Mike is Chairman of the British Plaque Trust
Twitter: @BritPlaqueTrust
A Blue Plaque promotes the history of a building and some of its notable inhabitants. It is also a recognised symbol of national English heritage and has been successively run by the Royal Society of Arts, the London County Council, the Greater London Council and, since 1986, English Heritage.
The national plaque scheme commemorated the link between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked. It was a uniquely successful means of connecting people and places across Britain. Due to funding restrictions, English Heritage closed the national scheme in 2007 and are now closing the London scheme. The key objective of the British Plaque Trust (BPT) is to resurrect this national scheme which commemorates the lives and successes of notable figures by recognising the buildings and places which they inhabited.
The scheme is an endorsement of British innovation, creativity and success throughout history.
We would be delighted to hear from you if you wish to attend some of the special days being organised, or if you might consider sponsoring or generally supporting the new endeavours of the British Plaque Trust.
The lengthy process of selecting locations for future blue plaques involves many individual steps and each step must receive approval before moving forward. In addition, there is the cost of the plaque itself: obviously each one is unique. Individual sponsors are required to cover the schemes funding because it is a charity. Each plaque requires an initial proposer, a researcher, and a committee to manage the various applications (not all proposals will be suitable after research), the research of the building, its occupants and the commemorated subject.
An administrator is commissioned to manage each application and proposal. The building owner who (all being well) gives their consent to the plaque must be researched, approached and provide consent. A representative of the local planning authority (who will need to be consulted by the Trust), is also consulted to clarify local council criteria for approval (if appropriate). The property concerned may be a listed building; in such cases, listed building consent for the plaque will need to be sought from the local planning authority.
A copywriter is then commissioned to compose a plaque inscription, and a designer consulted for the layout of the approved wording and the plaque’s position on the proposed building. The plaque manufacturer needs to be consulted and commissioned timely with the relevant data provided, and a contractor responsible for the plaque’s installation is appointed.
Finally, a suitable venue is sought for the public reception relating to the unveiling ceremony, and an event organiser is required to manage catering, crowd control and other final details.
Tin Pan Alley – Denmark Street
On Sunday April 6th the British Plaque Trust unveiled a Blue Plaque at The Giaconda, 9, Demmark St, London, the street known as ‘Tin Pan Alley’. The plaque honours songwriters and publishers to whom this street was home between 1911 and 1992. Many of the world’s most famous songwriters and publishers attended to witness Donovan, inductee of the US Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and US Songwriters Hall of Fame, unveil the plaque. The multi-million selling artist wrote and recorded a song for the occasion, called ‘Tin Pan Alley‘ which he performed on the day.
Founding Fathers Plaque – Wembley Stadium
On October 21st 2013 at Wembley Stadium, the British Plaque Trust was proud to partner the English Football Association in dedicating a 150th anniversary commemorative plaque to the Founding Fathers who set down the original rules of the game in 1863.
The Trust Chairman, Mike Read, gave one of the addresses along with former England player Sir Trevor Brooking CBE, Director of Football Development at the FA, who unveiled the plaque with the youngest of the descendants relations, eight-year-old Isaac Lord.
The guests at Wembley Stadium included Sir William and Lady McAlpine, the McAlpines having built the original Wembley Stadium as part of the Empire Exhibition in 1923. The other Trustees Vanessa Brady, Ian Freeman and Major (retd) Ian Mattison were pleased to be present as was a descendant of one of the Founding Fathers who travelled from New Zealand for this unveiling.
A total of 16 relatives of the Founding Fathers of football attended a special ceremony at Wembley Stadium on the 21st October 2013 where a Blue Plaque was unveiled paying tribute to the historical significance of their work in creating a game that is now enjoyed by billions of people around the world. The event started of a week of celebrations for The FA’s 150th birthday, which culminated in a Gala Dinner on the anniversary date itself; Saturday the 26th October 2013.
Dr. Jane Clayton from the International Football Institute, University of Central Lancashire, said:
“For the search to have been so successful is incredibly pleasing as, from a historical perspective, we now know a lot more about a number of the men that created the most popular sport in the world one hundred and fifty years ago. The research carried out to date has been extensive but the work continues in the hope of discovering more descendants across the world.”
