Learning English

Alice
Hi, it's Alice. Do you know about the London Blue Plaques? Well, they're part of a scheme that started here in 1866! The plaques are special blue signs that are put up in honour of famous people. And there are a few of them dotted around that you can see as you walk the streets of London. Come on - let's see who we can find!

Just half a mile from Broadcasting House and we've found a Blue Plaque! This is the house where Virginia Woolf lived from 1907 to 1911. Woolf was a famous novelist and was the subject of the 2002 biopic The Hours. In the film she was played by Nicole Kidman, who won an Oscar for her performance.

We're now in Soho and this is the place where television was first demonstrated. How many of us have a TV? And who did this? Well, it was John Logie Baird in 1926. Logie Baird was a Scottish engineer and inventor who was voted as one of the 100 Greatest Britons in a 2002 public vote.

And what about this street? This is where Isaac Newton lived from 1642 to 1727. Newton was a scientist and he came up with a theory of gravity - the invisible force that keeps us on the earth - apparently when he saw an apple fall from a tree. Can you see? The place where Newton lived is now full of shops!

Do you know who Florence Nightingale was? Well, she's probably the most famous English nurse ever! She's considered to be the founder of modern nursing after she set up a nursing school in St Thomas's Hospital. This modern building stands on the site where her house would have been.

Now, the last stop on our Blue Plaque tour and I'm on a street that was home to a world-famous musician. Can you guess who he was? He wasn't British like our other famous Blue Plaque people. He came to London from another country and had a big influence on other musicians in his time and after his death. His surname begins with the letter 'H'... If you are thinking of the classical composer Handel, then well done - you are right! If you're thinking, "Wait a minute! It's the home of rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix," then you are also right!

Yes, it's unbelievable but true. On the very same street that Handel lived in the 18th century, Jimi Hendrix also lived for a short time in the 1960s. So, what famous people have lived near you?