Composers' (and other musicians') blue plaques

[Nick Armstrong]

I guess I'm most familiar with Handel and Jimi Hendrix next door to one another on Brook Street, W1, as I cycle past from time to time and metaphorically doff my cap... but (partly in the wake of the charivari about marking the Dutilleux residence in Paris), has anyone got any other favourite 'blue plaque' addresses to share?

I passed Eric Coates's place in a cab the other day (Flat 176, Chiltern Court, Baker Street, NW1 - just round the corner from the tube station).

And it's good to see this new one going up in Great Pulteney Street, W1, on old Joe Haydn's gaff:

https://www.facebook.com/HaydnSocietyofGreatBritain

http://theconversation.com/shakespeare-of-music-finally-gets-his-own-blue-plaque-38941

Any other serendipitous encounters ?

[Flay]

Any other serendipitous encounters ?

Hmm, I do recall one or two that stopped me in my tracks, but I cannot remember where they were. I may be some time...

[Nick Armstrong]

Hmm, I do recall one or two that stopped me in my tracks, but I cannot remember where they were. I may be some time...

[teamsaint]

I happened upon an Elgar 'un in Avonmore road, West Kensington, just around the corner from Kensington Olympia station.

I see that the fourth edition of the London Blue Plaque guide hits the streets in august.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/London-Blue-Plaque-Guide-Fourth/dp/0750963956/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427224362&sr=1-5&keywords=london+blue+plaque+guide

[makropulos]

I guess I'm most familiar with Handel and Jimi Hendrix next door to one another on Brook Street, W1, as I cycle past from time to time and metaphorically doff my cap... but (partly in the wake of the charivari about marking the Dutilleux residence in Paris), has anyone got any other favourite 'blue plaque' addresses to share?

I passed Eric Coates's place in a cab the other day (Flat 176, Chiltern Court, Baker Street, NW1 - just round the corner from the tube station).

And it's good to see this new one going up in Great Pulteney Street, W1, on old Joe Haydn's gaff:

Any other serendipitous encounters ?

Yes - there are several conductors including:
Boult in West Hampstead (Marlborough Mansions), Barbirolli in Southampton Row, Sargent just across from the Albert Hall, Henry Wood in Primrose Hill (Elsworthy Road). Among the most recent (2013), Charles Mackerras in St John's Wood (Hamilton Terrace).

Composers: the Elgar one in W. Kensington is nice, and in the same part of the world there's one to the Goossens Family (70 Edith Road), a Britten one at 137 Cromwell Road, Bartók at Sydney Place (South Ken), Holst at Hammersmith (St Paul's Girls School) and in Barnes (where he lived for a time). RVW can be found in Hanover Terrace, Berlioz in Queen Anne Street an so on (and on). As you say, the fun thing about plaques is finding them by chance - as I did with Coates when it was being put up (very recently), and Elgar on my way to a meeting.

[Pabmusic]

I recall seeing an important one - to the first millionaire composer - in Birmingham (Cornwall St?). Albert W. Ketelby.

[Flosshilde]

deleted

[Don Petter]

It's nowhere near a blue plaque, but in a small country lane between here and East Hoathly, where there are few passers by and seemingly little use for such an amenity, there is a wooden seat bearing an inscription, on a metal plate, to the memory of Ronald Binge, Composer, with his dates.

I can find no reference on the internet to any association of his with this part of East Sussex.

Here is a Streetview of the item:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.933789,0.176994,3a,75y,176.55h,90.4t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sxtSNQhAKMDFdAolMOA1jZQ!2e0

The large house in front of which the seat is positioned is North Barham House, should this be significant.

[mercia]

It's nowhere near a blue plaque, but in a small country lane between here and East Hoathly, where there are few passers by and seemingly little use for such an amenity, there is a wooden seat bearing an inscription, on a metal plate, to the memory of Ronald Binge, Composer, with his dates.

I can find no reference on the internet to any association of his with this part of East Sussex.

Here is a Streeview of the item:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.933789,0.176994,3a,75y,176.55h,90.4t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sxtSNQhAKMDFdAolMOA1jZQ!2e0

The large house in front of which the seat is positioned is North Barham House, should this be significant.

I've just looked on the Ancestry website and there's a 1968 Phone Book entry for him at North Barham House

edit - and still there in 1977

[french frank]

Barbirolli in Southampton Row

He also has a tree in Tavistock Square (I'm not sure what sort of tree).

[Don Petter]

I've just looked on the Ancestry website and there's a 1968 Phone Book entry for him at North Barham House

edit - and still there in 1977

Many thanks! Neatly wrapped up.

I see he died in 1979 in Ringwood, so seemingly he pretty much spent his last years in that house.

[Alain Maréchal]

I hope its still there, but 30 years ago there was a plaque in Finsbury Square recording Bruckner's stay in London (presumably in a house on the site).

update: I have just checked google streetview and it was there when the spy camera passed by.

Although its not a plaque I think my most serendipitous find was walking through a churchyard in Sussex and seeing Frank Bridge's grave. Friston - he lived there.

[P. G. Tipps]

I hope its still there, but 30 years ago there was a plaque in Finsbury Square recording Bruckner's stay in London (presumably in a house on the site).

update: I have just checked google streetview and it was there when the spy camera passed by.

Although its not a plaque I think my most serendipitous find was walking through a churchyard in Sussex and seeing Frank Bridge's grave. Friston - he lived there.

Bruckner's plaque is still there all right, but, were you to blink while you pass, you could easily miss it, as it is set back a bit from the pavement on a comparatively unremarkable office building, now partly containing Bloomberg's London HQ. The original site was a hotel owned by a German family which no doubt was the main reason for the composer's choice of London accommodation.

Coincidentally (and somewhat stereotypically) we are told in the latest edition of The Bruckner Journal that the seemingly ever-hapless composer couldn't find his route back to the hotel following one of his organ 'gigs' at the RAH and was finally rescued by a fellow-Austrian (musician?) who happened to spot him sitting all alone and looking lost and bewildered on the top-deck of an old horse-drawn London bus.

Yeahhh, a likely story ...