Guidance on Commemorative Plaques & Plaque Schemes

71 4 HISTORICAL RESEARCH WRITING HISTORICAL REPORTS / OUTCOMES OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH olk. Suff esident of Framlingham, ormer r a f Thompson, y val plaque commemorates Sir Henr y Cole This handsome example of an o © Emil 39 40 There are a myriad of options in terms of plaque design and material.This fine plaque, erected by the Warrington Society to commemorate the founding of the Warrington Academy, Cheshire, dates from 1902 and is made of Wedgwood Jasperware (stoneware). © David Barlow/Warrington Literary and Philosophical Society 5 DESIGN, MATERIAL AND POSITIONING SECTION CONTENTS Use of the Blue Roundel 75 Choosing a Designer and Manufacturer 76 Selecting an Appropriate Design, Material and Colour for a Plaque 77 Components of Plaque Design 86 Plaque Inscription 88 Positioning a Plaque on a Building 91 73 Plaques will always have a significant impact on the historic environment, especially where a number are put up, as part of a scheme. Even those intended as temporary additions change the appearance (and often the character) of buildings. It is essential that this aspect of the process is approached with sensitivity, and that high standards of aesthetics are aimed for. Good design is always attainable, with thought and time, and helps ensure that a plaque is desirable to the property owner(s) concerned and an adornment to the building and the wider area. The form a plaque should take will be one document, it is assumed that they are fixed of the key considerations at the planning to a structure, usually the building with which stage of the plaque process – whether this the subject was connected or that which is managed on a one-off basis, or as part occupies its site. Discursive boards, which are of a larger scheme (see p.15 and p.17). often free-standing, are understood as being Selecting a general design and format at interpretative signs rather than conventional an early stage will, for instance, help to give plaques, and may well be approached in a a scheme a sense of distinctiveness and unity, slightly different way. Likewise with plaques and will help to ensure that the appropriate set into the ground or pavement; these do levels of funding are identified. not impact on buildings, but have their own issues – in particular, the problem of being It is vital that adequate time is allowed for kept clean and legible. this issue to be fully explored. Of the various stages involved in a plaque initiative, the With the design of a plaque as a whole, it is positioning and creation of the plaque itself – a good idea to review practices on a regular in concept, design and actuality – are among basis and, if appropriate, to make changes. the most important, as they will be the means Although certain schemes may become closely by which the general public experience the identified with particular plaque designs – work that has been carried out. Where that and this has a number of advantages – the work was unsympathetic or inappropriate, it chief obligation is to the needs of the historic can prove surprisingly detrimental, while even environment. If something is not working, it well designed plaques can – if their condition is best to acknowledge that, adapt and move is not adequately monitored and maintained forward, even if that means taking time to – degenerate over time, negatively affecting create something new or reverting to a design the appearance of a building and even a wider which had been used and abandoned at a area. Furthermore, it is worth remembering point in the past. Equally, if a design is found that a group of plaques – no matter how to work well, it is advisable to resist making valid they are individually – can have the changes just for the sake of it. unfortunate result of ‘visual clutter’ (see boxed text opposite). This should be considered and, Where a successful plaque design is created wherever possible, avoided – through the use – and where it has been tried and tested – it of selection criteria and the careful weighing is worth considering whether or not it should up of plaque proposals. be afforded copyright protection. This will not usually be possible for plaques based on the Plaques can take a myriad of forms and roundels devised and used under the London- colours, and may be made of a wide variety wide scheme (see below). The fact that of different materials. For the purposes of this these have been so widely imitated reflects 74 5 the fact that no protection was afforded D to the various incarnations of the design E S I at the time of their creation. However, for G plaques of a more unique or unusual design N , M – which might have capacity for duplication A – copyright protection can be a notable TER advantage. To find out more about this, I legal advice should be sought, while general AL AN information is provided by groups such as the UK Copyright Service (see p.158). D P O 41 The blue roundel has been used widely throughout the S I UK; for example, by the Regency Society, which erected this TION plaque to the architect Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855) at 13 USE OF THE Lewes Crescent, Brighton. ING BLUE ROUNDEL © English Heritage The modern form of the blue roundel was created by the LCC at around the time of the PLAQUE PROLIFERATION Second World War, and has been used ever since In places that are rich in historical association, under the London-wide scheme. However, it was it is important to consider how to avoid a only settled upon after many years of experience, proliferation of plaques, which may have a development and experimentation. Although the detrimental effect on the architectural integrity first plaques put up by the (Royal) Society of Arts and character of a particular street or area.When in 1949 the LCC sought to erect a plaque to the U in 1867 were both blue in colour (see pp. 9-10), S the design was initially not made standard. founder of The Lancet, Thomas Wakley (1795-1862), E O at 35 Bedford Square, Bloomsbury, it received F Instead, plaques erected in London between objections from both the freeholder, the Bedford T the 1860s and the 1930s varied enormously H Estate, and the leaseholder, the Architectural E B in material and format; most were made of Association. The Secretary of the latter argued L encaustic ware or glazed ceramic, but others that ‘the erection of a plaque upon one building U E were of stone, bronze and lead and, in shape, would destroy the Square’s unity, and that, as a R O were round, square, rectangular or took the number of eminent persons have lived in various U parts of the Square, it would appear invidious to N form of medallions. In colour, blue was quickly D single out No. 35 for commemoration’. Consent E replaced by brown, and after 1901 ceramic L later proved forthcoming and the plaque to plaques could be either blue, brown, green, Wakley was put up in 1962 (see Fig. 97), but in white or even grey. It was only in the 1920s 1984 the GLC revisited the issue of ‘overloading’ that blue was adopted as the standard colour, Bedford Square with plaques. In order to give some though it (and the round shape) were not used indication of the likely demand for plaques in the consistently until the 1940s. future, the Council carried out historical research into former residents of the square as a whole. Notably, blue was chosen as it was found to A specific policy was agreed that permitted stand out best against brickwork and stucco, further plaques in the square on the grounds that only the most deserving suggestions would be which were (and remain) the most prominent considered and then only in cases where there features of London’s architecture. In scale, the was no alternative address in Greater London. capital’s round plaques generally have a finished Today, Bedford Square includes eight ‘official’ diameter of19½ inches (495 mm), a size which has plaques, only one of which (that commemorating always been considered appropriate to the city’s the mechanical engineer Sir Harry Ricardo) post generally expansive streets, enabling plaques to be dates the mid-1980s. erected, where necessary, at first- or second-floor level and yet remain legible from the pavement. 75 Thus, the blue plaque as we know it today is very Plaque designs can either be produced on computer much a product of London; designed for the city, or by hand (Fig. 42 and Fig. 68). They are likely with the city’s buildings in mind, and chosen after to be prepared by an artist, designer or graphics a period of experimentation. Although it has since expert, and should be to scale. Once agreed, at been widely imitated, and has become the sign of least one full-scale copy of the design will be sent a particular standard (reflecting the procedures of to the manufacturers, to be used as a template in the London-wide scheme itself, and the status of its the making of the plaque. Where ceramic plaques administrators), it should not be seen as appropriate are concerned, it is important to remember that for all buildings. There can be no doubt that blue shrinkage will usually occur during the manufacturing plaques would appear inharmonious if affixed to process. The designer will therefore need to allow the rich stonework of Bath, for instance, and it is for this change, using a slightly larger template than notable that a scheme of beautiful bronze plaques will be represented by the finished plaque.

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