Plaque commemorating Benjamin Waugh, Southgate Green

Image: © Christopher Hilton Taken: 17 Aug 2017

The plaque is sited on the Salcombe Day Nursery and Pre-School, a former bank that presumably replaced Waugh's house. For details on Benjamin Waugh and his work as founder of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Waugh . To see the plaque in context, go to Image or Image No sponsoring organisation is noted on the plaque. During its very early days, London's "official" blue plaques were erected by the Society of Arts and had variable designs; this one could conceivably be erected by the Society of Arts or, early in its tenure, by the London County Council which took over the scheme. It seems likely, however, that it was erected by the previous owners of the building, or the NSPCC itself: there is no rule to prevent someone erecting a plaque similar in style to the "official" ones. The "official" scheme, with some early exceptions does not commemorate buildings on the site of noteworthy ones: the building marked has to be the original one. The fact that the Greater London Council, who took over the "official" scheme from the LCC, later erected an "official" plaque on a house in Greenwich believed to be Waugh's, indicates that he had not already been covered by the "official" scheme and that this is an "unofficial" plaque.

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