I was thinking today that the blue plaques seen in many english towns but mostly London, are really a very strange English tradition. The idea has spread to a few other countries but not to anything like the same extent.
You become a very successful explorer, artist, politician whatever, and most important accolade this country awards you is to recognise the house that you lived in - isn't this kind of messed up?
The scheme was founded in 1866 and passed through several hands until passed to English Heritage in 1986.
In January 2013 English Heritage suspended proposals for plaques owing to funding cuts.
The scheme was relaunched in June 2014 with private funding (including support from a new donors' club, the Blue Plaques Club, and from property developer David Pearl)
The blue plaques outside London are a bit of a disorganised free for all, I did a bit of digging into blue plaques in my town and some of the awards are to complete non-entities who just happend to be rich and have a big house, I even found one for someone famous who just stayed in a hotel for a few weeks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_plaque