. It was used for

09 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 14 Deacon’s School

In 1721 local wool merchant Thomas Deacon in 1883 and again in 1960 to Queens Gardens endowed a school for 20 ‘poor boys of the where, in 2007, a Sir Norman Foster-designed city’ so that they could learn to ‘read, write and academy replaced the old buildings. The cast accounts’. The buildings which formerly magnificent classical monument to Thomas stood on this site were part of the endowment Deacon (see photograph) can be seen in and already housed a school. The school later Peterborough Cathedral. moved to Crown Lane (later Deacons Street)

15 Cumbergate

Most of this building is 15th Century timber- (a board of trustees with responsibility for the framing. Probably originally built for wool- administration of parish charities and some combers, part of it was still occupied by “John local government functions). Known as the Old Simpson, wool-comber” in the early 17th Workhouse, from 1837 until 1969 it was used century. It was acquired, together with buildings as almsrooms. It underwent major repair and opposite, by the Peterborough Feo ees conversion to retail use in the 1980s.

Peterborough Blue Plaques 10 16 Memorial Hospital

In September 1918 it was decided that Subsequent research has revealed that Peterborough’s War Memorial would be a the number lost was in fact higher. new hospital. Following a public fund-raising In 1968, the hospital became part of the newly campaign, the hospital was opened in 1928. built District Hospital which was demolished in By 1929 it included this entrance building with 2015. This facade was saved from demolition corridors behind serving three pavilions, a and incorporated into the West Town Primary nurses’ home and other offices. Plaques inside Academy, a 600-pupil primary school opened record the names of the architect, builder in November 2016. and the major contributors to the building fund. A casket containing a Roll of Honour The above illustration is of one of the recorded 1,047 of those lost in the 1914-18 War. original design drawings for the hospital.

11 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 17 Arthur James Robertson Arthur James Robertson wearing number 3 Son of a Glasgow doctor, Arthur was born in He was a member of Birchfield Harriers in She ield in 1879 and attended Peterborough’s Birmingham. At the 1908 Summer Olympics he King’s School from the age of 14. He was a won gold for Scotland in the three-mile team brilliant all-round sportsman but initially race at White City and silver in the steeplechase. concentrated on cycling, only taking up serious That year he set a world record at 5000 athletics at the age of 25 after a cycling injury. metres in Stockholm.

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John Addy Wilsthorpe pumping station, c. 1955

Born at West Deeping in 1847, John Addy started commissioning the city’s first and much needed to train as a civil engineer in 1868 in London. public water supply and drainage systems. Addy In 1874, after qualifying, he set up practice in located a suitable water source at Wilsthorpe, Peterborough, with an o ice in Queen Street. near Bourne, which is still in use today. He had In that year the new Corporation awarded him, to overcome many di iculties, but went on to aged 27, full responsibility for designing and complete both projects with great success.

Peterborough Blue Plaques 12 19 The Guildhall

The Guildhall was built in 1671 by leading local This listed building served as the Corporation’s master mason John Lovin and shows Dutch debating chamber following its ‘Incorporation’ inluence (see insert picture of Old Amsterdam in 1874, until superseded by the present Town Town Hall above left). It stands on the site of Hall in 1933. The name ‘Guildhall’ was adopted a covered ‘Butter Cross’. An earlier Moot Hall by the Corporation in 1876. stood nearby on the northern side of the square. The image above is from a postcard The Royal Arms is prominently displayed on the posted in 1918. building as a celebration of the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

13 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 20 WWI Recruitment O ice Britain declared war on Tuesday 4 August 1914 Prudential Assurance. Recruits who signed- following Germany’s invasion of Belgium. up here were sent to the military depot in the A temporary recruiting o ice was opened in the county town of Northampton. In the summer Guildhall four days later, and moved within a of 1917, on the merger of two recruiting districts, week to this more permanent location in Long the Peterborough o ice was mainly close, and Causeway, then occupied as regional o ices of the work centralised in Northampton.

21 Abbot’s Gaol & King’s Lodging This wall dates from 1930 and forms a new demolition of Georgian buildings to greatly façade to the late 12th century stone rib- widen Narrow Bridge Street. The scheme vaulted undercroft which lies directly behind included the provision of the splendid bank and incorporated the Abbot’s Gaol. This new building adjoining to the south, and the Town wall, on the original alignment of the monastic Hall beyond. precinct’s wall, was necessitated by the

Peterborough Blue Plaques 14 22 St Thomas Becket

A chapel on this site had been begun by Abbot Following his appointment as Abbot of William de Waterville, shortly after Becket’s Peterborough, the chapel also gained Becket murder in 1170. The chapel was completed by and Peterborough became a regional Abbot Benedict who had succeeded William de centre for the cult. Waterville in 1177. Benedict (not to be confused Immediately adjoining this former bank building with Benedict of Norcia, 6th century founder of is the Great Gate to Peterborough Cathedral the Benedictine Order) had, at the moment of Precincts and the Cathedral itself with its Becket’s murder, been in , spectacular west front. albeit at a safe distance, when Henry II’s agents broke in to do the deed. Until 1539 an abbey, the substantial remains of many of its monastic buildings survive, some Five years later Benedict became Prior of adapted to modern functions. Canterbury, the keeper of Becket’s relics, and played a major part in the propagation of the Immediately inside the gate, to the left, Martyr’s cult as a focus for pilgrimage both at stands the chancel added to the Becket Canterbury and far beyond. Chapel in the 14th century.

