Sign Here!
October 2024: A new print run (second edition) of our popular local history book first published in 2018.
Now that the first print run of our Sign Here! book is fully sold out we are delighted to announce publication of a new and updated second edition. There is be some extra reading material newly added to reflect recent updates to the blue plaques, town and village signs and other monuments that can be seen and enjoyed in our Bromley borough district and near environs in Kent and London.
October 2024: A new print run (second edition) of our popular local history book first published in 2018.
Now that the first print run of our Sign Here! book is fully sold out we are delighted to announce publication of a new and updated second edition. There is be some extra reading material newly added to reflect recent updates to the blue plaques, town and village signs and other monuments that can be seen and enjoyed in our Bromley borough district and near environs in Kent and London.
How does English Heritage decide the awarding of official blue plaques throughout Britain? Normally there are twelve new ones each year. Very noticeably in recent years there has been strenuous effort to correct the gender imbalance that has seen men vastly outnumbering women in the choice of blue plaques.
Here in the London Borough of Bromley there is already a tribute to Rachel and Margaret McMillan in the field of children's education. And increasingly now English Heritage is recognising pioneering heroines who have excelled in their professional work or have actively campaigned in support of good causes, freedoms, justice and the betterment of society.
Here in the London Borough of Bromley there is already a tribute to Rachel and Margaret McMillan in the field of children's education. And increasingly now English Heritage is recognising pioneering heroines who have excelled in their professional work or have actively campaigned in support of good causes, freedoms, justice and the betterment of society.
Although it is only English Heritage that governs the award of official blue plaques in the UK there are many organisations that erect unofficial blue plaques to commemorate the former residence of a famous person or the location of a memorable event. Not all such plaques are blue and some of the organising bodies have more gravitas than others but generally speaking the colour blue is the chosen option because of the ready association to be made with the official blue plaques. Here in the London Borough of Bromley the wartime role of Chislehurst Caves is a significant part of local history that the local Council has decided to commemorate.
There is another variation of a 'blue plaque' to be found in the square mile of the City of London. These plaques are of rectangular shape with silver lettering and bordering. They commemorate people and places of historic interest in the old walled Roman city of Londinium that is nowadays more readily identified as London's financial district.
Chatterton’s death scene was captured in the melodramatic painting by Henry Wallis that hangs in the Tate Britain. He was hailed as a boy wonder from Bristol for his Elinoure and Juga poem. When forgery was exposed, his reputation was shattered. Impoverished and starving in his proverbial writer’s garret in Holborn, he took a fatal dose of arsenic and expired at age of only 17.
There is a direct link to our London Borough of Bromley because the so-called Chatterton Road district of houses and shops near Bromley Common has roads named after poets such as Alexander Pope and Thomas Chatterton. This explains the motifs in the attractive and colourful new village sign erected by Bromley Council a few years ago. In our Sign Here! book you'll find several photos and descriptions of imaginative and historic town and village signs that adorn our local area.
Chatterton’s death scene was captured in the melodramatic painting by Henry Wallis that hangs in the Tate Britain. He was hailed as a boy wonder from Bristol for his Elinoure and Juga poem. When forgery was exposed, his reputation was shattered. Impoverished and starving in his proverbial writer’s garret in Holborn, he took a fatal dose of arsenic and expired at age of only 17.
There is a direct link to our London Borough of Bromley because the so-called Chatterton Road district of houses and shops near Bromley Common has roads named after poets such as Alexander Pope and Thomas Chatterton. This explains the motifs in the attractive and colourful new village sign erected by Bromley Council a few years ago. In our Sign Here! book you'll find several photos and descriptions of imaginative and historic town and village signs that adorn our local area.
