What links Peter Pan and the suffragette movement? Bloomsbury – and the Marchmont Association, who champion the community and highlight its extraordinary past. This week, Camden Guide Julie Conway shines a light on their work.
The Marchmont Association and their plaques
We are very aware and very grateful for many Blue Plaques around London as they can be an extremely useful focal point for guides to tell a story.
The Blue Plaques scheme of London is the oldest in the UK, and possibly the oldest of its kind, beginning in 1866, initially administered by the Royal Society of Arts until 1901 when it taken over by London County Council until it was no more, then Greater London Council until it was no more and finally in 1986 was taken over by English Heritage, who still oversee it to date.
The recipient of the first plaque was Lord Byron, sadly this was lost to demolition. The oldest surviving plaque goes to Napoleon III installed in 1867. In 2023 the 1,000th blue plaque was awarded to the Women’s Freedom League.
Anyone can propose somebody for a plaque, but it is down to a panel of 12 experts and a chair who will decide the final outcome.
There are clear rules to be considered for a plaque including: –
- The person needs to have been dead for 20 years.
- Animals and fictitious characters not considered.
- Made an important contribution to human welfare or happiness or
- Made an exceptional impact in their field, community or on society at large.
- Buildings will be considered which have a historical significance of public interest.
Moving onto 2009, the Marchmont Association unveiled their first blue plaque; I would like to introduce you to the incredible Marchmont Association.
They were formed in 2004 to improve their local community, a group of ‘residents and businesses improving the local area for the benefit of all’, their passion and pride in their area has seen huge improvements.
They were established during the refurbishment of the Brunswick Centre, which was completed in 2006, so very quickly were involved with this project, alongside key stakeholders, developers, funders and councils. As a result of this project, one very important art installation was commissioned by one of the developers HS Projects. ‘Tokens’ (see pic below),the installation references what was the Foundling Hospital, 20 tokens embedded into the pavement guiding you along Marchmont Street to Marchmont Community Garden.
The Marchmont Community Garden is another success story of the Marchmont Association. When they initially formed, they had identified three major eyesores in the area, one being the wasteland at the end of the Brunswick Centre.
Marchmont Association appointed Architects Network along with various significant organisations including London Wildlife Trust, Camden Parks & Housing departments. They secured a £100,000 lottery grant, and a contribution from Camden’s Section 106 ‘pot’ and a ‘peppercorn’ lease agreement. The relatively high cost of creating this garden was mainly due to the need to raise the site to a level which made the garden fully accessible.
Public consultation events involved local residents whose ideas were included in the final design of the garden. The garden was completed on time and on budget in August 2011.
Since the opening of the gardens, the Marchmont Community Garden Partnership has been formed, continuing to bring the community together, they hold regular events including Carol singing, seed planting, street parties, Punch and Judy shows, they have won 1st prize for ‘Best Community Run Garden’ twice!
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Following the previously mentioned tokens from the bottom of Marchmont Street, then a walk through the gardens guides you to the Foundling Museum, this whole area was originally part of the Foundling Hospital grounds.
So we now have 2 great achievements from this voluntary group, let’s return to the start of this piece and add a significant 3rd:-
Marchmont Association Commemorative Plaques Scheme
In 2009 the Marchmont Association established its own independent commemorative plaques scheme. This started with a research group 3 years earlier preparing for a local exhibition illustrating the development of Marchmont Street since 1790. As we all know, research takes us down many paths, which is what happened here, it was realised there had been several notable residents in the area. The Marchmont Association, being as proud and passionate about their area as we have already discovered, took this exhibition one step further and formed a sub-group to research these notable residents.
Selected for their distinction, reputation or notoriety, the first of 27 plaques was installed in 2009. Some are more famous than others, but they are all worthy of a plaque. The Marchmont Association are ensuring all visitors know about their past residents and enabling guides to reference them as part of the area’s rich social history.
Included in the 27 notables all names shown below, are composers, conductors, artists, writers and poets, father of the Co-operative movement, theatre impresario and owner of Savoy Hotel, author of Frankenstein, a royal mistress, creator of Peter Pan and founder of the suffragette movement …
For more information on Marchmont Association plaques, which includes a map for their individual locations visit www.londonremembers.com/subjects/marchmont-association
Other local associations have established their own independent commemorative plaques including, within the Borough of Camden, the Seven Dials Trust, another site worth visiting.
To conclude, this piece was initially intended to be about the plaques, but what the Marchmont Association has achieved since it started really needed to be included, whilst we are celebrating Camden60, they can be very proud to be celebrating their own milestone which I have named MA21.
Julie Conway
Footnote: We would love to expand our blog and include posts about some of these individuals, vote here for the person you’d most like to read about, and we will schedule in an upcoming blog post, https://forms.gle/YcVTJDJLQBgZXeyt8