15 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 23 Simon Gunton Simon Gunton was born in Peterborough in Gunton was the first to write a history in English 1609, was ordained priest in 1637 and appointed of the Abbey Church and Cathedral. He died in a Minor at the Cathedral in 1643. He 1676 with his History unpublished. Ten years became Vicar of Peterborough in 1660 and later generously published during the plague between 1665 and 1667 he it together with a supplement of his own. stayed in o ice when others left, burying 462 people, nearly a quarter of the town.

24 Almoner’s Hall Almoner’s Hall, though heavily restored, is William Morton was Almoner from 1448 to essentially a late-thirteenth/early-fourteenth about 1462. His private book of accounts and century structure with the Almoner’s two-storey memoranda, “The Book of William Morton”, chamber block at its eastern end. The rest of preserved in the British Library, is a rare survival the building consists of a hall, lit by a couple in the history of monastic administration. of single-light windows, and a service area and bakehouse.

Peterborough Blue Plaques 16 25 John Fletcher

John Fletcher was a son of Richard Fletcher Fletcher is thought to have contributed who became in 1583. It to some of Shakespeare’s later plays. was Dean Fletcher who would disturb the last In the 1580s John Fletcher would have met ‘Old moments of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, at her Scarlett’, the Peterborough sexton who buried execution at in 1587 with the cry, both Katharine of Aragon and Mary, Queen of “So perish all the Queen’s [Elizabeth’s] enemies!” Scots, hence the local tradition that Fletcher From about 1606 John collaborated with Francis may have seeded in Shakespeare’s mind the Beaumont in the production of at least ifteen graveyard scene in Hamlet. plays as well as penning a similar number alone. Later, Beaumont and Fletcher were part of the circle which included Shakespeare, Jonson, and Donne, meeting regularly at the Mermaid Tavern near Shakespeare’s house in Blackfriars. 25

17 26 Laurel Court Edith Cavell

Margaret Toye Gibson was born in West Mallow, Co Cork, Ireland, in 1837. It is not known where 26 she trained as a teacher, but c1870 she, together with her business partner Annette van Dissel, set up a school in . The following year they became co-proprietors of Laurel Court School in the Cathedral Precincts until Miss van Dissel’s death in 1914. Miss Gibson was then in sole charge until her own death in 1928. Edith Cavell (executed in the 191418 War) was a pupil teacher there in the 1880s. Miss Gibson was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Peterborough in 1926.

Edith Cavell

18 27 Lido

Peterborough’s open-air swimming pool, or The Lido was designated a Grade II listed Lido, was designed by a panel of local architects building in 1992 and is regarded as one of the and opened in 1936. On 10 June 1940, it was best surviving examples in England. unlucky enough to experience a direct hit during the city’s first air raid of the Second World War.

28 Town Hall

The Town Hall was designed by E. Berry Webber, The main entrance is marked by a noble portico largely built by John Thompson & Sons, and whose great Corinthian columns of Hollington o icially opened on 26 October 1933 by sandstone straddle the pavement. This central Alderman Isaac Whitsed. feature is surmounted by a handsome lantern and provides a striking view from Priestgate.

19 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 29 Angel Inn

The Angel Inn, which stood on this site, may coaches especially, as the inn also housed the have served as a pilgrim hostel for the Abbey post o ice for some time. It was rebuilt and in (now Cathedral). Later, as The Angel Hotel, the 19th Century used for public meetings. In it was one of the major coaching inns in the 1930s The Angel became the city’s first AA/ Peterborough. RAC three-star hotel. It closed for business on Mail and stagecoaches for London, Louth, 30 May 1971 and was demolished. Leicester, Yarmouth etc. called here, mail

30 Thomas Hake

This was the home of generations of the Hake or A sundial on a rear wall (not publicly accessible) Hacke family from 16th to the early 19th century. expresses the Royalist sympathies of the family The family is typical of a rising merchant class following the Restoration of the monarchy in in the mid-16th century, able to take advantage 1660. of the break-up of the monastic estates after Image above is part of the Hake memorial dissolution of the monastery in 1539. in St Mary’s Church Whittlesey.

