What did Stephanie Shirley red plaque do at Worshipful Company of Information Technologists?

The Story

# The Plaque at Worshipful Company of Information Technologists Standing before this unassuming address, you're looking at the headquarters of an organization that recognized Stephanie Shirley's revolutionary impact on British technology and workforce culture decades before the wider world caught up. This is where the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists—the ancient City livery company that had evolved to champion digital pioneers—formally acknowledged the woman who, in the 1960s, had quietly shattered conventions by building a software company staffed almost entirely by women working flexibly from home, decades before remote work became commonplace. The plaque bearing her name and birth year (1939) marks not just a building, but a moment when the traditional institutions of London's financial heart chose to honor someone who had fundamentally challenged what was possible for women in technology and for the structure of work itself. When you look up at this red plaque on this particular street in the City of London, you're witnessing the establishment formally recognizing that Dame Stephanie Shirley didn't just work within the world of information technology—she completely reimagined it, and this location became a symbol of that transformative legacy.