How can you help?

Open Plaques is a community-run website containing information about historical plaques found all around the world by people like you. We don't own it, we believe that our role is to curate it and then give the data back to the world for free. We are the museum of the street.

What is a plaque?

According to us, a plaque is a historical marker that identifies something or someone that did something at or nearby the marked location at a point in time For example "Winston Churchill went to school here in 1883" tells us what, where, and when something happened. We exclude foundation stones, grave markers, and memorials. There are always exceptions, so if in doubt send us an email and discuss it. What can you do to help? You could...

Add a plaque

Anyone who has found a plaque in real life or on the internet that is not already in our database can add it. Even if you don't have all the details tell us as much as you can and a plaque hunter should eventually track it down....and no, it doesn't have to be blue.

Take a photo

We display multiple photos of each plaque, so you do not have to be the first. We like close-ups and also long-shots of the building that set the scene. We deliberately do not ask you to upload photos to our site. We connect and add context to existing resources on the web instead of trying to own it all ourselves. The photos that we show are published with a Creative Commons licence on web sites such as Flickr, Wikimedia and Geograph.If you want to contribute your own photograph please click on the 'Your photo how to add it' link on the plaque page.

Inform us of an error, omission or quirk

We take information and enhance it by researching on the web, talking to people, and linking to photographs.

Tell us about your plaques

If you are a civic society, council, history group, or any of the hundreds of organisations who have erected plaques please get in contact and we can add details of your plaques. We will accept a list in any form, just so long as it contains who the plaque is about and a postal address. Additional information like the full inscription and geolocation are ideal but not essential.

Talk to us

Things do not always work; there are many edge cases for whether a plaque should be included; you have something interesting to tell us; or the system is just too confusing. When in doubt, just contact us. One of our volunteers should be able to assist.

Use the data

Open Plaques' data is Public Domain. It is free to use for whatever purpose you so desire. We love it when people acknowledge Open Plaques and link back to us. However, you are under no obligation to do so.

Become a curator

Our band of curators have additional powers to curate Open Plaques' data. Generally they have added a number of plaques so understand the system a bit but now want to change some of their information. Apply to us by email.