W T Stead - A link with home

I was delighted to stumble across this plaque to the great journalist W T Stead in Lord North Street.

W T Stead was the editor of The Northern Echo, the local daily newspaper in my home town of Darlington. The stone to which he used to tether his horse is still preserved outside the town library.

He subsequently moved to London where he pioneered investigative journalism at the Pall Mall Gazette.

Tragically he went down on the Titanic. From the dates on this plaque it's possible that he set off from this very house on his fateful journey.