Ira Aldridge - Hamlet Road, London, UK
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OrientGeo
N 51° 24.945 W 000° 04.373
30U E 703533 N 5700125
A Blue Plaque marking the residence of nineteenth century Shakespearian actor Ira Aldridge.
Waymark Code: WM13JQP
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/26/2020
Views: 2
The wording on the English Heritage blue plaque reads:
ENGLISH HERITAGE
IRA ALDRIDGE
1807 - 1867
Shakespearian Actor
“The African Roscius”
Lived here.
Wikipedia (
visit link) has an article about Ira Aldridge that tells us:
Ira Frederick Aldridge (July 24, 1807 – August 7, 1867) was an American and later British actor and playwright who made his career after 1824 largely on the London stage and in Europe, especially in Shakespearean roles. Born in New York City, Aldridge is the only actor of African-American descent among the thirty-three actors of the English stage honoured with bronze plaques at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon.
He was especially popular in Prussia and Russia, where he received top honours from heads of state. At the time of his sudden death, while on tour in Poland, he was arranging a triumphant return to America, with a planned 100-show tour to the United States. Aldridge married twice, once to an Englishwoman, once to a Swedish woman, and had a family in England. Two of his daughters became professional opera singers.
It is clear that Aldridge was a highly accomplished actor, and contemporary accounts say that he was very popular with audiences after moving to England at the age of 17 to pursue his career away from the ingrained racism of the USA. It is clear that he faced racism in his career in Europe too however and that some critics of his era found it difficult to accept his success - one British critic from the Times offered the view in 1825 that “the particular shape of his lips make it impossible for him to correctly pronounce English words”.
He nevertheless made his name as the first black actor to play Othello at Covent Garden and toured extensively in Europe to great acclaim.
Aldridge came to live at this property in around 1862, towards the end of his life, by which time he was a successful and renowned actor. The size of the property, in what was then a wealthy neighbourhood, being testament to his success. He called the house Luranah Villa in memory of his mother.