Just 13 percent of London's famous blue plaques dedicated to women

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Just 13 percent of London's famous blue plaques are dedicated to women.

Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole and novelist Virginia Woolf are among the women who have been honoured with a blue plaque in the capital since the scheme began 150 years ago.

Credit: English Heritage

But just 13% of the 902 plaques put up across London are for notable female figures. English Heritage wants to change that and is calling for more female nominations.

  • To qualify for a blue plaque, figures from history must be regarded as eminent, with achievements that made a significant impact or deserve national recognition

  • They should have been dead for 20 years and have lived in London for a significant period in time or importance in their lives

  • The building where they lived or worked must also still be standing and must not have a significantly altered exterior

To propose a new plaque, visit the English Heritage website.

Here are the blue plaques honouring women in each London borough.

City of Westminster

  • Nancy Astor 1879-1964 - First woman to sit in Parliament

  • Hertha Ayrton 1854-1923 - Physicist

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861 - Poet

  • Lady Violet Bonham Carter 1887-1969 - Politician and writer

  • Elizabeth Bowen 1899-1973 - Writer

  • Frances Hodgson Burnett 1849 - 1924 - Writer

  • Fanny Burney (Madame D'Arblay) 1752 - 1840 - Writer

  • Emma Cons 1837-1912 - Founder of the Old Vic

  • Emily Davies 1830-1921 Founder of Girton College Cambridge

  • Dame Edith Evans 1888-1976 - Actress

  • Ethel Gordon Fenwick 1857-1947 - Nursing reformer

  • Elizabeth Garrett Anderson 1836-1917 - First woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain

  • Octavia Hill 1838-1912 - Co-founder of the National Trust

  • Ada Countess of Lovelace 1815-1852 - Pioneer of Computing

  • Melanie Klein 1882-1960 - Psychoanalyst and Pioneer of Child Analysis

  • Dame Laura Knight 1877-1970 - Painter

  • Susan Lawrence 1871-1947 - Social Reformer

  • Vivien Leigh 1913-1967 - Actress

  • Jane Loudon 1807-1858 - Landscape gardener

  • Rose Macaulay 1881-1958 - Writer

  • Alice Meynell 1847-1922 - Poet and Essayist

  • Nancy Mitford 1904-1973 - Writer

  • Countess Mountbatten of Burma 1901-1960 - Last Vicereine of India

  • Vita Sackville-West 1892-1962 - Writer and Gardener

  • Florence Nightingale - 1820-1910 - Nursing Reformer

  • Ann Oldfield 1683-1730 - Actress

  • Eleanor Rathbone 1872-1946 - Pioneer of Family Allowances

  • Dame Lucie Rie 1902-1995 - Potter

  • Olive Schreiner 1855-1920 - Writer

  • Mary Seacole 1805-1881 - Crimean War Nurse

  • Mary Shelley 1797-1851 - Author of Frankenstein

  • Constance Spry 1886-1960 - Florist

  • Marie Taglioni 1809-1884 - Ballet Dancer

  • Dame Marie Tempest 1864-1942 - Actress

  • Marie Tussaud 1761-1850 - Waxwork Artist

Barking and Dagenham

  • No plaques

Barnet

  • Dame Myra Hess 1890-1965 - Pianist

  • Amy Johnson 1903-1941 Aviator

Bexley

  • No plaques

Brent

  • No plaques

Bromley

  • Rachel McMillan 1859-1917 and Margaret McMillan 1860-1931 - Pioneers of Nursery Education

