Meath Gardens

This was formerly Victoria Park Cemetery established in 1842, with its principal entry at the west via a C19th Gothic portal that remains as the main entrance to the park, still inscribed 'VPC 1842'; it was restored c.1990. The cemetery was closed to burials in 1876, and estimated to contain some 300,000 bodies. The ground fell into disuse and its 'gruesome state' was later described by Lt. Col J J Sexby of the LCC Parks Department: '...with its yawning chasms, rank grass, and mutilated monuments'; ‘a disgrace and a scandal’. The disused cemetery, being privately owned was exempt from legislation; entrances were ‘burrowed from neighbouring back yards...resort of the loafers and roughs of the East End...came here to gamble and amuse themselves by the wanton destruction of the decaying property’. In April 1885 the MPGA approached the son of its former proprietor for permission to lay it out as a public garden. Although he agreed to this in February 1886 he required that an arrangement be made to relieve him of maintenance and of payment of rent charges. Bethnal Green Vestry was unable to do this so the scheme was put in abeyance until the new LCC was formed and was sympathetic to the project. The MPGA then raised funds for laying out the grounds, including £500 from the former Duke of Bedford, and an anonymous gift of £1,000. All the necessary monies were raised by 1 January 1891 and work commenced in March 1893, costing £3,000 excluding the repair costs of the boundary railings. It was one of the largest burial grounds that the MPGA landscape gardener, Fanny Wilkinson, converted into a public garden. She was assisted by 30 unemployed men and the ground proved hard to dig, the work taking a year to complete. The ground was grassed, trees were planted including Tree of Heaven, lime and London plane, and flower beds laid out as well as playgrounds and a sand-pit.

The garden was re-named Meath Gardens after the Earl of Meath, who was the Chairman of MPGA and opened on 20 July 1894 by Duke of York, the ‘greater proportion laid out as garden, remainder devoted to large children’s playgrounds’. The ground was extremely uneven through subsidence; there was only one tomb remaining, commemorating Constance and Lucy How, and Marian Gruner (erected in the 1860s), which was shaded by a large holly. A large playground and adjacent building were erected to the north in c.1990, and beyond the boundary are the Prospect Allotments. A tree donated by Hillier Nurseries Ltd to the Aboriginal Cricket Association was planted on 26 June 1988, with a plaque set into the ground with the following inscription: 'In memory of King Cole, Aboriginal cricketer, who died on the 24th June 1868. Your Aboriginal dreamtime home. Wish you peace'. This is also referred to in Iain Sinclair's ‘Liquid City’.