The Metropolis

Five obscure blue plaque recipients I'd like to meet down the pub

Mike Pollitt | Monday 19 September, 2011 16:34

I’ve been foraging round English Heritage’s Blue Plaques site. Some of the recipients are pretty obscure. Here are five characters from the first half of the alphabet who I’d never heard of before. But now I’d really like to buy them a pint and pick their brains with my grasping mental claws.

Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin

Wikipedia describes him as “a Russian zoologist, activist, philosopher, economist, writer, scientist, evolutionary theorist, geographer and one of the world’s foremost anarcho-communists.” Which is kind of cool. He co-wrote an article entitled “On Spherical Maps and Reliefs: Discussion”, a pamphlet called “Are Prisons Necessary?”, and railed against individualistic interpretations of evolutionary theory. He also had a magnificent beard. His plaque is in Bromley.

Will Hay

A comedian (see above, classic old school imperialist humour).

But wait, there’s more. He was a respected astronomer, “noted for having discovered a white spot on the planet Saturn in 1933…He also measured the positions of comets with a micrometer he built himself, and designed and built a blink comparator.”

Pretty nifty, hey? But wait, there’s more. “He was a polyglot and, before entering the acting profession full time, was an accomplished translator – fluent in French, German, Latin, Italian, Norwegian and Afrikaans.”

What a guy. But hang on, there’s even more: “As a favourite trick for his friends, he would write rapidly seeming nonsense on a blackboard, look at it thoughtfully for a minute with a puzzled expression, then turn the blackboard upside down and there would be a perfectly written statement of some kind. And he could take someone’s dictation, and repeat the trick.” Amazing. His plaque is in Norbury.

Tom Cribb

A boxer, who would be great to meet in order to ask about the following. “On 10 December 1810 he fought an American, former slave Tom Molineaux, at Shenington Hollow in Oxfordshire. Cribb beat Molineaux in 35 rounds and became World champion. This victory was achieved through controversy though, as Cribb was clearly outclassed by the American, being humiliated round after round until he was easily defeated. This caused a riot to ensue and a mob soon descended on the ring swiftly attacking Molineaux and his black trainer. They broke his hand, six ribs and left him badly battered all over; only then did they restart the match. Molineaux fought on bravely only to be finally defeated eleven rounds later. This would become one of the most disputed results in the history of boxing.” His plaque is in Leicester Square.

Dr Margery Blackie
Homeopathy is a load of garbage, isn’t it? Not according to the Queen. Dr Blackie was one of her physicians. Here is the intro to a People magazine story about her from 1978. “It is just as well that the royal guard does not examine Dr. Margery G. Blackie’s bag when the queen’s physician makes house calls at Buckingham Palace. If they did, they would find arsenic, strychnine, wormwood, wolfsbane, death cap mushroom, and the venom of the Gila monster, rattlesnake and hooded cobra.” Intriguing. Her plaque is in South Kensington.

Willy Clarkson

A wigmaker reputed to have made disguises for Jack the Ripper and Dr Crippen. I think that warrants a beer and a natter. His plaque is in Soho.

Stephen Fry has an article picking out some more blue plaquers here. Further interesting obscurities from the second half of the alphabet may follow on this site soon.

(Willy Clarkson plaque photo by Chris Sampson HHA124L on Flickr)

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