Glenda Jackson’s Hoylake home gets a blue plaque

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A blue plaque has been unveiled on a house in Hoylake where the late Glenda Jackson grew up.

It was installed on a cottage in Lake Place formerly occupied by the Oscar-winning actress and MP, who died in 2023, as part of the posthumous awarding of the Freedom of Wirral.

Last year Wirral Council unanimously voted to give her the Freedom of the Borough in acknowledgement of her extraordinary achievements.

A private ceremony was also held for Ms Jackson’s family to receive the award on her behalf.

The Mayor of Wirral with members of Glenda Jackson’s family

The Mayor of Wirral, Cllr Cherry Povall JP, said: “Glenda Jackson illustrated on an international stage the very best our wonderful borough has to offer and it is a real pleasure to be able to acknowledge her achievements in this way.

“It was also wonderful to be able to share some time with her family as we mark an incredible life and contribution to culture and politics.”

Glenda Jackson – from Hoylake to film and TV stardom, and then a life in politics

  • Glenda Jackson was educated at Holy Trinity Church of England Primary and West Kirby Grammar Schools
  • She performed in the Townswomen’s Guild Drama group in her teens and made her first acting appearance in J.B Priestley’s ‘Mystery of Greenfingers’ in 1952 for the YMCA Players in Hoylake
  • She worked in Boots the Chemist before winning a scholarship in 1954 to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London
  • Following a number of jobs and roles in repertory theatre, she went on to star in a range of prominent film and TV productions between 1969 to 1980
  • Glenda Jackson is the only British actress to have won two Oscars – for her 1970 role opposite Oliver Reed in Women in Love, and then three years later for A Touch of Class
  • The Glenda Jackson Theatre in Birkenhead was named after her at a ceremony in September 1983, but was demolished in 2005
  • In 1991 she retired from acting to devote herself to politics and was elected as an MP for Hampstead and Highgate in 1992, becoming a junior minister in the government of Tony Blair with responsibility for London Regional Transport. She remained an MP until 2015 when she announced that she would not seek re-election