West Hackney Recreation Ground

In 1825, the parish of St John-at-Hackney was divided into three parishes at the instigation of the influential High Anglican group, the Hackney Phalanx, who deemed St John's to be insufficient for the needs of the parish. One of the three new parish churches was West Hackney Church built at the junction of Amhurst Road and Stoke Newington Road to the designs of Robert Smirke; behind it was its churchyard, which was consecrated in 1824 (according to Mrs Basil Holmes) and rectory, hence the street-name, Rectory Road. The land was donated by William George Daniel Tyssen, then Lord of Hackney Manor. Following the Metropolitan Open Spaces Act of 1881, which enabled disused churchyards to be turned into public gardens, the Bishop of London agreed that West Hackney's burial ground could be laid out as a public garden. This was carried out in 1885 with grants from the MPGA, Metropolitan Board of Works and the LCC and it was subsequently maintained by the Hackney District Board of Works. The layout of the garden was designed by the MPGA's landscape gardener, Fanny Wilkinson, who created over 75 public gardens in London, many of them former burial grounds. A number of gravestones remained in situ with others placed along the back wall at the rear of the site; railings surmounted on a brick wall separated the garden from the road. West Hackney Church was badly bombed in World War II and was replaced by a new church of St Paul, built 1958-60, which faces Kingsland Road. 

West Hackney Recreation Ground is an oblong site. It was largely laid to grass surrounded by tarmac paths, with a central oval lawn having rose beds and trees planted at each end, and a number of seats. The perimeter retains some notable plane trees, with other trees and shrubs. Headstones from the former burial ground were stacked up around the edge of the site, with a few graves remaining flush with the ground along the edge abutting the road. At the rear of the site is a brick wall, and at one time there was a small pavilion at one end, since removed. 

In 2014, after much campaigning by local people to restore this neglected public garden, an HLF grant of £700,000 together with funding from West Hackney Parochial Charity, the Marathon Trust and St Paul's Church, enabled renovation works to be undertaken. This had led on from a report by Groundworks East London in 2009, followed by West Hackney Recreation Ground Activity Plan in 2013, the latter undertaken with considerable community consultation. The works were managed jointly by the church and LB Hackney's Parks Department and commenced in March 2014. On 6th September the same year the gardens were re-opened by the Mayor of Hackney, Jules Pipe, with the Bishop of Stepney, Rt Rev Adrian Newman in attendance. The improvements included new pathways, restoration of original routes, new woodland and play features, conservation of the tombstones and headstones, as well as improvements to the front of the church. An important achievement was improving the connection between the church and the former recreation ground: an area of the former burial ground containing numerous gravestones located behind the church had previously been fenced off and inaccessible, and this is now a contemplative garden space. The site is maintained by LB Hackney in partnership with the church, which has appointed a garden manager and volunteer co-ordinator to provide activities for the local community, including an extensive planting programme across the site.