PETERBOROUGH BLUE PLAQUES An updated version produced by Peterborough 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. The 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. Abbot’s Gaol & King’s Lodging 14 22. St Thomas Becket 15 24 23. Simon Gunton 16 24. Almoner’s Hall 16 25. John Fletcher 17 27 26. Laurel Court/ Edith Cavell 18 27. Lido 19 28. Town Hall 19 29. Angel Inn 20 32 33 30. Thomas Hake 20 31. Peterborough Museum 21 Plaque 36, London 32. The Customs House 22 Brick Company, 36 33. Town Bridge 22 is at the junction of 34. East Station 23 London Road with 35. Engine Shed 23 St Margaret’s Road 34 35 36. London Brick Company 24 (PE2 9DS) 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) and their parents were never seen again. 01 John decided to try his luck in the USA where he The King’s School put a deposit on a farm in Jacksonville, Florida. He then returned to England to collect his The King’s (The Cathedral) School was Until 1976 the School was a grammar school family, many of whom were not keen to move. established by King Henry VIII in 1541 as part for around 450 boys. It then became a The family was due to travel on the Philadelphia, of the Cathedral foundation for the education coeducational Church of England a ship which sailed out of Liverpool, but this of “twenty poor boys”. comprehensive school. voyage was cancelled due to a coal strike. Instead the family embarked on the Titanic 02 It is one of seven King’s Schools endowed The larger image above is taken from a postcard which hit an iceberg and sank on during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. circa 1906 showing the school in its current 14 April 1912. 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. The only body to be recovered 1885 and continues to maintain close links was that of 13-year-old Will. with Peterborough Cathedral including educating boy and girl choristers.
01 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 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 Northamptonshire 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
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 04 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 Great Barn 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 Rothesay Villas, built 1892/3, stands near the Had Boroughbury Barn survived it would served on many national scienti ic bodies STEM (science, technology, engineering and site of the Boroughbury Barn, the great barn have ranked with the greatest aisled barns including the boards of The Science mathematics), social sciences and related of the Abbot of Peterborough’s manorial of England. The photograph depicts the and Engineering Research Council disciplines. grange; in e ect his home farm. The extensive magnificent aisled timber-framed interior with abbey 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 Peterborough Blue Plaques 04 07 06 John Theatre Royal Originally on this site stood an enormous hall requiring a large hall (when it was called the Thompson Jnr. 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 The Lindens, built c.1865, was the home of an outdoor rink. These rinks opened in April remodelled the building in 1899 and 1913. It master-builder John Thompson Jnr. 1877, but the popularity of roller skating waned, was known as The Grand (1916-19) and then the Thompson and Sons’ first major project was and the indoor rink began to stage public events Theatre Royal & Empire until it closed in 1959. the re-ordering Peterborough Cathedral’s Choir in the 1820’s followed by work to the Choir of Westminster Abbey. 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 08 (Sir G.G. Scott) and W.H. Crossland’s Royal Holloway College. John Thompson Jnr. died in 1898 having been Embassy an Alderman of the city and twice its Mayor. The firm continued until it was forced into Theatre voluntary liquidation in 1931 whilst The main road north out of Peterborough constructing Peterborough Town Hall. towards Lincoln (the only direction in which a 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 In 1920 The Lindens was bought by Alfred constrained town centre could expand) began to be developed from the mid-19th century designed and had its first performance in occupied six floors at the apex of the building. John Paten, a prominent local wine and spirit November 1937. Its original capacity was 1484 The Beatles played here twice in the 1960s. The merchant and hotelier. Used as a military with a new church - St Mark’s - and the distinctive group of substantial semi- seats in stalls, balcony and circle. The site theatre closed in 1965 and had a short life as a hospital during World War 2, it was bequeathed required that the stage occupied the corner three-screen cinema in the 1980s. by him to the City in 1953. detached brick villas opposite.
05 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 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.
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 de initive history of born in a house on this site in 1835. the Napoleonic POW Camp at Norman Cross. 10 He attended King’s School and trained He served in the 6th Northamptonshire Ri le as a doctor at universities in Edinburgh, Volunteer Corps for 36 years, retiring as London and Vienna. lieutenant-colonel. Peterborough 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 County Court diseases of the throat and larynx, and honorary 80th birthday in 1915. He and his wife Mary had surgeon to Peterborough In irmary from 15 children. Four of his sons became doctors and The government architect’s plans for this Service by the Court of Probate Act, 1857. Other 1862 until 1906. continued the medical practice here until 1958. 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 Bishops Road and the out of Diocesan hands into those of the Civil Key Theatre in 1986.
07 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk Peterborough Blue Plaques 08 12 14 Shopping Deacon’s Arcade School
Until Westgate Arcade was created any attempt sought to reap the economic benefits In 1721 local wool merchant Thomas Deacon in 1883 and again in 1960 to Queens Gardens to reach Westgate via the then dog-legged of improved access. endowed a school for 20 ‘poor boys of the where, in 2007, a Sir Norman Foster-designed Cumbergate (both were ancient streets) would A late contribution to this particular building city’ so that they could learn to ‘read, write and academy replaced the old buildings. The have deposited the confused traveller into Long type, Westgate Arcade adopts a broadly cast accounts’. The buildings which formerly magnificent classical monument to Thomas Causeway. Thus, in the 1920s, a joint enterprise Neo-Georgian or Regency idiom. stood on this site were part of the endowment Deacon (see photograph) can be seen in by local architect Alan Ruddle and Fitzwilliam and already housed a school. The school later Peterborough Cathedral. Estates, who shared the land ownership, moved to Crown Lane (later Deacons Street)
13 Parish Burial 15 Ground Cumbergate
You are standing on the site of Peterborough’s the burial of parishioners until a new cemetery Most of this building is 15th Century timber- (a board of trustees with responsibility for the burial ground laid out in 1805. Prior to this was established between Eastfield Road and framing. Probably originally built for wool- administration of parish charities and some Peterborough people were buried in the lay Broadway. Part of it was lost to the building of combers, part of it was still occupied by “John local government functions). Known as the Old cemetery to the north of the Cathedral but this Crescent Bridge in 1913, the rest to the Crescent Simpson, wool-comber” in the early 17th Workhouse, from 1837 until 1969 it was used site became very overcrowded and so the new Bridge roundabout in the 1970s. century. It was acquired, together with buildings as almsrooms. It underwent major repair and three-acre site was purchased. It was used for opposite, by the Peterborough Feo ees conversion to retail use in the 1980s.
