London's Blue Plaques

Published 20 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

The round blue plaques on London houses mark buildings where notable people lived or worked. The scheme began in 1866, is thought to be the oldest of its kind anywhere, and is now run by English Heritage. There are more than 1,000 plaques across the capital, they are free to look at, and in Mayfair alone there are 53 within about a square kilometre.

That density is what makes them worth a walk rather than a glance. This page explains who qualifies for a plaque and why so many nominations fail, then gives a route through Mayfair that passes more than a dozen of them in an afternoon, all verified on English Heritage's own list in September 2026.

Who gets a blue plaque

The rules are published and they are strict. English Heritage's Blue Plaques Panel meets three times a year and shortlists from public nominations, and most suggestions do not survive the criteria.

• At least twenty years must have passed since the person died. No living figure and no recent death qualifies.
• A building associated with them must still stand in Greater London, outside the City of London.
• It must survive in a form the person would recognise, and be visible from a public highway. A rebuilt façade on the same plot is not enough.
• The building should not be one with many personal associations. Churches, schools and theatres are not normally considered, because thousands of people passed through them.
• No more than two plaques on one building, and only one plaque per person anywhere in London.
• If a nomination is refused, ten years must pass before it can be reconsidered.

Once a name is shortlisted it usually takes another two to three years for the plaque to appear, because of a two-stage research process, the need for the building owner's consent, and in some cases listed building consent as well. Anyone can propose a candidate by email; the first step is to search the existing list, since a person already commemorated cannot receive a second plaque.

The gap the scheme is trying to close

Only about 15 per cent of London's blue plaques commemorate women. English Heritage says plainly that this is not good enough, and since launching a "plaques for women" campaign in 2016 more than half of the people awarded plaques have been women.

The arithmetic of the criteria explains part of the imbalance. Twenty years must pass after death, the address must be one where the person lived, and the building must survive; for most of the scheme's history, women's addresses were recorded less carefully and their houses were less likely to be preserved. Nominations are the only way the balance shifts, which is why English Heritage keeps asking for them.

The scheme also runs themed collections drawn from the existing plaques, covering London's Black history, LGBTQ+ history, disability and medicine. They are a better way into the list than a borough-by-borough search if you want a walk with a theme.

A Mayfair walk: fifteen plaques in an afternoon

Mayfair has the highest concentration of blue plaques in London. This route runs from Green Park station to Bond Street station, covers roughly three kilometres, and takes two to three hours with stops. Every address below appears on English Heritage's own plaque list.

1. 94 Piccadilly: Lord Palmerston, politician. Start at the Green Park exit and walk west along Piccadilly.
2. 11 Bolton Street: Fanny Burney, writer. Turn right off Piccadilly.
3. 46 Clarges Street: Charles James Fox, politician, one street west.
4. 10 Hertford Street: two plaques on one house: General John Burgoyne and the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. This is the maximum any building is allowed.
5. 20 Hertford Street: Sir George Cayley, the aviation pioneer, a few doors along.
6. Curzon Street: four in one street: Nancy Mitford at number 10, Benjamin Disraeli at 19, Rufus Isaacs at 32 and the novelist Ronald Firbank at 33.
7. Chesterfield Street: three in fifty metres: Caroline Norton, who campaigned for women's legal rights, at number 3; Beau Brummell at 4; Somerset Maugham at 6.
8. South Street: Florence Nightingale at number 10, the film producer J. Arthur Rank at 38, and Lord Ashfield at 43, the man who built the London Underground into a single network.
9. South Audley Street: the sculptor Richard Westmacott at 14, the florist Constance Spry at 64, and the exiled French king Charles X at 72.
10. Berkeley Square: Clive of India at 45 and George Canning at 50.
11. Bruton Street: two fashion designers almost opposite each other: Jean Muir at 22 and Sir Norman Hartnell at 26.
12. 23 and 25 Brook Street: Jimi Hendrix and George Frideric Handel, next door to each other, separated by about two hundred years.
13. 14/15 Conduit Street: Charles Rolls, engineer and motor car manufacturer.
14. Savile Row: four more: the physician Richard Bright at 11, the historian George Grote at 12, Sheridan again at 14 (his second address, and the exception that proves the one-plaque rule applies to people, not houses) and the architect George Basevi at 17.
15. 18 Bourdon Street: the pianist Winifred Atwell, a short detour north before you finish at Bond Street station.

