English Heritage has marked the former home of Sir Isaiah Berlin with a blue plaque, the charity announced today (3 May 2022). A world-renowned philosopher and historian of ideas, Berlin was a man of formidable intellectual power whose celebration of diversity – 'the crooked timber of humanity', as he put it – has helped to give his life and work a very considerable lasting significance.

The new plaque will mark 33 Upper Addison Gardens in Holland Park, where Berlin lived for nearly six and a half years while attending St Paul's School, then located in Hammersmith; a period he later referred to as 'my golden childhood' (letter to Shiela Sokolov Grant, 15 July 1955). The house, which was purchased by his timber merchant father, was the family’s first permanent home in the UK following their arrival from Latvia.

Berlin's distinction between negative liberty (the absence of restraint) and positive liberty (the means to act), from his essay 'Two Concepts of Liberty', has informed the political conversation ever since and remains a starting-point for theoretical discussions on the meaning and value of political freedom.

Howard Spencer, Senior Historian at English Heritage, said: "In his lifetime, Berlin was much in demand as a broadcaster and lecturer, and his ideas are as pertinent today as they ever were. The blue plaque reminds us of his under-sung link to London, where his family made their home on fleeing oppression. It is easy to trace a link between Berlin's later intellectual interests and that early life experience."

The Heath and Hampstead Society will also commemorate Sir Isaiah Berlin with a plaque on 3 May at number 49 Hollycroft Avenue in Hampstead. Berlin's family moved here in October 1928. Though he left for Oxford University that same month he spent much time there during his university vacations in Hampstead. Oxford was Berlin's main base for the rest of his life, though latterly he kept a 'set' at Albany, a range of exclusive apartments off Piccadilly.

The English Heritage London Blue Plaques scheme is generously supported by David Pearl and members of the public.