Vallance Road Gardens

The site was formerly a Quaker Burial Ground, the land on Baker's Row having been acquired for the purpose in 1687 by the Friends of the Devonshire House division. Baker's Row was a road that ran north from Whitechapel Road as far as Old Montague Street, near the burial ground entrance, then becoming Charles Street, which eventually led to Bethnal Green Road. The burial ground, and later the recreation ground, was set back behind houses that have since disappeared in the C20th. The line of mature London plane trees that now cross the grass towards the west of the site may mark the recreation ground's former boundary. The last burial took place in 1857, and the disused burial ground was one of the sites where the evangelist William Booth (1829-1912) preached in the summer of 1865. He held open air services on Mile End Waste (q.v.) and then proceeded to lead a procession along Whitechapel Road to a second service in a tent on the old Quaker burial ground on Baker's Row; a sundial in the recreation ground later marked the site.

The former burial ground was leased by the Society to the Whitechapel District Board of Works and laid out as a public garden in 1880. On 21 January 1896 the whole roadway between Whitechapel Road and Bethnal Green Road was renamed Vallance Road, the name taken from W. Vallance who was Clerk to the Metropolitan Board of Guardians. The public gardens then became known as Vallance Road Recreation Ground. Mrs Basil Holmes described it in 1896 as 'well laid out and well kept, being chiefly used by children'. Two drinking fountains that are shown on a map of 1913 are still present, although re-located to different positions. The garden had serpentine paths with mature plane trees and some rose beds, but by the late C20th had become badly neglected with chain link fencing forming a border with the new Whitechapel Sports Centre and the children's playground behind hedging was in a poor state.

In 2002 new housing was built on the north, south and east sides and the setting of the garden was much improved, creating an ambiance of a 'garden square'. As part of the housing scheme the garden was re-landscaped and re-opened in 2003 with new bound-gravel paths, seats and bins, and a children's play area in the north. New planting included shrubs and a few trees including an exotic conifer to mark the opening of the housing and gardens. New railings and entrances were created and a series of roundels designed with input from pupils at nearby Swanlea School have been attached to the railings, one of which makes reference to the Salvation Army. The granite drinking fountain has been re-located near the entrance by the children's playground, with another in shrub beds on the east boundary.