  • Marie Stopes 1880-1892 - Promoter of Sex Education

Camden

  • Joanna Baillie 1762-1851 - Poet and dramatist

  • Dame Henrietta Barnett 1851-1936 - Founder of Hampstead Garden Suburb

  • Vera Brittain 1893-1970 and Winifred Holtby 1898-1935 - Writers and Reformers

  • Frances Mary Buss 1827-1894 - Pioneer of Education for Women

  • Dame Clara Butt 1873-1936 - Singer

  • Dame Millicent Garrett 1847-1929 - Pioneer of women's suffrage

  • Anna Freud 1895-1982 - Psychoanalyst

  • Kate Greenaway 1846-1901 - Artist

  • Barbara Hammond 1873-1961 - Social Historian

  • Tamara Karsavina 1885-1978 - Ballerina

  • Dame Ida Mann 1893-1983 - Opthalmologist

  • Katherine Mansfield 1888-1923 - Writer

  • Lady Ottoline Morrell 1873-1938 - Literary Hostess

  • Sylvia Plath 1932-1963 - Poet

  • Christina Rossetti 1830-1894 - Poet

  • Dorothy L Sayers 1893-1957 - Writer of Detective Stories

  • Dame Edith Sitwell 1887-1964 - Poet

  • Beatrice Webb 1858-1943 - Political Reformer

  • Virginia Woolf 1882-1941 - Novelist

  • Martina Bergman Osterberg 1849-1915 - Pioneer of Physical Education for Women

Croydon

  • No plaques

Ealing

  • Dorothea Lambert Chambers 1878-1960 - Lawn tennis champion

Enfield

  • Mary Lamb 1764-1847 - writer

  • Stevie Smith 1902-1971 - Poet

Greenwich

  • No plaques

Hackney

  • Maria Dickin 1870-1951 - Founder of the PDSA

  • Marie Lloyd 1870-1922 - Music Hall singer

Hammersmith and Fulham

  • Marie Louise de la Ramee (Ouida) 1839-1908 - Novelist

Haringey

  • Mary Kingsley 1862-1900 - Ethnologist and Traveller

Harrow

  • No plaques

Havering

  • No plaques

Hillingdon

  • No plaques!

Hounslow

  • No plaques

Islington

  • Caroline Chisholm 1808-1877 - Philanthropist

  • Amelia Edwards 1831-1892 - Egyptologist

  • Gracie Fields 1898-1979 - Singer

  • Lilian Lindsay 1871-1960 - First Woman Dentist to Qualify in Britain

Kensington and Chelsea

  • Princess Seraphine Astafieva 1876-1934 - Ballet dancer

  • Enid Bagnold 1889-1981 - Novelist and Playwright

  • Jennie Lee 1904-1988 - Politician

  • Dr Margery Blackie 1898-1981 - Homeopathic Physician

  • Dorothy Bland (Mrs Jordan) 1762-1816 - Actress

  • Dame Agatha Christie 1890-1976 - Detective Novelist

  • Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett 1884-1969 - Novelist

  • Evelyn de Morgan 1855-1919 - Artist

  • George Eliot 1819-1880 - Novelist

  • Rosalind Franklin 1920-1958 - Pioneer of the study of DNA

  • Elizabeth Gaskell 1810-1865 - Novelist

  • Joyce Grenfell 1910-1979 - Entertainer and Writer

  • Lillie Langtry 1852-1929 - Actress

  • Jenny Lind (Madame Goldschmidt) 1820-1887 - Singer

  • Dame Maud McCarthy 1858-1949 - Army Matron-in-Chief

  • Emmeline Pankhurst 1858-1928 and Dame Christabel Pankhurst 1880-1958 - Suffragette leaders

  • Sylvia Pankhurst 1882-1960 - Campaigner for Women's Rights

  • Dame Marie Rambert 1888-1982 - Founder of Ballet Rambert

  • Jean Rhys 1890-1979 - Writer

  • Ellen Terry 1847-1928 - Actress

  • Dame Sybil Thorndike 1882-1976 - Actress

  • Evelyn Underhill 1875-1941 - Christian Philosopher

  • Elisabeth Welch 1904-2003 - Singer

  • Lady Jane Francesca Wilde (Speranza) 1821-1896 - Poet and Essayist

Kingston

  • Enid Blyton 1897-1968 - Children's Writer

  • Dame Nellie Melba 1861-1931 - Operatic Soprano

Lambeth

  • Lilian Baylis 1874-1937 - Theatre Manager

  • Violette Szabo 1921-1945 - Secret Agent

Lewisham

  • Eleanor Marx 1855-1898 - Socialist Campaigner

Merton

  • Josephine Butler 1828-1906 - Champion of Women's Rights

  • Georgette Heyer 1902-1974 - Novelist

  • Dame Margaret Rutherford 1892-1972 - Actress

Newham

  • No plaques

Redbridge

  • No plaques

Richmond

  • Dame Ninette de Valois 1898-2001 - Founder of the Royal Ballet

  • Kathleen Godfree 1896-1992 - Lawn Tennis Champion

  • Dame Celia Johnson 1908-1982 - Actress

  • Virginia Woolf 1882-1941 - Author

Southwark

  • Annie Besant 1847-1933 - Social Reformer

Sutton

  • No plaques

Tower Hamlets

  • Edith Cavell 1865-1915 - Pioneer of Modern Nursing

  • Anna Maria Garthwaite 1690-1763 - Textile Designer

  • Mary Hughes 1860-1941 - Social Worker

Waltham Forest

  • No plaques

Wandsworth

  • Mary Anne Evans (George Eliot) 1819-1880 - Novelist