BLUE PLAQUES, SIGNS AND BENCHES IN EPPING

The Town Council has decided to undertake a number of initiatives at it’s meeting on Tuesday  designed to improve the character and amenity of the Town for residents and visitors alike.

Blue Plaque Scheme

The Council is looking at introducing a Blue Plaque Scheme in the Town to recognise important people who have lived here in Epping over the centuries and important places and events in the Town’s history.

There are currently only two blue plaques in the Town, one dedicated to Lucien Pissarro at 44 Hemnall Street, (who we covered in last month’s Talk About Epping) and the other to Henry Doubleday in Buttercross Lane that was put up by the Epping Urban District Council, predecessor to the Town Council.

Initially, the Council are looking at memorial plaques for Sir William Addison and former Prime Minister and Town MP Winston Churchill.  However, we would be delighted to hear from residents about who or where from the Town’s past should be recognised in this way.

Signs

We are also going to contact the County Council to see if they will agree to let us replace the ugly traffic sign on the Town Green (pictured above) with a period fingerpost that would fit much better with the historic setting. We will let you know how we get on.

Still on the subject of signs, we want to try and provide a tourist information board for visitors arriving by tube by the Station.  This is something which has been clearly lacking for many years – visitors get off the train and have no idea where the Town, the Forest, the Essex Way or anything else is  – If TfL are willing to let us put an information map up, this will hopefully change.

Benches

Lastly, the Town Council has decided to turn around one of the benches on the Town Green so it faces into the Green and not out at the road.

This may not seem like a big issue perhaps, but you would be amazed how many times it is raised by residents who want to sit for a moment on the Green and enjoy the open space rather than the traffic around Hemnall Street.