eastlondonhistory.com

Victoria Park may have started life as a much-needed amenity for the poorest of London, yet it owes its existence to the bankruptcy of one of the grandest in the land. When the Duke of York died in 1827 he left debts of £2million, a legacy of a life of excess, but he also left York House, in St James’s. Just as the Duke was squandering his fortune the East End of London was experiencing a huge population explosion. Poplar, Stepney and Wapping were being changed beyond recognition. The old market gardens were being built over with thousands of acres needed for new docks, railways – and arterial roads like Commercial Road and Commercial Street which were driven through the old areas. And landowners were throwing up cheap housing to cater for the thousands moving into the area, attracted by work on the docks and in the new factories. By the 1830s around 400,000 were living in the area, in cramped housing and cheek by jowl with sweat shops and factories – pouring pollution into the air and spoil into the waterways.

It was an unhealthy mix, and the middle classes feared that the combination of overcrowding, lack of drains, lavatories and poor water would not only spark epidemics of cholera, typhoid and tuberculosis but – much more worrying – the diseases would be spread into the ‘better’ parts of London. In 1839, William Farr, the famed sanitary reformer said that: “A park in the East End would diminish the annual deaths by several thousands, and add several years to the lives of the entire population.” Good, fresh air was the answer then, and it would also stop the unwelcome cockneys coming up West to take the air in Regents and Hyde Park. A petition drawn up the MP, George Frederick Young, swiftly got more than 30,000 signatures and was presented to Queen Victoria, who gave the go-ahead.

There was only one problem, how to pay for the new park, and that was where the Duke of York came in. On 26 April, 1841, the Earl of Wicklow announced that the funds from the sale of York House, some £72,000, would be used to construct the new park. The strange source of funding is just one of the fascinating tales thrown up by A Pictorial History of Victoria Park, London E3.* The latest publication from the East London History Society is a superb, and exhaustive history of one of the greatest Victorian municipal projects. Philip Mernick and Doreen Kendall have put together a book that will not only reawaken long-buried memories but will also throw up some surprises for local readers. It includes a detailed map, not just of the the park today, but detailing long-gone features like the pagoda, the Moorish arcade shelter, and the Bronze Boy Fountain. There is a detailed history of the moves and manoeuvres leading up to the building of the park, including dodgy deals by the then speaker of the House of Commons, who sold land to the new park and received twice as much for his land as anyone else did for theirs.

There is a section of quotes down the years on the park, from newspapers and magazines of the time, including the memories of renowned local politician George Lansbury. “We did not understand what was on the island, which had, then as now, a Chinese pagoda,” Lansbury wrote in 1928. “The LCC has destroyed all mystery now by throwing open the island by means of a bridge, but 60 years ago, we children thought that Chinese lived in the pagoda and at night came out to take care of the ducks, swans and waterfowl.” There are chapters on individual features of the park, some still around, others long gone – the boating lake, the bridges, the old bandstand. And there are the people and events that make the park special – royal visits, bathing, the sporting activities of the Victoria Park Harriers, and there is a look at the other developments that grew up around the park – the hospitals, railways and roads. And, with painstaking detail, there is a calendar of dates, listing all the important events in 150-plus years in the life of the park – the constant battles to raise cash to build memorials, the fights to protect the park against development. Best of all though are the pictures. They show the changes the park has undergone. But what jumps out of the pictures is something that never changes – the people. Whether it is a postcard from the 1860s or a photo from the 1960s, the image is of East Enders having a great time in their very own park.

* A Pictorial History of Victoria Park, London E3. Published by the East London History Society, ISBN 0 950 6258 1 7, price £6.99 it is available from local bookshops or direct by post (£6,99 plus £1.50 post and packing, from Doreen Kendall, 20 Puteaux House, Cranbrook Estate, London E2 0RF.

Everyone knows Victoria Park’s boating lake and bandstand but did you know the park once boasted a pagoda, a Japanese miniature garden or a church?
Those are just three of the lost features uncovered in the fascinating new history of the park*, published by the East London History Society. A detailed map takes you point by point, not just through the existing park, but through long-gone curiosities.

The pagoda had originally stood as the entrance to the Chinese Exhibition in Hyde Park. In 1847, the structure, originally costing £800 to build, was sold to the park for £110. There it stood until 1956 when, suffering from war damage and neglect, it was demolished. St Augustine’s Church, Hackney Wick was built in 1867. It looked like a country church with its rough stonework and square tower. Locals called it the “Thumbs-up church” because of the pointed stone arrows on each corner of the tower. It’s a mystery what happened to St Augustine’s. Bombs fell in the area during the war and a V1 hit Danedale Road in June 1944 but there is no record of a direct hit on the church. Whatever, by the 1950s, locals remember a wall standing with blackened rafters. A council report in 1957 states “destroyed by enemy action, site to be incorporated into Victoria Park. The Japanese Garden was another spin-off from an exhibition up West. The Japan-British Exhibition was held at Shepherds Bush in 1910. When the show closed the Mayor of Tokyo gave Victoria Park the garden. Nine feet by four feet and mounted on a trolley it was wheeled into the open in good weather for the public to take a look.

The Victorian park was packed with delights and follies – the Moorish Arcade Shelter, the Palm House, the Cascade Waterfall, the Bronze Boy Fountain and more.
All are gone, many destroyed by war, many, sadly, by neglect. But if you want to uncover them again, just dip into the pages of this marvellous new book.
• A Pictorial History of Victoria Park, London E3. Published by the East London History Society, ISBN 0 950 6258 1 7, price £6.99 it is available from local bookshops or direct by post (£6,99 plus £1.50 post and packing, from Doreen Kendall, 20 Puteaux House, Cranbrook Estate, London E2 0RF.

Tags: east end, george lansbury, london, london parks, victoria park

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 4:40 pm and is filed under London book reviews, London places. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.