Plaque

Siddons was the first woman honoured with an official plaque in 1876 but the house was demolished in 1905. The plaque survives in the V&A collection (ref. number: O136607). The address is given as 17 York Place but Upper Baker Street was a continuation of York Place (now all called Baker Street) so we think both addresses refer to the same house, the house in which Siddons died.

At GetWestLondon we found our two, 1903, photos of the house: the ground floor drawing room and a view of the outside taken "from the north-west". Look closely and you can see the plaque above the front door, between the window boxes. This photo suggests to us that the house was at the north end of the east side of Upper Baker Street, shown on this 1834 map. The large building there now, number 236, is dated 1913 which is about right. That building is built over the railway lines to Baker Street Station which probably explains the demolition.

We thank Steve Roffey for bringing this lost plaque to our attention; he found the reference to it in the V&A collection.

2018: The Guardian refers to this plaque as the first erected to a woman.