Peterborough Blue Plaques 20 Sir Malcolm Stewart

31 Peterborough Museum

The central part of the Museum was built in This use continued until the purpose-built War 1816 as a private mansion for Thomas Alderson Memorial Hospital opened in 1928. Ownership Cooke, a prominent local resident. The building then passed to Sir Malcolm Stewart, the relects the classical style of the Georgian era, chairman of the London Brick Company, who, including elements of the then fashionable in 1931, generously donated the building for Greek Revival. museum use. In 1856, shortly after Cooke’s death, the The image above is from circa 1906. property was purchased by the 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam to serve as the city’s irst hospital.

21 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 32 The Customs House

Standing alongside the ancient river crossing, Goods liable for customs duties would be kept and with remains of the medieval quay having here until tax was paid. Napoleonic prisoners of been discovered to its west, this 18th Century war disembarked here en route to the ‘Depot’ at building is known as the Customs House. It may Norman Cross. The building survives as the last have originated as a granary, later functioning trace of Peterborough’s former status as an also as a bonded warehouse. inland port.

33 Town Bridge

The first Town Bridge over the River Nene was by Handyside & Co of Derby, and constructed built of wood by Abbot Godfrey of Crowland with almost equal amounts of wrought and in 1307. Its successor needed frequent repairs cast iron. The present bridge was designed by but lasted until 1872. It was replaced by an iron architects Gotch & Saunders, engineered by bridge designed by Sir John Fowler (designer of Major E M Stirling (founder of Stirling Maynard the first railway bridge across the Thames), cast & Partners) and o icially opened on 12 July 1934.

Peterborough Blue Plaques 22 34 East Station

Three secondary railways reached all three routes. It was a substantial building Peterborough some years before the main in the Tudor style. The first train arrived from line from Kings Cross to York. These were the Northampton in June 1845 viewed by an London and North Western from Northampton, “extraordinary assemblage” of 8,000 people. the Midland from Leicester, and the Eastern In 1966 the ending of services to Rugby Counties (ECR) from Ely. The ECR agreed to allowed all remaining trains to use construct Peterborough East station to serve Peterborough North station.

35 Engine Shed

At the peak of railway development, 350 steam In 1923, the Great Eastern was absorbed into locomotives were based in Peterborough, the London and North Eastern Railway, which including 42 at this shed built for the Eastern also owned the much larger New England Counties (later Great Eastern) Railway. The shed loco shed. Rationalisation was inevitable and opened in 1848 and had assumed its current Peterborough East shed closed in 1939. It was form by 1865. Its engines worked to March, Ely, retained by the railway for many years and so and beyond across East Anglia. avoided demolition, allowing conversion to its current use.

23 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 36 London Brick Company

This landmark building, named Phorpres House prisoners of war and constructed in 1899, was the former District and refugees from O ices of the London Brick Company, makers of Eastern Europe was the famous Fletton brick manufactured using a followed by annual ‘four-press’ method. For about 100 years from recruiting drives from southern Italy. the 1880s this area was the hub of the local Over 3,000 Italians came to work in the Fletton brick industry. By the 1930s London Fletton industry, many remaining to make Brick’s annual output reached 1,750 million England their home. bricks from works spread from Bedfordshire to Whittlesey. Workers were recruited from near and far especially during the post-World War Two reconstruction boom. Employment of

Domenico Cianni Pasquale Calitri and unknown colleague The Society would like to express thanks to the National Lottery PHOTO CREDITS Heritage Fund and Peterborough City Council for generous support towards the achievement of this project and to Charles Carolyn and Terry Armstrong Wells Brewery for their grant aid for the John Addy plaque. June and Vernon Bull Isabella Caruso Ron Jackson MBE King’s School Peter Lee National Portrait Gallery Peterborough City Hospital We would also like to thank those individuals who suggested subjects for plaques, in particular Ron Jackson MBE, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Sarfraz Khan and Rossana Pinto (plaques for Daphne Jackson, Victoria and Albert Museum John Addy and London Brick Company). Vivacity Peterborough About us Peter Waszak Toby Wood Peterborough Civic Society is a membership organisation that works to improve the quality of life and to foster pride of place in Peterborough. We seek to safeguard Peterborough’s heritage and encourage good design, balanced growth and sustainable development. The Society organises a programme of speakers on local historical and civic subjects each year and PETERBOROUGH summer visits to places of interest. BLUE PLAQUES Produced by Peterborough Civic Society, ‘Seeking the best for a ne city’ Visit us online peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk Become a member Memberships are available for everyone who loves to get involved, meet new people and enjoy the great City peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk of Peterborough. See our website for more details.

This booklet is a revised Make a donation and updated version of the Your donations mean we can continue to make Peterborough booklet originally published and its surrounding villages a better place to live and work. in April 2017.

June 2020

The Civic Society is ailiated to Civic Voice, the national charity for the civic movement.