One hundred and eighty years after was published in Leeds for the final time, the Chartist Northern Star newspaper now has a blue plaque in the heart of the city marking its importance as a voice of working-class radicalism.

Unveiled by Shirley Chase, whose late husband, the Chartist historian Professor Malcolm Chase, long sought to have the paper commemorated in the city where it was launched and published for nearly seven years, the plaque will stand on Briggate at the entrance to the Central Arcade, close to what was once the paper’s home in Market Street.

The plaque was paid for by a crowdfunding campaign, supported by numerous individuals and organisations, including the Society for the Study of Labour History, and is the 201st such blue plaque to be installed by Leeds Civic Trust, whose chair, Martin Hamilton, attended the event.

The commemoration, which drew a substantial crowd, began with a performance from the Commoners Choir, and moved on after the plaque was unveiled to Leeds Library, where historian Dr Vic Clarke delivered a lecture the Northern Star and the Chartist Movement in Leeds, 1837-1844.

The plaque reads:

The Northern Star.
The national newspaper of the
Chartist movement was established
in Leeds and printed near here
from 1837 to 1844.
This radical journal campaigned
for the rights of the country’s
growing working class
population.

Dr Clarke’s lecture slides can be found here.