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Albert Square was built in the early 1840s, renamed Albert Gardens in 1937. In 1899 there was a proposal to build houses on the central garden in the square but the LCC compulsorily purchased the land and opened Albert Square Garden to the public in 1902. In the north of the garden is a C19th drinking fountain topped by a statue, 'Shepherd Boy', which was erected in 1903 by the MPGA.
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Alderney Road Cemetery is the oldest Ashkenazi Jewish cemetery in the UK, which opened in 1697. It was extended in 1749 and a granite plaque records that: 'Within this cemetery lie the mortal remains of the founders, lay readers and rabbis of the Ashkenazim community of this country'. The cemetery was closed in 1852 but remained with a resident caretaker. There are many fine tombs and a number of notable trees in the cemetery, which is surrounded by high brick walls.
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All Saints' Church was built for the newly created parish of Poplar to serve the rapidly developing population. The churchyard was re-ordered on the north side as a public garden by the MPGA in 1893, completed 1905. The chapel of St Frideswide was incorporated into the church when St Frideswide's Church was bombed in WWII and All Saints also suffered some damage. To the south of the church is a small railed-off Garden of Remembrance, with flowerbeds and some chest tombs. Headstones are generally arranged round the perimeter of the garden, which has mature perimeter trees and fine C19th railings.
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Allen Gardens was first laid out by the LCC in 1958 on a plot of land made available when post-war temporary housing was demolished; streets were cleared to make way for the park, including Pedley Street, Weaver Street, Shuttle Street, Eckersley Street, North Place and Fleet Street Hill. The new park was named after philanthropist William Allen. During the 1960s the park was gradually expanded when the derelict All Saints' Church was demolished and some remaining slums at the north end of Mile End New Town cleared. It was suggested that this additional, larger area be called 'Allen Fields' but this name appears not to have caught on and the whole park was soon called Allen Gardens.
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St Mary's Gardens was the site of St Mary's Church, whose burial ground was referred to as White Chapel Church Yard in the C18th. The last church was built in 1875 but later destroyed in air raids in 1940, and demolished in 1945, although part of the C19th boundary walls and gate piers at the former entrance remain. Adjacent to the latter is a gothic drinking fountain dated 1860, erected here in 1879, with the inscription 'erected by one unknown and yet well known'. In 1966 the church site was laid out as a public garden, with the footprint of the church outlined in concrete blocks flush with the grass. A number of monuments remain from the churchyard within the grass and stacked in the west corner. The gardens were re-named Altab Ali Park in 1989 in memory of a young Bengali man who had been murdered in a racist attack here in 1978; a Memorial Gateway was commissioned and inscribed plaques were set into the pathway. Re-landscaping is being carried out in 2011.
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Arbour Square was built on land belongingto the Mercers Company as the area was rapidly developed in the early C19th. The name derives from Arbour Field on the Mercers Estate. In 1904 Arbour Square Gardens was opened to the public by the London County Council, who leased it from the Mercers Company.
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Bancroft Road Cemetery is a small Jewish burial ground that opened in 1811, set up by the Amude Yesharim (The Pillars of the Upright), who opened their Maiden Lane Synagogue in 1811. The cemetery was closed for burials in 1907 and was much neglected during the C20th, suffering bomb damage in WWII. It consists of a small strip of land bordered by railings to Bancroft Road and walled to the back. There are a number of upright headstones, monuments and gravestones laid flat on the ground, and a few trees.
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Laid out as a recreation ground in c.1950s, Bartlett Park is a largely grassed flat site with some trees, planting of shrubs, but mainly in use as playing fields. The park is adjacent to the north of the Lansbury Estate, which was built from the 1950s as part of the reconstruction of Stepney and Poplar, the first phase of which was undertaken as a contribution to the Festival of Britain in 1951. Bartlett Park has utilitarian boundary railings and entrances in Arcadia Place and Northumbria Street where the Celestial Church of Christ is located, built as St Saviour's Church in 1873/4. Canary Wharf dominates the skyline to the south.
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Beaumont Square was laid out as part of the Beaumont Estate in the 1840s. The central garden was originally for the private use of residents but in the late C19th it was leased by the LCC and opened to the public. Beaumont Philosophical Institution used to be in the north-west corner of the square, founded in 1840 to provide 'intellectual improvement and rational recreation and amusement for people living in the East End of London'. In the 1980s the garden underwent major restoration and has planting displays in formal beds, rose beds and fine trees with a children's playground at the south end.
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Bethnal Green Gardens were once part of Bethnal Green Poor's Lands, an area of former manorial waste that under a trust deed of 1690 was administered to benefit the local poor. This part of the Green was purchased by the LCC in 1891 and laid out as public gardens that opened in 1895. Bethnal House on the east side of the gardens is on the site of a C16th mansion, Kirby's Castle, which was later used as a Lunatic Asylum from the late C18th, part of which was converted as Bethnal Green Public Library in 1914. The gardens have an area of formal planting in the north with open grass and sports facilities predominantly in the south. A memorial to victims of the worst civilian disaster of WWII when 173 people died in Bethnal Green underground station, which was then being used as an air raid shelter, was installed in the north-west corner, completed in 2017.
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* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens
The central garden at Arnold Circus was created as the focus of the LCC's new Boundary Street Estate, the first major initiative undertaken to improve its housing and an early instance of slum clearance. The raised garden was created using earth dug for the foundations of the accommodation blocks and it was laid out as a series of terraces with a bandstand at the top level, with four sets of steps leading from entrances at the 4 compass points. Its primary purpose was to unify the new community. Throughout the estate are tree-lined streets and open areas between housing blocks, some with landscaping or play facilities.
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The church of St Mary, Stratford Bow dates from the C14th, originally built as a chapel of ease to Stepney Parish Church. Built 'in the King's Highway', it remains on an island site at the east end of the busy Bow Road, and is the only reminder of the medieval village of Bow. The churchyard was expanded and laid out in 1825 when adjoining buildings were removed. After the churchyard was closed to burials, it was laid out as a public garden by the MPGA, designed by Fanny Wilkinson with plans modified by CR Ashbee who designed features inside the church. The main path and benches in the west churchyard were added at a later date. The east churchyard provides a further garden area, and was laid out by Madeline Agar in 1911.