We've found 25 parks

This is the site of Barking Abbey, which had been founded in 666 AD, restored by King Edgar in 970 AD, and eventually dissolved in 1539 by which time it was the greatest Benedictine nunnery in the country. In 1910 Barking Town UDC purchased the site to create an area for public recreation and during associated road works the Abbey foundations were discovered. The site was carefully excavated to reveal the ruined foundations. The Abbey Playing Field, incorporating the site of Barking Abbey, was opened as a public garden in 1913. There are plans for re-landscaping of the whole Abbey Green site including the Abbey Ruins, subject to full approvals in 2011.

Barking Park opened as Barking Town UDC Recreation Ground in April 1898, the first municipal park in the borough. Its original layout included a bandstand, ornamental gardens, bowling green, tennis courts and a large boating lake. The park keeper's lodge at the south-west entrance was built in 1902. Tree planting included alleys of plane and robinia, with the oldest area of landscaping by the lake. In 1919 Barking Park War Memorial was erected and was dedicated in 1922, now commemorating those from Barking who lost their lives in both world wars. Other park facilities added over the years included a children's paddling pool, 18 hole putting green, and an impressive Open Air Swimming Pool or Lido with ornamental cascade (refurbished/restored in 2010). The 1930s light railway re-opened in April 2009.

Becontree Heath, probably the meeting place of the Saxon Hundred Court, was ancient commonland, and the area remained rural until the 1920s. Although much is since built over, some remains as open space. In 1931 a portion of the land was transferred to Dagenham UDC by Special Act of Parliament, extinguishing common rights, and was levelled, drained and planted for public recreation, opening as Central Park. The land north of Wood Lane was largely used for allotment gardens in the C20th, but by 1971 Wantz Boating Lake had been created to the south. The open land today is used for school playing fields, children's recreational facilities and a golf club, which uses the former boating lake as an Aqua driving range, the only one of its kind.

The Abbey Playing Fields were first proposed in Barking Town UDC's 1943 Report on Post War Redevelopment to provide a 'worthy setting' for Barking Abbey and St Margaret's Church, to be achieved by acquiring and demolishing properties on the site. The plan proposed by Professor G. Peter Youngman was eventually approved in 1965 and the completed scheme based on his design included various areas created as 'a composite whole by the continuity of footpaths, the repetition of similar trees and structural elements and by a sequence of views, enclosed spaces and open spaces.' Central Area Open Space (North & South) was substantially complete by December 1974. In 2009 plans for improving the wider site as Abbey Green commenced, with design proposals by Lynch Architects in partnership with Kinnear Landscape due to commence in 2010.

Central Park was laid out on a site purchased by Dagenham Borough Council in 1928, and opened in 1932; facilities included a putting green, miniature golf course, pavilion and tennis grounds. The Civic Centre opened in October 1937 with its Council Chamber overlooking the park, which since 2017 has been converted to a university run by the Coventry University Group.

Extensive plans for the park, including formal planting near the Civic Centre, were disrupted by WWII and never completed. Facilities added over the years include the Old People's Garden, a children's playground (1952), and a new Bowling Green. A Memorial Garden was opened in 2006.

Chadwell Heath Cemetery opened in 1934, provided by Dagenham UDC, with the first burial recorded on 1 June. At that time the area either side of Whalebone Lane was rural and initially only the eastern part of the cemetery was laid out with paths, open land remaining to the west. From the entrance a short drive led to the Mortuary Chapel from where a formal layout of paths radiated, with yews planted along the 'spokes'. Further paths formed a semi-circle with the chapel on its eastern edge, the circle completed when the burial ground was extended to the west. The cemetery has been further extended, most recently to the north.

The cemetery was laid out in c1914 by a private company, with the first burial recorded in 1916. There is a brick chapel, but the cemetery lodge has since been demolished. It was purchased in 1958/60 by Dagenham Borough Council and renamed Eastbrook End Cemetery. It is now within the new Eastbrookend Country Park. It is unusual in having an apiary in the grounds.

Eastbrookend Country Park opened in 1995, created on an area of derelict land previously used for mineral extraction. It contained much inert landfill and was capped with clay, sand, gravel and topsoil in order to create the country park. As much of the original vegetation as possible was retained in order to sustain wildlife. Bisected by Dagenham Road, it lies in part of the Green Belt between LB Barking & Dagenham and LB Havering, and provides an important recreational resource for East London. There are 4 lakes, and the internal path system was designed by Land Use Consultants. In 1997 the Millennium Centre was built, its design demonstrating best practice in environmental construction. It provides an environmentally friendly visitor centre as well as the headquarters for the Park Ranger Service.

Eastbury is an Elizabethan Manor House built as a country residence for a wealthy merchant. The Manor dates back to at least the C14th when it belonged to Barking Abbey. From the early C18th onwards the estate was divided and the house gradually became dilapidated, occupied by a succession of tenant farmers. In 1913/14 the estate was broken up for building development. The house and immediate grounds, now the focus of a residential square built in the 1920s, was purchased by the National Trust in 1918 and later leased to Barking Borough Council. In the C18th the gardens comprised a west walled garden and two small plots to north and west of the house, both probably once enclosed, and an orchard to the south. The garden to the east is enclosed by C18th and C19th brick walls. Many of the original features have been restored, including the walled garden, in which 'bee-boles' can be seen in the walls.

Goresbroook Park follows the course of the Gores Brook and is in three sections, divided by Dagenham Avenue. Liable to flooding and thus unsuitable for housing development by the LCC, the land was reserved for open space and presented to Barking Council in 1930. By 1938 part of the site was levelled, laid with turf and landscaped, and had a few facilities such as a sandpit and paddling pool, but it remained largely undeveloped into the 1950s.

Greatfields Park opened in 1926 on a site aquired by Barking Borough Council in 1923/4. By 1935 its facilities included bandstands, lawn tennis courts, children's paddling pool, putting green and children's gymnasium, with areas of formal planting, trees and avenue of willows. Some of these features still exist.

Heath Park Estate was built in 1951 for Dagenham Council at the time of the Festival of Britain, and its design reflects the new ideas for urban housing then prevalent. Architects Norman & Dawbarn won a Festival of Britain Award for the estate, which was laid out on 39.3 acres of land. It provided 279 dwellings in a mixture of cottages and 3, 4 or 5-storey blocks of flats with areas of open space, lawns and gardens to provide a sense of spaciousness. At the north end of the estate old people's cottages were set around a green. Heath Park Open Space provided 6 acres of amenity space near the community centre.