We've found 62 parks

Referred to as Kenton Road Shrubbery in 1898, this was a small enclosure at the junction of roads owned and maintained by Hackney Borough Council and preserved under the London Squares and Enclosures (Preservation) Act of 1906. It remains a small landscaped area with 5 London plane trees, raised beds on low walls with York stone paving with niches for seating, no longer there.

By the early C18th there was a small Sephardic Jewish community in Hackney, and in 1786 a group of Ashkenazim, on behalf of the Hambro Synagogue, purchased land on the east of Grove Street, the former name of what is now Lauriston Road. The Jews Burial Ground opened in 1788, then called Grove Street Cemetery. In 1870 both the grounds and buildings were improved, including new entrance gates, renovation of tombs and planting of trees and shrubs. It was closed to burials in 1886. Little changed in intervening years, the cemetery retaining its C19th lodge, iron gates and railings, and numerous headstones and chest tombs set in grass among trees. There are plans to build a new synagogue here on the former carriage drive next to the lodge.

London Fields is former Lammas land once owned by Hackney Manor, reputedly a burial place of plague victims in 1665. Along with other open spaces in the area it was under threat from development in the 1860s but Hackney District Board was able to use the Metropolitan Commons Act of 1866 to preserve 180 acres of common land as open space. London Fields was acquired under the Metropolitan Commons Supplemental Act 1872, the land transferred to the Metropolitan Board of Works and made into a public park. By 1925 the park had a bandstand, paddling pool, netball and tennis courts, and by 1939 a refreshments hut, toilets, drinking fountain, outdoor swimming pool, and a children's gymnasium. The Lido had closed by 2000 but following a campaign to restore it, has since re-opened, London's only outdoor Olympic-sized heated pool. The park retains its original system of paths, and numerous notable C18th and C19th plane trees.

Between 1915 and 1922, 37.5 acres of land were taken from Hackney Marsh for the Government War Department's National Projectile Factory manufacturing munitions, but later the area was cleared to provide Mabley Green Recreation Ground. It remains a large open playing field surrounded by notable London planes on the north and east sides. In 2008 a huge granite stone was placed in the centre of the park, part of 'Boulder' a sculpture project by artist John Frankland in two Hackney parks. In both parks the boulders are intended to be used for climbing.

By the 1720s Mare Street was a well populated district of the parish, with buildings on both sides of the road between Mutton Lane and London Lane in 1745. In 1827 it was so busy that the Mutton Lane verges were cut back to create a wider roadway and the central plot, later known as The Triangle, was fenced as an ornamental space. In 1883 this small area of land was given to Hackney Board of Works by the Lord of the Manor of Hackney. It was here that Evangeline, daughter of William Booth, began preaching from a soapbox at the age of 15. Described in 1928 as 'a small triangle of land at the junction of roads containing a few trees', there is now one mature plane tree, and a late C19th double length trough of the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, which was originally to the east of its current site.

Mark Street Garden was laid out alongside St Michael's Church, now closed, which was built in 1863-5, adjacent to which is the former Hospital of St Mary at the Cross. Founded in 1866, the convent moved to Edgware in 1931. The small public garden to the south is built over part of the former cloister and consists of a series of small spaces with areas of lawn, shrubberies and flower beds, a pergola and two stone monuments, one of these a memorial to Sidney Smith (d.1870).

The Middlesex Filter Beds are important for their industrial heritage as well as for nature conservation. The 6 filter beds were constructed by East London Waterworks Co. in 1852/3 in order to provide safe water to the surrounding area. By 1969 more up-to-date facilities were needed and the filter beds here ceased to be used, becoming overgrown but a haven for wildlife. In 1988 Thames Water, which now owned the site, leased it to Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and it was opened as Middlesex Filter Beds Nature Reserve. Two sculptures were specially commissioned, Kate Malone's 'Rise and Shine Magic Fish' and Paula Haughney's 'Nature's Throne'.

Millfields Park is former Lammas land in the Manor of Hackney, the name arising from a C14th corn mill on the river Lee/Lea in use until the late C18th. A second mill was built in 1443 at which time the names North Mill Field and South Mill Field came into use. They comprised strips held by tenants of the Manor until at least the mid C18th. The Millfields were saved from development following a petition to preserve 180 acres of common land in Hackney for public use. Millfields Recreation Grounds were laid out and opened in 1884, the LCC having acquired 23.25 acres of Mill Field North and 34.25 acres of Mill Field South. There was a sports stadium in the park from 1894-1913, but this was demolished in 1980 when Millfields Estate was built.

The Museum of the Home is housed in the former Geffrye's Almshouse of the Ironmongers' Company built 1712-14 under the will of City merchant Sir Robert Geffrye, part of whose wealth derived from his investment in transatlantic slavery. The Museum's renaming in 2021 reflects the importance of acknowledging this past history and the need to review issues around racism, slavery and colonialism, and to better represent the diversity of modern London. The range of almshouses was fronted by a garden, with to the north the small Ironmongers' Graveyard. The Company sold the site in the early C20th and in 1900/01 the garden was laid out by Fanny Wilkinson, the MPGA's landscape gardener. It was taken over in c.1910 by the LCC, mainly to preserve the garden as public open space, which re-opened in 1912. In 1914 the building opened as the Geffrye Museum, later an innovative schools programme. Since 1991 it has been run by an independent Trust. Improvements since then include development of the rear gardens, with a Herb Garden opening in 1992 and a series of Period Garden Rooms laid out from 1998, showing the changing nature of English town gardens over the last 400 years. In 2021, after 3 years of closure for restoration and renovation works, the museum re-opened as the Museum of the Home, with new displays and initiatives that reflect histories of home and diversity that were previously underrepresented. Discussions are underway to re-locate the statue of Sir Robert Geffrye from the front of the building to a less prominent place.

The New River was constructed in the early C17th to bring fresh water into London from Hertfordshire, with 2 loops flowing through Stoke Newington. Following complaints about water flow and leakage, the New River Company leased land and constructed 2 new reservoirs in 1836. Filter Beds and a Pumping Station resembling a medieval castle were built to the west in 1856. In 1946 the Filtration Works ceased to be used, and the New River was terminated beyond this point. The Stoke Newington Reservoirs are preserved as a nature reserve (East Reservoir) and for recreational use (West Reservoir). The Pumping Station was converted into an indoor climbing centre, which has an acre of garden around it. The East Reservoir nature reserve was opened to the public in 2016 as Woodberry Wetlands.

A strong Quaker community grew up in Stoke Newington from the late C17th. In 1827 it was decided to build the Friends Meeting House in Park Street, now called Yoakley Road, and it opened in 1828. The Quaker Burial Ground was established in 1827, was enlarged in 1849 and continued to be in use until 1957. Most of the site was sold to the local Council in 1955 and the Meeting House was replaced by a smaller building, but closed as a Quaker Meeting House in 1966. The north part of the former burial ground was converted into a small public garden, the tombstones stacked against the boundary walls around a central lawn in which are planted five Irish yews.