Well Street Common

In the Middle Ages a Pilgrim's Way reputedly ran through this area of south Hackney, and a curative spring here was the origin of the name Well Street that is recorded as early as 1484. The well may have had connections with the Palace of the Priors of St John of Jerusalem, which was situated where the Frampton Park Estate is now. Well Street Common was previously known as South Hackney Common and is former Lammas land (again recalled in the local street name). It was part of land owned by the Manor of Hackney and was used for agricultural purposes. The Common was preserved as public open space as a result of a petition raised by local people in the 1860s following the Metropolitan Commons Act of 1866, who fought to enclose and conserve in all 180 acres of land in the borough for public use. The land was acquired under the Metropolitan Commons Supplemental Act 1872. Collectively described as Hackney Commons, these included Millfields Park (q.v.), Hackney Downs (q.v.), London Fields (q.v.), Clapton Common (q.v.), and Stoke Newington Common (q.v.) as well as various strips of land such as in Dalston Lane and Grove Street (later Lauriston Road). All these lands were transferred to the Metropolitan Board of Works, although it wasn't until the 1880s that the MBW finally purchased the rights from the Lord of the Manor, under an Act of 1881. Common rights were extinguished by an Act of Parliament 1884.

In the late C19th Well Street Common was laid out with rectilinear paths, seating and some planting. Previously the gardens of Hackney Terrace, which fronts onto Cassland Crescent (q.v.), met the northern boundary of the common, but new housing has since been built over the gardens. At its southern end the common is overlooked by the former French Protestant Hospital designed by Robert Lewis Roumieu, himself of Huguenot descent, which opened in 1866 to house 40 men and 20 women over 60, Hackney's largest almshouses. Its grounds were described as 'very picturesque' in 1892 (Clarke); the hospital closed in 1949, becoming a convent and it is now part of Cardinal Pole School.

The Well Street Common User Group was formed in 2001 and has campaigned for and successfully funded a number of improvement projects on the common such as fitness and play equipment provision, planting projects and also runs events such as the May Festival. A hawthorn hedge has been planted in 2011 along the Meynell Road boundary. The installation of a new drinking fountain on the common is currently in progress.