St Mary's Churchyard Gardens

There has been a church at Rotherhithe since at least the C10th; the village had early maritime links and St Mary's Rotherhithe (q.v.) was a seafarers' parish; the wooden frame of the present church appears to have been constructed by a skilled shipwright. In the C19th the timbers of the warship Temeraire, famous for her part in the Battle of Trafalgar, were used to make furnishings for the church after she was broken up at Rotherhithe in 1938. Among those buried here are Captain Christopher Jones, the Master of The Mayflower (d.1622), which sailed from Rotherhithe in 1620 to pick up the Pilgrim Fathers and thence to the New World. Many of her crew were from Rotherhithe, and including Captain Jones three of the ship's four part-owners are buried in the churchyard. By 1820, the churchyard was becoming crowded and the church wardens acquired an additional plot of land for burials, which opened in 1821 with a Watch House built the same year. It was used for burial until 1852 and was later converted to a public garden in 1901, when it opened to the public. Now called St Mary's Churchyard Gardens it has a circular lawn with a central tree, with shrubberies and beds around the perimeter. Within the gardens is the former Engine House built in 1821 now used as a shelter. A few gravestones remain near the old Watch House, next to which is the C18th Charity School founded by Peter Hills of the Trinity Charity, who is commemorated by a brass in St Mary's.

The Old Mortuary that abuts the garden houses the Time and Talents Association. Near the entrance from Roupel Street is an environmental garden, a joint project by Trust for Urban Ecology and the Time and Talents Association, which was created by the Inner London Probation Service and is maintained by volunteers. It was opened by the Mayor of Southwark and the MP Simon Hughes on 7 October 1992.