Erection date: 4/10/2012
Lord Byron, widely regarded as one of the greatest British poets was born here, 22 January 1788.
"Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine."
City of Westminster
John Lewis Partnership
Unveiled on National Poetry Day by JLP MD Simon Fowler and Westminster Mayor Cllr Angela Harvey. Lots of websites agree that the "Always laugh" quote is Lord Byron but not one gives a source and we can't locate it.
Site: Lord Byron (2 memorials)
W1, Holles Street, John Lewis
The first ever official plaque was placed by the (Royal) Society of Arts on house number 16 in 1867 but the building was subsequently demolished and that plaque, P1, lost. We understand that 'old Mr John Lewis' erected a plaque, P2, on his premises before WW2 but the building was bombed in 1940 and that plaque lost as well. The next plaque erected, P3, was, we believe, the non-standard one that we have here, and which we rather liked, just because it is so non-standard. However, on 4 October 2012 a new, standard, green Westminster plaque, P4, was unveiled and, sadly, the non-standard one was removed. Our colleague and John Lewis mole, Alan, is trying to discover its whereabouts. We've left it here so you can at least see what it looked like.
In summary: 4 plaques, of which we have photos of the last two.
