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The parish of Bethnal Green was created in 1742, and the new church of St Matthew was consecrated in 1746, although an earlier church had been proposed under the Fifty New Churches Commissioners. The population had grown particularly following the arrival of Huguenots, who established their textile industry here. The Watch House in the churchyard was built in 1754 as a measure to prevent body snatching. The churchyard closed for burials in the mid 1850s and in 1896 was turned into a public garden when the majority of tombs were removed. Two railed tombs remain, including that of former churchwarden Joseph Merceron. It is mostly grassed over, with large plane trees by an oval path to the north of the church. There are remains of the C19th railings on the boundary with St Matthew's Row. A rose garden is to the south of the church and an area to the east has formal beds, palms and other ornamental planting.

St Matthias Church started life as the East India Company's Poplar Chapel, built between 1650-54 at the site of the Company's Almshouses in Poplar. It may have been the first place of worship in the area. After the Company's property transferred to the Crown in 1858, the church then served the new parish of St Matthias. Due to declining congregations, in 1976 it was decided to close the church, which subsequently became neglected, the building and its churchyard vandalised. It was restored and re-opened in 1993 and is now used as a community centre. The overgrown churchyard has been cleared and laid out as a garden, and contains a number of significant monuments.

The church here was first established as a chapel of ease of St Dunstan's Stepney, becoming a separate parish in 1669 and consecrated as St Paul's Shadwell in 1671. It became known as the Church of Sea Captains due to the many mariners in the congregation, including Captain James Cook. The old church was later rebuilt in 1820. It was once surrounded by trees on all four sides but in the 1840s part of the churchyard was compulsorily purchased when the London Dock Company built Shadwell New Basin. After it closed for burials, the churchyard was laid out in 1886 as a public garden by the MPGA, with a partially flagged area in front.

St Peter's Church, built in 1840-41 and designed by Lewis Vulliamy, was originally the centre of a square of terraced houses, now surrounded by modern flats. The church building was considerably refurbished from 1905 onwards under the then vicar Revd W H Maynard. The churchyard, closed to burial, was laid out as a public garden under the auspices of the Kyrle Society in 1883/84 and is surrounded by iron railings with hedging and has a number of mature plane trees.

Stepping Stones Farm was established by local people in 1979 on a derelict site in Stepney that had suffered WWII bombing. The name was changed to Stepney City Farm in 2009 when a new charity was established to rescue the farm from closure. Local people continue to take an active part in the farm, and in 2012 the charity was granted a 10 year lease by LB Tower Hamlets. In addition to being a working farm, there have been allotments here since the early days, and there are garden areas on the site. A Rural Arts Centre opened in 2013.

Stepney Green Gardens are remnants of Mile End Green, which was the largest of several commons in the Manor of Stepney. The four long narrow strips of garden are the last remaining part of the fields where Richard II met the rebels in the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. In the late C17th a strip from the northern end to a line at right angles to the large No. 71 letterbox was enclosed and planted with rows of trees to screen several large country houses from the highway. A gravel path was also made, now the narrow roadway along the eastern side of gardens. In 1872 local campaigns to save the long strip of land from developers led to the creation of the four public gardens by the Metropolitan Board of Works.

Stepney Green Park is on former commonland that was once part of Mile End Green, the largest of several commons in the Manor of Stepney. It was the site of various historic events over the centuries, including the Peasants Revolt in 1381. In the C19th streets of terraced houses were built over much of the area, but were largely demolished following bomb damage in WWII and the LCC Stifford Estate was built in 1958-64 overlooking a new public park, Stepney Green. The 3 17-storey towers were demolished in 1999/2000, and the park was re-landscaped in 2000 as Stepney Green Park. Stepney Clocktower is in a triangular garden adjacent to the park, and was moved here in 1934.

The London Chest Hospital was founded in 1848 to offer treatment to poor people in the City and East London suffering from tuberculosis. Land owned by the Crown was acquired on Bonner Fields, formerly the site of Stepney Manor House, demolished in 1848, where there had been plans to lay out ornamental gardens as part of Victoria Park. The foundation stone was laid by Prince Albert in 1851 and the new hospital opened in 1855. In the following decades pioneering work led to a greater understanding of TB. The hospital was set in spacious grounds with mature trees including an ancient mulberry tree once in the grounds of Bishop Bonner's palace. As open-air treatment was recommended sun balconies were added to the south-east of the building in the early 1900s, although they were later enclosed. The hospital closed in 2015 and the site sold for development to Circle Housing.

The Tower of London and the area around it was formerly part of the Liberties of the Tower. Along the northern boundary of the sunken grassed area of the Tower Moat is a pedestrian walkway that runs around the moat. A steep bank of planting forms the northern boundary of the walkway with an area of public garden in the east corner, with grass, trees, shrub beds and seating. These public gardens were laid out in 1888 by Fanny Wilkinson, landscape gardener of the MPGA.

The farthest east of the seven early commercial cemeteries, Tower Hamlets Cemetery was created to serve the parishes of Stepney and Bromley-by-Bow. Consecrated in 1841, the cemetery had a lodge and two chapels, and was laid out as a grid and planted with ornamental trees and shrubs. By 1889 over 247,000 burials had taken place but the cemetery became neglected and much overgrown, later suffering bomb damage in WWII. In 1990 it was designated a cemetery park.

Tower Hill Terrace to the east of All Hallows by the Tower is a paved plaza laid out at the instigation of Tower Hill Improvement Trust. At the boundary with the churchyard garden are gate piers in memory of Sir Follett Holt, first Chairman of the Tower Hill Improvement Trust, who died 20 March 1944. The Trust had been established in 1933. The terrace was created as a viewing platform, built on the site of a bombed warehouse.