Local heroine Elsy Borders honoured with blue plaque

Saturday 19 March saw the unveiling of a blue plaque to celebrate the achievements of Elsy Borders who lived at 81 Kingsway in the 1930s.

Elsy led a mortgage strike in protest at shoddy workmanship in the building of new homes. By 1939, 3,000 owner occupiers in Outer London went on mortgage strike. Unable to afford a solicitor, Elsy become known as ‘the people’s Portia’ when she studied law at the London School of Economics and took her case all the way to the House of Lords. Although she did not win, her efforts resulted in the 1939 Building Societies Act which helped to protect home owners.