The walk passes Savile Row and Bond Street, so it doubles as a shopping route if you are with someone who does not care about plaques. Our guide to Mayfair and St James's covers where to stop for lunch, and Green Park is the obvious place to begin or rest.

Other parts of London worth a plaque walk

Mayfair is the densest but not the most interesting for every taste. Bloomsbury is thick with writers and scientists, Chelsea with artists, and Hampstead with refugees and intellectuals who arrived in the 1930s. Each supports an afternoon on the same principle.

Use the borough filter on English Heritage's plaque search to plan one. It returns each plaque with its full address, which is all you need to plot a route on a map; our list of apps worth having in London covers the mapping side.

Blue, but not English Heritage

Not every round plaque in London belongs to this scheme, and the differences matter if you are trying to be accurate.

English Heritage points people whose nominations are refused towards these other schemes, which is why a person can appear on a green plaque in Westminster and never on a blue one. If you are in the City and see a round plaque, it is not one of these.

Practical notes for a plaque walk

This costs nothing, which puts it on our list of free things to do in London, but there are a few things worth knowing.

• They are all on private buildings. Ring no bells, climb no steps, and do not photograph through windows. A plaque is permission to look at a wall, nothing more.
• Some are high up. Plaques are often at first-floor level, so cross the road to read them.
• A few mark sites rather than buildings. Nelson has plaques at two New Bond Street addresses, one of them marked "site", meaning the original house has gone.
• Weekends are better in Mayfair. The streets are quieter and you can stand back on the road to read a plaque without being in anyone's way.
• Rain is not a problem. This is one of the few outdoor London activities where you are never more than a minute from a doorway.

Our guide to walking in London covers distances and when a walk beats the Tube, and if you would rather have a guide than a list, see the best walking tours in London.

Where the plaque walk leads next

Two obvious extensions. For music, the Abbey Road crossing is the other great pilgrimage address in the same tradition, and the Hendrix plaque on Brook Street is the best London answer to it. For the people rather than the houses, Highgate Cemetery holds many of the same names in a single steep hillside.

If you have developed a taste for small London institutions, our round-up of London's best small museums includes several houses that went a step further than a plaque and opened their doors. The rest of this section is under landmarks and historic buildings.

Frequently asked questions

How many blue plaques are there in London?

English Heritage says there are more than 1,000 across the capital. They are spread across Greater London but not inside the City of London, which operates its own commemorative scheme. Other boroughs and organisations run further schemes of their own.

How do you get a blue plaque for someone?

Anyone can nominate. At least twenty years must have passed since the person died, a building they lived or worked in must still stand in Greater London and be visible from a public highway, and they must not already have a plaque. Proposals go to English Heritage by email, and the Blue Plaques Panel shortlists three times a year.

How long does it take for a plaque to go up?

Usually two to three years after a nomination is shortlisted. English Heritage has to complete a two-stage research process, work through the shortlist, and obtain the building owner's consent, with listed building consent sometimes needed as well.

Where can I see the most blue plaques in one walk?

Mayfair. English Heritage's list shows 53 plaques in the area, including four in Curzon Street, three in Chesterfield Street, three in South Street and four in Savile Row. A route from Green Park to Bond Street picks up more than a dozen in two to three hours.

Why do so few blue plaques commemorate women?

About 15 per cent of the total do. English Heritage has run a campaign since 2016 to change that, and says more than half of the people awarded plaques since then have been women. The scheme depends on public nominations, so the balance only shifts when people put names forward.

Sources

• English Heritage - London's blue plaques (checked September 2026)
• English Heritage - Propose a blue plaque, including the selection criteria (checked September 2026)
• English Heritage - Search London's blue plaques (checked September 2026)
• English Heritage - About the blue plaques scheme (checked September 2026)