Leyton Jubilee Park

There is evidence of early occupation here, with the discovery of a prehistoric stone hand axe within Low Level Lea Valley Gravel, which was subsequently donated to the Passmore Edwards Museum. Historically, the land on which Leyton Jubilee Park was created was designated as ‘Lammas Land’, in other words lands or meadows held in severalty during the crop-raising period but subject to rights of common at other times. Hay was grown here between March and August and in winter animals were grazed on the land. Agricultural improvements and drainage were made to the former marshland to create an area of semi-improved agricultural land, with farms such Ive Farm whose land was later incorporated into Leyton Jubilee Park. Ive Farm House, probably built in the late C17th was a two-storey house, demolished in the 1940s.

Also on the site was Eton House and its pleasure grounds, shown on a map of 1873-1882 as Etloe House, which was built by Edward Mores after he inherited the site in 1756. The grounds of Etloe House extended down close to the Dagenham Brook; the map depicts a formal network of paths, planting, an Ice House and a small plantation of trees in one of the fields. It was the earlier site of Godsalves House, thought to have been occupied in circa 1547 by Sir John Godsalf.

The area surrounding what is now Leyton Jubilee Park remained largely rural until the early C20th when increasing residential and industrial development took place in the adjacent areas. The urbanisation of the area during the late C19th/early C20th put increasing pressures on the land. Leyton Lammas Lands Defence Committee was founded in 1892 to protect the land from these encroaching developments and to promote the interest of the inhabitants of the Parish in the Leyton Marshes or Lammas Lands. As a result of the continued input of the Defence Committee and protests by the local community, an Act of Parliament was instigated by Leyton Urban District Council in 1905 that converted Lammas Land grazing rights into a right of Public Access and recreational use. A plaque commemorating Lammas Day 1892 is mounted on the exterior wall of The Cottage, an C18th building that since 2016 has housed the KukooLaLa Café. The Cottage is also home to the Eton Manor running club, one of the oldest running and athletics clubs in East London that formed as a section of Eton Manor Boys Club in 1913.

The avenue of London plane trees along the route of Marsh Lane dates from c.1905 and is the oldest landscape feature in the park. Throughout the C20th the park continued to be used as a recreational space for the local community although it wasn’t until the 1930s that the children’s playground and recreation ground were first recorded on the maps. Marsh Lane Fields was mainly grassland used predominately for sports but in later years suffered from anti-social behaviour.

Allotments are shown on the 1950s OS map on the same site as the present Manor Garden Allotments although it appears that allotment use ceased during the latter C20th, only reinstated when the original site of Manor Garden Allotments in Newham were lost to the Olympic Park developments and the current site here was offered to plot-holders. Near the allotments and at the northern park entrance from Orient Way, is The Lodge (known as the Black and White House), a former railway property, which is in private ownership. Ive Farm Park once sited many of the recreational facilities of the area including further allotment gardens, sports facilities and playing fields but these appear to have been removed between 1990 - 2016 according to maps, but are now once again a key part of the park. The Dagenham Brook flows along the eastern boundary of the park.

The Plateau, an elevated grass space to the south of the park, is the result of the build-up of rubble from buildings wrecked by bomb and missile strikes during WWII. Jubilee Wood was planted on the Plateau with access points from the Showground to the north, Dagenham Brook to the east and the Woodland Walk to the west. The space is characterised by wildflower meadows, with recent tree planting edged by semi mature scrub woodland on the slopes. Due to its elevated nature the Plateau provides views across London with uninterrupted skylines.