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This is a very non-standard Greater London Council plaque, in two ways: its physical manifestation (neither round and blue, nor rectangular and blue) and its location (well within the boundary of the City of London, which normally creates its own plaques).

In 1982 the (Labour-run) Greater London Council had, per the protocol established by the Society of Arts in 1881, approached the City of London Corporation with a recommendation that the Corporation put up one of their own rectangular blue plaques at Caroone House to commemorate the birth of the Labour Party at this site. The Corporation were seemingly in agreement with the proposal but had, by the summer of 1984 and after numerous chasers, taken no action, leading the GLC to conclude – rightly or wrongly - that the Corporation had no real desire to cooperate with the proposal, and so the GLC broke with protocol, obtained the necessary consents themselves and erected their own plaque.

The plaque created for this memorial is of a unique design. In the GLC era (1965-1986) the decision not to employ a traditional blue roundel was taken on occasions when the Council wished to commemorate the site of an event, differentiating this from the ‘normal’ work of the Historic Buildings committee which had always been the indication of connections between notable individuals and their authentic former London residences or workplaces.

All the delays meant that this plaque was unveiled just 5 months before the GLC was abolished, by the Conservative government.

The plaque was assumed lost after Caroone House was demolished in 2004 but it was then privately re-erected, and privately re-re-erected when the building was redeveloped again, completed in 2008. English Heritage had nothing to do with it either time. 

The press release for its original appearance announced that it would be unveiled by Neil Kinnock, with other Labour grandees present including Tony Banks and Norman Willis.

We thank Steve Roffey for all his research here, processing the "whopper" of a case file on this plaque and for finding the Press Release for the unveiling.

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