Alex Horne, General Secretaty of The FA, said:
“In terms of historical significance, the eight Founding Fathers of football should be placed alongside other great pioneers of this nation. The game has become a focal point of the lives of nearly every household in England since it was formed, so to now understand more about the history of these men is incredibly important.”
“The FA is delighted that in its 150th year we have been able to identify living descendants and honour their forefathers at what is now the home of English football, Wembley.”
Broadcaster Mike Read, Honorary Chairman of The British Plaque Trust, and a lifelong Bury FC fan has been in discussion with The FA about the commemoration for several months. He said:
“The Founding Fathers of football helped give the world a sport which down the generations has inspired many billions. We wanted to ensure that the momentous moment was marked in the appropriate manner and so the British Plaque Trust Blue Plaque is an appropriate and recognizable tribute to mark this historic occasion. ”
NIPPER the HMV Dog
HMV CEO Ian Topping unveiled the plaque in October 2014 at the Cavalry & Guards Club, Piccadilly. The British Plaque Trust trustees and invited guests were present.
Nipper’s Tale.
In 1884 Mark Barraud, a designer at the Princes Theatre, Bristol brought a stray
puppy home for his five children to their house in Banner Road, Bristol.
Nipper was born to unknown parents around 1884 and given his name because he was in the habit of nipping people’s ankles. Barraud died in 1887 leaving the family so destitute that they had to be broken up. The five children went into homes and convents while his wife went to live with her mother-in law. No provision had been made for Nipper, the stray fox terrier with a hint of bull terrier and a dash of Jack Russell, and he was unable to be housed by any of Mark’s family. Rather than him taking to the streets again, one of Mark Barraud’s younger brothers’ Francis, took Nipper with him to Liverpool, when he went to live with their other brother, Philip. Philip was a photographer, based at 92, Bold Street, referred to then as ‘The Bond Street of the North.’ In the photographic studio was a new phonograph, which seemed to intrigue Nipper, mystified by hearing a disembodied voice. Philip took a photograph of the dog, gazing into the trumpet with his ears pricked.
When two of Mark Barraud’s boys eventually left the convent and went into business they able to reunite their family in one home. That meant Nipper coming south again, spending his twilight years chasing the pheasants in Richmond Park and following the young Mark to work in the family studio on Clarence Street. The Barrauds had photographic studios in Liverpool, London and Kingston.
When Nipper went for his final walk to that great kennel in the sky in 1895. Mark Barraud wrote this in 1950 about the dog’s demise:
‘Nipper became my great pal, so when my mother and brother started a home at Kingston-upon-Thames I joined them, bringing Nipper with me. I was at a studio in Kingston and Nipper went to work with me each day.’
He lived, for the last part of his life across at that house, No 54, Clarence St. Kingston and the plaque is across the road at Lloyds Bank denotes his grave.
Mark Barraud, whose family owned Nipper, remembered burying him here in 1895, in the garden of their neighbour, Durham, a solicitor whose premises were where Lloyd’s bank is now. The Barraud’s premises didn’t have a garden, so Nipper was buried across the road under the remains of a mulberry tree.
The origins of HMV
By the 1890s, Disc gramophones had begun to appear and by 1902 the forerunner to HMV, the Gramophone Company, was taking shape. In February 1907 they built a factory at Hayes, for making records. These were sold in music shops and other retailers, with the Company opening the very first store under the HMV name. The store was on HMV’s current site site in Oxford Street, a former men’s clothing shop, and was opened by the composer Edward Elgar in July 1921. By the 30s, the HMV and Marconiphone names also began to feature on radio and television sets made at the Hayes factory, while in 1931 the Gramophone Company, with its His Master’s Voice record label, merged with the Columbia Gramophone Company to form Electric and Musical industries Ltd…EMI….This meant that Nipper would not only feature on the HMV label but also over the years, on associated brands, EMI, RCA Victor, the Talking Machine Company, JVC and Deutsche Grammophon.
The Painting
Following Nipper’s demise Francis Barruaud painted the dog from memory, looking into his phonograph trumpet, giving it the title, ‘Dog looking at and listening to a Phonograph. He completed it in 1898 and renamed it ‘His Master’s Voice.’ Barraud was initially unsuccessful in trying to sell the image, with even the Royal Academy displaying complete disinterest. Francis showed his painting of Nipper, head cocked, listening to the phonograph, to
James E Hough, the founder of the Edison Bell Company. Hough replied in his bluff, direct Yorkshire manner, ‘Dogs don’t listen to phonographs!’
