Finding London’s most FAMOUS Blue Plaques

I thought finding ten famous London blue plaques sounded like a fun day out. Then I planned the travel and estimated about seven hours, including getting around. My train was booked. I was excited, but I was also stalling over my coffee because this was going to be a lot of walking.

The list was mine. I hadn’t discovered an official ranking of the ten most influential people ever to live in London. I picked people I wanted to see, which explains how an outing could include Virginia Woolf, Jimi Hendrix and Benny Hill. In the video published in April 2025, the plaques took me down streets I’d never visited, despite having been to London hundreds of times.

Authors I knew about but hadn’t read

My first stop was Charles Dickens on Doughty Street. He lived at number 48 from 1837 to 1839, writing Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby there. His house is now the Charles Dickens Museum. It was open when I arrived, but I didn’t have time to go inside.

That was the thing I’d come for: being able to stand outside somewhere a famous person actually lived and worked. Canada has plenty of history, and I wasn’t trying to deny that. This particular experience was different from what I knew in Toronto. I could come to Dickens’ street, see the house and admire the enormous doors. The street before it had also smelled like bin day, so there was that contribution to the atmosphere.

I did have a confession. I didn’t think I’d ever read Dickens. We read Shakespeare at school, but Dickens wasn’t required. At my second stop, Virginia Woolf in Fitzroy Square, I had much the same problem. I knew who she was, but I hadn’t read her work. The walk was making me want to read both of them.

Woolf’s house had another plaque for George Bernard Shaw, although his wasn’t blue. I’d already passed other blue plaques that weren’t on my list. Meanwhile, the square itself was lovely: benches, people having lunch, and the sort of architecture I love in London. I know the whole city doesn’t look like that. This part was very pretty.

Hendrix, Handel and a jackhammer

Jimi Hendrix was my next choice. I discovered his music in high school, and Electric Ladyland remains a ten-out-of-ten album for me. Seeing his former flat was something I wanted on my list, regardless of whether everyone agreed with my choices.

The extra surprise was Handel’s home next door. They lived there in very different periods, of course. The neighbouring homes are now part of Handel Hendrix House. I thought it was incredible that those two musicians were connected to buildings right beside each other.

This was also the noisiest stop so far. Jackhammers sent me down an alley to record my update, and I was sweaty and getting hungry. Still, the challenge was doing what I’d hoped. I hadn’t seen these plaques before, and I hadn’t known most of these roads existed. Choosing specific people to find was getting me into parts of London I usually missed.

The travel was the hard part

By Gandhi’s plaque in West Kensington, stop five, I was exhausted. I texted my partner to say I’d arrived, and he asked whether that was the last one. No. I’d got into London just after eleven, and now it was past two. I was only halfway through the plan.

I’d spend roughly eight minutes at a plaque, appreciating the history, then get back on the Tube and travel again. It was a beautiful, hot day, and the Tube felt heated too. I had chosen this myself and was having a good time. I was also very capable of complaining about it.

Alfred Hitchcock’s plaque on Cromwell Road gave me a chance to sit on a step. At about twelve, I’d written and delivered a school speech about him because I thought he was so interesting. I still thought it had been a good speech. After my update, I needed another ten minutes sitting down before carrying on.

Howard Carter was nearby, which helped. My interest in him had a very sensible origin: watching The Mummy and wanting to become an archaeologist. Later choices included Diana Spencer and Churchill, but my feet were screaming and my camera was starting to die. By the end it was 4.40. I’d found new streets and seen places connected to people I cared about. I’d also seriously underestimated how much travelling there would be between them.

Watch my full London blue plaque walk, including the later stops.