More Blue Plaques and other monuments

Here in London, since we don’t have a car, we are still limited to doing things that are reachable on foot. Fortunately for us, we live in an incredible neighbourhood that gives us access to many wonderful parks and happens to be steeped in tons of history (if you only take the time to look). Prompted by a friend who mentioned they had found an English Heritage Blue Plaque for A A Milne, we spent an afternoon (using some on-line resources) searching for Milne’s plaque. We found it, along with many other interesting tidbits of history.

Leaving home we walked through a local park, Paddington Rec and up to the corner of Carlton Hill and Maida Vale, no more than a 10 minute walk for us. At that intersection stands the St George’s Catholic School which I walk by frequently. On the wall outside the school is a plaque honouring Philip Lawrence, a headmaster of the school who gave his life in 1995 defending a student against a group of bullies. Like many of the people we would learn about during our walk, I had never heard of him. That doesn’t make it any less fascinating to explore our local history. So many of the plaques and memorials we saw were things I have walked by many, many times, usually without taking time to pause and learn who they were. Others, I had walked right by without even noticing them. One of my big takeaways from the day is that our local area has had a many esteemed and talented people who called this their home.

We next came to an English Heritage plaque for the sculptor Sir William Reid Dick. We found this plaque on a gate at 95A Clifton Hill. For four years in the early 1900s, the sculptor worked here in Studio 3. Among the sculptures that he designed is a charming fountain of a Boy and Frog that can be found in Queen Mary’s Gardens in Regent’s Park. The article we read mentioned that, in 1938, he and his wife moved to a house located at 16 Maida Vale. Of course that prompted us to go seek out 16 Maida Vale. Interestingly, it was another sculptor, Sir Alfred Gilbert who was responsible for building a large home and studio at 16 Maida Vale. Sadly, this house is no longer there. Instead, this rather unattractive building of flats stands in its place.

Nearby, on Greville Place at #4 we found the lovely Bayes House. From 1931 – 1953 Gilbert Bayes lived here. Another sculptor, he is known for many sculptures one can find around London included the beautiful bronze 11 foot tall, Queen of Time Clock that graces the facade of Selfridges on Oxford Street. The clock was unveiled in 1931 to mark the store’s 21st birthday.

This sign and the building beyond it are both clearly contemporary and not very interesting. So why, you might wonder did I photograph and include it? The story of the man who lived here in the early 1900s caught our attention. In fact, there used to be a plaque recognising his achievements that is no longer here. What a shame! It was on this location, 136 Maida Vale that William Friese Greene first succeeded in projecting a moving picture. The story goes that ‘he was so excited that he rushed out into the street and dragged in the first person he could find to view it. This happened to be a policeman walking past. Completely bewildered, he [the policeman] became the first cinema audience in the world.’

Next up was a building that I have walked by countless times and never stopped to wonder about its history. I’m glad that on this day we did. At 10 Cambridge Avenue stands the Animals War Memorial Dispensary. It is a 19th century building that was converted into an animal dispensary by the architect John Oliver Brook Hitch. It was opened by a well-known animal lover, Frances Evelyn ‘Daisy’ Greville in 1932. In its first year it treated 6000 animals. It continues today to treat sick animals. On either side of the door are two stone plaques. The one on the left dedicates the building as a memorial to the animals who perished in the Great War. The plaque to the left of the door notes that 484,143 horses, mules, camels and bollocks plus many hundreds of dogs, carrier pigeons and other creatures died during the war. Additionally, above the door is a large bronze bas-relief frieze which shows a winged Victory holding wreaths and flanked by various animals used in the war. It was designed by Brook Hitch who won the competition sponsored by the RSPCA to create this work.

Moving further along Maida Vale, the road becomes Kilburn High Road. Along the street on the pavement are a collection of stone plaques. One of them commemorates the first Kilburn Bridge that supposedly stood at this spot. The history was quite convoluted and in the end I’m not sure I really got it all. Suffice to say that a bridge may or may not have stood on this site. Either way there is an intriguing set of plaques that I’ve never noticed before. We found 5 of them but apparently there are supposed to be 8. I guess we’ll have to go back in search of them some day soon!

Finally! These next two plaques are of writers that I trust you will recognise! Not far off the Kilburn High Road on Mortimer Place we came across Remsted House. On this site was a small public school, called Henley House School and it was run by A A Milne’s father. It was here that A A Milne was born. In 1889, H G Wells was the science teacher at the school for a year. The unveiling of this plaque was done in 2010 by two local children. Milne’s grand-daughter Clare was present. We read that there are reminders of Milne all over London. There was a list of quite a few spots. I suspect that we will make a day of searching for these. Coincidentally we did find two such items the following week whilst we were visiting the London Zoo.

Im August of 1914, Lieutenant Harry Colebourn of the 34th Fort Garry Horse Regiment of Manitoba (Canada) purchased a black Canadian bear cub. He named her Winnie after his hometown of Winnipeg. While Colebourn was serving in France he temporarily left the bear at London Zoo. Later, he donated Winnie to the Zoo. The bear cub became one of the most popular animals at the zoo. A A Milne and his son Christopher loved to visit the zoo and particularly loved Winnie. In 1926, Christopher, aged 5 named his stuffed bear Winnie-The-Pooh after this well-loved Canadian bear. In turn, A A Milne named his fictional bear after both the bear cub and Christopher’s Pooh.

The last plaque of today’s tour is for George Orwell. Not far from where A A Milne was born is the home where Orwell lived with his wife, Sonia, and their adopted son, Richard. They moved in during the summer 1942 but didn’t get to stay long. They were forced to move again after the house was hit by a V1 flying bomb in 1944.

More to come . . . we found an additional 9 plaques all on one street – Hamilton Terrace and more in and around Maida Vale.