Plaque

Ellen and William Craft - blue plaque

Erection date: 5/10/2021

Inscription

Ellen Craft, c.1826 - c.891, and William Craft, c.1824 - 1900, refugees from slavery and campaigners for its abolition, lived here.
English Heritage

Site: Ellen and William Craft - blue plaque (1 memorial)

W6, Cambridge Grove, 26

The Crafts have another plaque in this road but English Heritage are clear that this (number 26) is the house in which the Crafts settled after their escape from slavery in America. Here they raised their children.

The most detailed description of the Crafts' time in Britain that we have found is at Jeffrey Green who states that they were in Britain 1851-69. Having escaped slavery in 1848 the Crafts then had to escape the slave-catchers and so sailed to Liverpool in late 1850. They joined a fellow escaped slave on the lecture circuit and in 1851-2 they were in Ockham in Surrey at a school, studying themselves, teaching handicrafts and carpentry and also having a son. Green states that the Crafts had moved to Hammersmith by 1855 when another child was born at home, Beavor Cottage, and that 12 Cambridge Road (which became 26 Cambridge Grove) was purchased in 1857 (thought it's not clear who bought it). This was the address that William Craft gave in his preface to the publication that told their story: Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; or, the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery, 1860.

After the end of the American Civil War and the legal emancipation of enslaved people, the Crafts returned to Boston in August 1869 with three of their children.

The railway runs very close to this house. Wikipedia reports that the Kensington and Richmond line of the London and South Western Railway opened in 1869. We'd really like to know whether the houses in what was then Cambridge Road were built before or after the railway was constructed. OS 1868-83 map and OS 1840s-1860s map both show this street but not clearly enough and the dates are not definitive enough for us to be certain either way. 

If the houses were built first then the arrival of the railway involved the demolition of the house immediately next door to number 26.  Also, the road in front of number 26 had to be dug out to allow vehicles to pass under the rail line. The disruption to anyone living in number 26 must have been awful. 

We thank our colleague Alan Patient for these photos.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Ellen and William Craft - blue plaque

Subjects commemorated i

Ellen Craft

Slavery abolitionist. Born in Clinton, Georgia. She and her husband William w...

Read More

William Craft

Slavery abolitionist. Born in Macon, Georgia. He and his wife Ellen were ensl...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Ellen and William Craft - blue plaque

Created by i

English Heritage

English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that ma...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Brian Epstein - WC2

Brian Epstein - WC2

WC2, Monmouth Street, 13

Unveiled by Cilla Black. The Cerynitis or Golden Hind originates in Greek myth.  It was the symbol of the parish of St Giles and has b...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Portman Square Garden

Portman Square Garden

W1, Portman Square

This rather dull plaque is in the garden close to the Hamilton fountain.

4 subjects commemorated
Margaret Nakajima

Margaret Nakajima

E1, Elder Gardens

We don't know when the tree was planted but presume it was a sapling at the time. We photographed it in 2013 so anyone who knows their tr...

1 subject commemorated
Stainer Street Arch Bomb

Stainer Street Arch Bomb

SE1, Stainer Street

Stainer Street Arch Bombing On the night of 17th February 1941 a bomb fell onto the arch where people were sheltering from an air raid. ...

4 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Colen Campbell

Colen Campbell

W1, Brook Street, 76

Greater London Council Colen Campbell, 1676 - 1729, architect and author of Vitruvius Britannicus, lived and died here.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator

Previously viewed

Queen Victoria's Kensington subjects

Queen Victoria's Kensington subjects

"... her loyal Kensington subjects" which probably means some of the wealthy people who lived in Kensington.

Group, Benefactor

1 memorial
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

Born and died in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birth date is usually given as the 23rd, the same date as his death, but all that is actually known is that he was baptised 3 days later, on the 26th. Even...

Person, Poetry, Seriously Famous, Theatre

45 memorials
Percy Fitzgerald, FSA

Percy Fitzgerald, FSA

Sculptor, painter and author. Born Ireland.  The picture source website has a second picture of Fitzgerald, sadly no more flattering than this one.

Person, Literature, Sculpture, Ireland

2 memorials
Henry Hugh Armstead

Henry Hugh Armstead

Sculptor and illustrator. Born Bloomsbury. Executed a large number of public statues and funerary works, and worked closely with George Gilbert Scott on the Albert Memorial. Died at home 52 Circus ...

Person, Art

68 memorials