There’s a blue plaque for infamous TV cooking pioneer Fanny Cradock on the site of her birthplace in Leytonstone (part of London’s eastern Essex edge).
The plaque, on a typical block of flats at Fairlop Court on Fairlop Road, isn’t particularly prominent. Plus the block is set back from the street, so I suspect most of the passengers who pass along this road on buses never notice it.
Even those who do might not register the typo. Cradock’s name is given as “Fanny Craddock”.
It’s an understandable error on one level. The two common English words which rhyme with “Craddock”, namely “paddock” and “haddock”, have a double-D spelling.
Nonetheless, you’d think that when the local council (Waltham Forest in this case) decides to put up a plaque, they’d get someone to proofread it. Apparently not. The council also mentions the plaque in a walking trail brochure, and manages to get the spelling right once and wrong once in that context.
There’s no obvious evidence online of how this error came about, or even when the plaque was placed.
I didn’t spot any typing errors on the plaque for film director Alfred Hitchcock. Then again, he’s a much bigger deal in Leytonstone, with mosaic designs inspired by his films lining the tunnel which enters the tube station, and a local hotel named after him as well.
Checking spelling is always important, and never more so than when you’re stamping it onto a building.
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