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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Jacob Phillips

Influential economist Joan Robinson remembered with blue plaque in Notting Hill

Influential economist Joan Robinson has been remembered with a blue plaque at her former home in Notting Hill.

Robinson, who died in 1983 after slipping on some ice and spending several months in a coma, has been described as “one of the most influential economic theorists of her time”.

A plaque has been unveiled at 44 Kensington Park Gardens where she lived with her parents and sisters during the depression that immediately followed the First World War in 1919.

While living at the west London home Robinson volunteered to help people who were unemployed and struggling to find work, which was pivotal in her decision to study economics.

She went on to study economics at the University of Cambridge and was not able to formally graduate until 1948 - when the university finally granted women with degrees.

Robinson was a strict vegetarian and slept in an unheated shed, open at one side, at the bottom of her Cambridge garden.

A record number of plaques will be unveiled for individual women in 2024, the London Blue Plaques Scheme announced earlier this year.

Christina Broom, believed to have been Britain's first female press photographer, and Diana Beck, celebrated as the UK's first female neurosurgeon, are among the other names being celebrated with blue plaques in 2024.

Dr Susan Skedd, Blue Plaques Historian at English Heritage, said: “This year we are particularly pleased to be able to honour so many pioneering women who not only became female 'firsts' but who were also at the very pinnacle of achievement in their chosen fields.

She added: “We hope that the stories behind these new plaques will inspire passers-by for generations to come.”

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