– and cinema plaques
David Newbitt
Our week in Pembrokeshire last month (May 2022) included a visit to Fishguard where I found this plaque set in a large irregular block of stone at the head of the Quay.
Were there similar plaques dotted about all over the UK or is this unusual?
Did anyone have any connection with the 1971 Under Milk Wood?
Alan Taylor
I’ve never seen one for a film location, but there is one which I remember as being of a similar design to commemorate where Sean Connery lived. It was probably in Edinburgh, but maybe Glasgow.
My favourite commemorative blue plaque is in Haymarket, telling of the time when Ho Chi Minh worked at the Carlton Hotel which used to be at that location. After that modest beginning, he ended up having an entire city (formerly Saigon) named after him. Quite a rags to riches story.
There’s a little more to the story. The Carlton was the big time for him in London. Prior to that, he worked as a cleaner and dishwasher in the kitchens of an Ealing pub, the Drayton Court Hotel. And before that, he worked as a snow clearer.
Bernie Newnham
He’s here now, in Hanoi, with my son foreground. We didn’t go in.
And in Ho Chi Minh City they call it Saigon.
David Carter
The plaque is one of 126 erected by the British Film Institute (BFI)
Fishguard was also one of the bases for the filming of some of the whaling sequences in “Moby Dick” (1956). Local legend has it that one of the whale models was lost at sea and still resides in a cave along the coast.
Just a few miles up the coast, Newport was one of the locations for “Law and Disorder” (1958). My wife had a 3 second cameo in it, with a rubber shark!
Glad the weather was warm enough for you to enjoy ice cream. The local dairy industry has diversified into value added products.
David Newbitt
Thank you for the information, David – it fired my interest to hunt about a bit and I found a little more.
Apparently a competition was mounted jointly by the BFI and the Scottish Film Council for the public to nominate subjects for these centenary plaques. It seems likely that the BFI originally intended to select 100 venues but worthy entrants obviously exceeded this target hence the 126 tally. If the info on this next link is accurate re the overall NFI/ Scottish Film Council quantity then the number is either 262 or 263. https://openplaques.org/series/1 My Fishguard NFI plaque is listed as No. 40771.
If this piece from Rushden, Northants is correct not all have survived:-
Above written by someone apparently unaware that ‘the original 100’ had expanded.
Looking at some of these it seems a painter/decorator with an hour or two of spare time would come in handy.
