London’s famous blue plaques are a form of historical marker that commemorate notable individuals and events associated with specific buildings or locations in the city. With almost one thousand of these memorial plaques erected throughout the city according to English Heritage, we were curious as to how many plaques are based nationally around the UK. Keep reading to find out which UK city has the most!
London has the most blue plaques nationally
Data put together by Brunel Engraving shows that in the top 20 cities, London has the highest number of blue plaques nationally with 3376. London is followed by Edinburgh with 379, and Birmingham with 329 blue plaques. It’s interesting to note the significant increase in blue plaques in the capital, over other popular UK cities.
In terms of the UK cities that have the least number of blue plaques, Bath, Glasgow, and Sheffield come in with the smallest number. It’s quite surprising that cities rich with culture and history are missing out on celebrating important historical figures with blue plaques, with a significantly smaller number in comparison to the top of the list.
3 out of 5 of the top 20 cities' blue plaques are in the South
The table to the right shows the top 10 positions nationally and there is good variation across the different cities and areas but when looking at the top 20 table there is an interesting story told around the distribution of the blue plaques in terms of the North vs South of the United Kingdom.
Over 61% of the blue plaques in the top 20 cities are based in the south with London being the winner by far with over 3,300 plaques.
This makes sense given the origin of the plaques (Indeed the only official English Heritage-registered blue plaques are located within the city) but should more be done to recognise more cities in the North?
Brunel Engraving now offers blue plaques!
Brunel Engraving are now able to take orders for blue plaques online for those looking to commemorate their own local historical figures and locations. Get in touch with us via email to find out more [email protected].