09 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk Peterborough Blue Plaques 10 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.
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 18 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 John Addy Wilsthorpe pumping station, c. 1955 nurses’ home and other o ices. 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 Born at West Deeping in 1847, John Addy started commissioning the city’s first and much needed fund. A casket containing a Roll of Honour The above illustration is of one of the to train as a civil engineer in 1868 in London. public water supply and drainage systems. Addy recorded 1,047 of those lost in the 1914 18 War. original design drawings for the hospital. 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.
11 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk Peterborough Blue Plaques 12 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 closed, and Causeway, then occupied as regional o ices of the work centralised in Northampton.
19 The Guildhall
The Guildhall was built in 1671 by leading local This listed building served as the Corporation’s 21 master mason John Lovin and shows Dutch debating chamber following its ‘Incorporation’ in luence (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. Abbot’s Gaol & 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. King’s Lodging building as a celebration of the restoration of This wall dates from 1930 and forms a new demolition of Georgian buildings to greatly the monarchy in 1660. 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
13 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk Peterborough Blue Plaques 14 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 Canon at the Cathedral in 1643. He 1676 with his History unpublished. Ten years became Vicar of Peterborough in 1660 and later Dean Simon Patrick 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.
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 relics 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 24 the Benedictine Order) had, at the moment of Precincts and the Cathedral itself with its Becket’s murder, been in Canterbury Cathedral, spectacular west front. albeit at a safe distance, when Henry II’s agents Almoner’s 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. Hall Canterbury, the keeper of Becket’s relics, and played a major part in the propagation of the Immediately inside the gate, to the left, Almoner’s Hall, though heavily restored, is William Morton was Almoner from 1448 to Martyr’s cult as a focus for pilgrimage both at stands the chancel added to the Becket essentially a late-thirteenth/early-fourteenth about 1462. His private book of accounts and Canterbury and far beyond. Chapel in the 14th century. 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.
15 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk Peterborough Blue Plaques 16 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 Fletton. 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 1914 18 War) was a pupil teacher there in the 1880s. Miss Gibson was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Peterborough in 1926.
25 John Fletcher
John Fletcher was a son of Richard Fletcher Fletcher is thought to have contributed who became Dean of Peterborough 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 Fotheringhay 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 Edith Cavell
17 18 27 29 Lido Angel Inn
Peterborough’s open-air swimming pool, or The Lido was designated a Grade II listed The Angel Inn, which stood on this site, may coaches especially, as the inn also housed the Lido, was designed by a panel of local architects building in 1992 and is regarded as one of the have served as a pilgrim hostel for the Abbey post o ice for some time. It was rebuilt and in and opened in 1936. On 10 June 1940, it was best surviving examples in England. (now Cathedral). Later, as The Angel Hotel, the 19th Century used for public meetings. In unlucky enough to experience a direct hit it was one of the major coaching inns in the 1930s The Angel became the city’s first AA/ during the city’s first air raid of the Peterborough. RAC three-star hotel. It closed for business on Second World War. Mail and stagecoaches for London, Louth, 30 May 1971 and was demolished. Leicester, Yarmouth etc. called here, mail
30 28 Thomas Town Hall Hake
The Town Hall was designed by E. Berry Webber, The main entrance is marked by a noble portico This was the home of generations of the Hake or A sundial on a rear wall (not publicly accessible) largely built by John Thompson & Sons, and whose great Corinthian columns of Hollington Hacke family from 16th to the early 19th century. expresses the Royalist sympathies of the family o icially opened on 26 October 1933 by sandstone straddle the pavement. This central The family is typical of a rising merchant class following the Restoration of the monarchy in Alderman Isaac Whitsed. feature is surmounted by a handsome lantern in the mid-16th century, able to take advantage 1660. and provides a striking view from Priestgate. 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.
19 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk Peterborough Blue Plaques 20 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.
Sir Malcolm Stewart
31 Peterborough Museum
The central part of the Museum was built in This use continued until the purpose-built War 33 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 re lects 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 Town Bridge Greek Revival. museum use. The first Town Bridge over the River Nene was by Handyside & Co of Derby, and constructed In 1856, shortly after Cooke’s death, the The image above is from circa 1906. built of wood by Abbot Godfrey of Crowland with almost equal amounts of wrought and property was purchased by the 3rd Earl in 1307. Its successor needed frequent repairs cast iron. The present bridge was designed by Fitzwilliam to serve as the city’s irst hospital. 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.
21 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk Peterborough Blue Plaques 22 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. 34 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. East Station bricks from works spread from Bedfordshire to Whittlesey. Workers were recruited from near and far especially during the post-World War Three secondary railways reached all three routes. It was a substantial building Two reconstruction boom. Employment of 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 Domenico Cianni and beyond across East Anglia. avoided demolition, allowing conversion to its Pasquale Calitri and current use. unknown colleague
23 peterboroughcivicsociety.org.uk 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 a iliated to Civic Voice, the national charity for the civic movement.