As we have seen, large Victorian houses often sported ornate plaques, but even small houses often had a plaque of some sort declaring the date of the house, the name, or sometimes both as in the example above. In a study of plaque names done at the Centre for Urban History it was found that while there were plenty of examples of names of flowers and coastal resorts (so the urban dweller would have at least a hint of the rural about their home), there were also many names which reflected current political figures and events, such as the South African conflicts. It was suggested that this resulted in a subtle reminder of authority and empire being present in even the humblest of streets. More examples can be found here: http://www.le.ac.uk/emoha/leicester/plaques.html
