Linking the Past to the Present: Birkbeck Law Professor appointed to City of London’s Blue Plaques Panel

Daniel Monk, Professor of Law at Birkbeck, has been appointed to the City of London Blue Plaques Panel, which celebrates the links between historically significant people and the buildings in which they lived and worked.

Professor Monk joins eight others as part of the advisory panel that reviews eligible applications and makes recommendations to the Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee. The Panel members bring together a range of expertise and perspectives, including City of London Corporation officers, elected Members of the Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee, and independent external experts.

A Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and former Assistant Dean of Equalities at Birkbeck, Professor Monk said, “I am pleased to be joining with other members of the Blue Plaques Panel who collectively bring a variety of expertise and perspectives. Who is and who should be remembered is a provocative and important question. I am particularly encouraged by the new emphasis for the panel on ensuring that we capture stories that represent the diversity of the City.”

A new panel was set up recently to provide a more modern and inclusive selection process and earlier this month unveiled a plaque for Francis Barber , recorded as Britain’s first Black schoolteacher and an heir, friend and former servant to Samuel Johnson; awarded the oldest plaque in London’s Square Mile.

The City of London Blue Plaques Scheme is the oldest scheme of its kind in the world and commemorates notable people, buildings, events and institutions that have made a lasting contribution to the City’s history.

English Heritage has run the London blue plaques scheme since 1986, when it had already been in existence for 120 years. Over 1,000 official plaques have been put up in London by English Heritage and its predecessors since the scheme began in 1866.