Blue plaque for Kenneth Williams

Kenneth Williams has been honoured with a blue plaque on the London flat where he lived for most of the Sixties.

The comedian – who would have been 88 today – lived in Flat 62 of Farley Court, a 1929 apartment block between Madame Tussauds and Baker Street station, between 1963 and 1970.

His Carry On co-star Barbara Windsor, MBE, Kenneth Williams' Carry On co-star, said: ‘Kenny was a one-off, a true original, and a great friend. I'm absolutely chuffed that English Heritage is celebrating him with a blue plaque.’

English Heritage's blue plaque historian, Howard Spencer, said: ‘Kenneth Williams was a unique comic talent, who as both an actor and a storyteller won the nation's affections. His legacy endures in recordings of his radio work and chat show appearances, his notoriously frank diaries, and the Carry On films. That legacy is now recognised by one of our blue plaques in London, the city in which he lived all his life.’

Williams was ‘elated’ when he moved into into Farley Court, writing in his diary: ‘My bedroom looks out over Regent's Park. The trees are turning now and the sight is beautiful. I can see all the traffic twinkling down the Marylebone Rd…It's all so marvellous, I could cry.’

Later, in a more misanthropic mood, Williams wrote of looking down upon ‘the nits crowding round outside the waxworks. How I loathe them and Madame Tussaud’.

While living at Farley Court, Williams also recorded the radio series Round the Horne and Just A Minute, as well as developing his TV career as the host of International Cabaret and appear in the first stage production of Joe Orton's Loot in 1965.

He moved out of Farley Court in 1970, when the noise of the area got too much for him and he moved to live near his mother.

In 2009 the Comic Heritage group unveiled a plaque at 57 Marchmont Street, where Williams lived between 1935 and 1956.

Published: 22 Feb 2014