So at the end of May 1899, Francis Barraud visited their rivals in Maiden Lane,
Covent Garden, at what was then The Gramophone Company’s headquarters. He left them a photograph of his 36” x 28”painting with the company’s American MD Barry Owen and later wrote about the ensuing scenario.
“I was not satisfied with the trumpet I had painted. It was black and ugly, and I
wanted something more pictorial. One day a friend of mine suggested I call on the Gramophone Company and ask them to lend me a brass horn to paint from; so armed with a small photograph of my oil painting, I paid them a visit at their offices, which were then in Maiden Lane. To a gentleman I saw there I explained what I required and showed him the photograph. He asked at once if he might show it to the manager, Mr. Barry Owen. I agreed. Mr. Owen shortly came out and asked me if the picture was for sale and whether I could introduce a Gramophone of their own make instead of the one in the picture. I replied that the picture was for sale and I could make the alteration if they would let me have an instrument to paint from.’
In September 1899, Francis Barraud accepted the Gramophone Company’s formal offer of £50 for the painting and £50 for the copyright. On the 18th of that month, the company sent their latest Gramophone round to Barraud’s London studio at 126 Piccadilly and by October 3rd he’d painted out the original machine, painted the new machine over it, and completed what would become one of the best-known images in the world.
The Gramophone Company first used the image on their advertising literature in
1900, later featuring it on novelty promotional items. Nipper featured on needle tins and boxes, radiograms, ashtrays, paperweights, Christmas Cards, baseball caps and even on playing cards in the States.
Nipper was used in the company’s headed notepaper from 1909 with both the
painting and the title being registered as a trademark in 1910. In 1900 5,000 copies of the painting were printed on postcards and sold for 12/6d each. There is even an early film, made when Queen Victoria was still on the throne in 1900, of a Nipper tribute dog. Elvis was one of many 50s artists who began their careers on the label where they were cheek by jowl with Nipper. And in the States Nipper featured on the RCS Victor label alongside the King. And he wasn’t the only king. Nipper hobnobbed with George V….
126 Piccadilly has long been part of the Cavalry & Guards Club, which is where this plaque to Nipper was erected in October 2014 by the British Plaque Trust.
The peripatetic and omnipresent Nipper.
As well as the plaque in Bristol and a brass plaque in Kingston, where Nipper is buried, there are monuments to Nipper in the most unlikely places.
A 25ft high Nipper sits on top of what was RCA’s building on Broadway, in Albany, New York. With his steel frame weighing a mighty four tons and just in case he gets lost, he has ‘Nipper’ engraved on his collar. Because of his height, he also has an aircraft beacon sticking, rather fetchingly, out of his right ear.
Another, slightly smaller Nipper which for many years sat over Lee Highway (Route 29) but was saved when the area was developed and is now commemorated there in the road, Nipper Way. The pooch is now back at its original home in Baltimore, although not at its original home at the former RCA building on Russell Street, but on top of the Maryland Historical Society Building. The statue features a rather distracted Nipper, looking slightly weary at spending decades being fooled by a gramophone recording.
It’s intriguing that a late Victorian mongrel dog has three statues, features on three commemorative plaques and has two thoroughfares named after him, including Nipper Alley in Kingston-Upon-Thames. There was also a pub, the Dog & Trumpet in London’s Great Marlborough St., named after him, directly across the road and within view of the one-time HQ of EMI and HMV’s great rivals, Decca Records.
Nipper was even featured in a coat of arms. In 1960 when Joseph Lockwood, the head of EMI was knighted the dog Nipper was woven into the heraldry:
‘Gules within an Orle of Millrinds Argent a Garb also Argent, and the crest on a wreath of colours, ‘On a Rock a smooth-haired Fox Terrier sejant proper resting the dexter fore-paw on a Lyre Or.’
The next plaque will be to the poet Rupert Brooke unveiled at the Orchard Grantchester on Saturday 25th April. This will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Brooke’s death.
The Trustees with the plaque.
Mike Read 