Ordnance Survey – Great Britain's national mapping agency

English Heritage® plaque for theatre ‘legend’

30 October 2007

English Heritage has commemorated Shakespearian actor and ‘pioneering figure in the world of theatre’ Ira Aldridge with a blue plaque.
 
Aldridge, who was born in 1807, was the first black actor known to have played the role of Othello in London and was widely recognised for taking on parts traditionally played by white actors, such as Shylock, Richard III and King Lear.
 
The blue plaque to celebrate his life, part of a series of tablets that have been installed across London over the last 140 years, is located at his old house in Upper Norwood, south London.
 
English Heritage said: ‘London's blue plaques celebrate great figures of the past and the buildings that they inhabited.

‘They open a window into another time by showing us where the great and the good have penned their masterpieces, developed new technologies, lived or died.’
 
Figures commemorated by the plaques must have been dead for at least 20 years, have made a positive contribution to human welfare or happiness and resided in London for a significant period of time.
 
Sir Winston Churchill and Charles Darwin are among other figures celebrated by the signs, which map the city's historic past for those walking through the capital.

English Heritage is a registered trademark of Historic Buildings And Monuments Commission For England.

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