Princess Diana Will Be Honored With a Blue Plaque at Her London Apartment

An English Heritage blue plaque honoring Princess Diana will be installed at the London apartment where she lived before marrying Prince Charles.

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  • Princess Diana will be honored with a plaque at the London apartment where she lived with her friends before marrying Prince Charles.
  • The plaque will be installed this year, what would have been her 60th birthday year.
  • Diana will be honored alongside anti-slavery campaigner Ellen Craft, fashion designer Jean Muir, divorce law campaigner Caroline Norton, lawyer Helena Normanton, and crystallographer Kathleen Lonsdale.

Princess Diana will receive a blue plaque in her honor in 2021, the year she would have turned 60, the Guardian reports, as part of charity English Heritage's scheme to install plaques around the U.K. at locations associated with notable people. Diana will be honored alongside five other women: anti-slavery campaigner Ellen Craft, fashion designer Jean Muir, divorce law campaigner Caroline Norton, lawyer Helena Normanton, and crystallographer Kathleen Lonsdale.

Diana's brother, Charles, Earl Spencer, confirmed on Twitter that the plaque would be installed at her Coleherne Court apartment in Earl's Court, London, which she shared with three friends before marrying Prince Charles. The London apartment was gifted to her by her parents for her 18th birthday in 1979, according to the Guardian.

"How very lovely that this blue plaque will be going up outside Coleherne Court—thank you, ⁦@EnglishHeritage, for commemorating such a very happy place for Diana in this way," Charles tweeted, alongside a photo of the plaque being made.

Anna Eavis, the curatorial director of English Heritage, said in a statement, "We are expecting our plaque to Diana, Princess of Wales to be very popular. She was an inspiration and cultural icon to many, raising awareness of issues including landmines and homelessness, and helping to destigmatize illnesses such as HIV, leprosy and depression. It seems fitting that we should erect a plaque commemorating her work and influence in what would have been her 60th year."

Diana, Craft, Muir, Norton, Normanton, and Lonsdale will be honored as part of English Heritage's "plaques for women" campaign, which aims to redress the dramatic gender imbalance in existing plaques. Over 900 plaques are in place around the U.K., but only 14 percent honor women.

Ellen Craft and her husband, William Craft, were enslaved in Georgia before escaping first to Philadelphia in 1848, and then to the U.K. in 1850, lecturing widely against slavery. Their plaque will be placed at their Hammersmith, London house, the Guardian reports.

Fellow honoree Jean Muir was known as "the British Chanel," while Caroline Norton campaigned against unfair divorce laws in the 19th century. Crystallographer and pacifist Katherine Lonsdale was one of the first women, alongside Marjory Stephenson, to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society, while Helena Normanton was the first woman to practice as a barrister in England.

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Emily Dixon
Emily Dixon
Morning Editor

Emily Dixon is a British journalist who’s contributed to CNN, Teen Vogue, Time, Glamour, The Guardian, Wonderland, The Big Roundtable, Bust, and more, on everything from mental health to fashion to political activism to feminist zine collectives. She’s also a committed Beyoncé, Kacey Musgraves, and Tracee Ellis Ross fan, an enthusiastic but terrible ballet dancer, and a proud Geordie lass.