Victoria Park (known colloquially asVicky Park or thePeople's Park) is a park in theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets inEast London, England.
It is the largest park in Tower Hamlets and one of London's most visited green spaces with approximately 9 million visitors each year.[1] The park spans 86.18 hectares (213.0 acres) of open space[1] and opened to the public in 1845.
Victoria Park is situated towards the north-eastern edge of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is bordered byBethnal Green to the west,Bow to the south andHackney Wick to the east. It is bordered by theLondon Borough of Hackney to the north.
Grove Road (A1205) crosses through Victoria Park, and as a result the areas on either side of the road may be designated as the 'east' or 'west' of the park.
There are numerous gates around the park, for pedestrians, bicycles and motor vehicles.
Facilities
There are public toilets within the park. There are two cafes in the park – The Pavilion Cafe in the west and The Hub in the east. There is a weekly food market and other seasonal market events.[citation needed]
There are two children's playgrounds, one on either side of the park, as well as sporting facilities and askatepark[2] in the east.
The park is home to many historic artifacts and features and has decorative gardens and wilder natural areas as well as open grass lands. It also hosts alawn bowls club.[3] There are two lakes within the park which are home to various wildlife, as well as amodel boating lake. There is also a historical bandstand, which hosts an annual summer programme of free performances.
Since the 2006Lovebox Festival, Victoria Park has increasingly been used as a concert venue for large-scale music productions includingAll Points East. The park is approximately a mile away from theQueen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Owing to its proximity to the Olympic Park, it became a venue for the BT London Live event along with Hyde Park during the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The park underwent a £12 million refurbishment in 2011 and 2012,[4] and many of the park's historical and heritage features have been reinstated or repaired. It has won theGreen Flag People's Choice Award for the most popular public green space in 2012, 2014 and 2015, the only park in the UK to have won the award three times, and often appears in the Top-10.[5]
The park is Grade II* listed on theEnglish HeritageRegister of Historic Parks and Gardens.[6]
A masspetition to Queen Victoria, in support of a recommendation by epidemiologistWilliam Farr, led to the creation of the park.[7] The UK Parliament passed theYork House and Victoria Park Act 1841 (4 & 5 Vict. c. 27),[8] which enabled theCrown Estate to purchases 218 acres (88 ha) which were laid out by the London planner andarchitect SirJames Pennethorne between 1842 and 1846. A part of the area was known as Bonner Fields, afterBishop Bonner, the lastlord of the manor ofStepney. Bonner's Hall, also known as Bonner's Palace, served as a residence of theBishops of London, and was pulled down in 1845 to make way for Victoria Park.[9] The land had originally been parkland, associated with the Bishop's Palace, but by the mid-1800s had been spoiled by the extraction of gravel, and clay for bricks.
The park was opened to the public in 1845. It is reminiscent ofRegent's Park, having been designed by Pennethorne's teacherJohn Nash, and is considered by some as the finest park in the East End. It is bounded on two sides bycanals: theRegent's Canal lies to the west, while its branch, once known as theHertford Union Canal, runs along the southern edge of the park. There is a gate named afterEdmund Bonner, and guarding the main entrance at Sewardstone Road are replica statues of the Dogs ofAlcibiades, the originals of which stood here from 1912 to 2009 until vandalism led to their being removed, restored and rehoused elsewhere in the park.
Two pedestrian alcoves are located at the east end of the park near theHackney Wick war memorial where they were placed in 1860. They are surviving fragments of the oldLondon Bridge, demolished in 1831, and were part of the 1760 refurbishment of the 600-year-old bridge, bySir Robert Taylor andGeorge Dance the Younger. They provided protection for pedestrians on the narrow carriageway. The insignia ofBridge House Estates can be seen inside these alcoves, which have beenGrade II listed since 1951.[10]
TheLido opened in 1936[11] and reopened in 1952 following damage during the Second World War; it was closed in 1986 and demolished in 1990.[12]
In the latter half of the 19th Century, Victoria Park became an essential amenity for the working classes of theEast End. For some East End children in the 1880s, this may have been the only large stretch of uninterrupted greenery they ever encountered. Facilities like the Bathing Pond (picture right) —later superseded by the park lido—would have introduced many to swimming in an era when many public baths (like that atShacklewell) were still simply communal washing facilities.
Victoria Park's reputation as the 'People's Park' grew[13] as it became a centre for political meetings and rallies, perhaps exceeding in importance than the more well-knownHyde Park in this regard. The park occupies much of the space betweenTower Hamlets — experiencing poverty in the 19th century and with a tradition ofsocialist and revolutionary agitation — andHackney, more genteel, but heir to a legacy of religious dissent andnon-conformism that led to its own brand ofreformism. So there was a lot of activity atSpeaker's Corners.
Although anyone could set up their own soapbox, the biggest crowds were usually drawn to 'star' socialist speakers such asWilliam Morris andAnnie Besant.[citation needed]
This description by J. H. Rosney, correspondent forHarper's Magazine (February 1888) evokes a scene:
On the big central lawn are scattered numerous groups, some of which are very closely packed. Almost all the religious sects of England and all the political and social parties are preaching their ideas and disputing [...]On this lawn the listener, as his fancy prompts him, may assist onMalthusianism, atheism, agnosticism, secularism,Calvinism,socialism,anarchism,Salvationism, Darwinism, and even, in exceptional cases,Swedenborgianism andMormonism. I once heard there a prophet, a man who professed to be inspired by the Holy Ghost; but this prophet ended by being locked up in an asylum, where he will have to convert the doctor before he can recover his liberty.[15]
The tradition of public speaking in the park continued until well after the Second World War, and was still later reflected in politically oriented rock concerts, such as those held byRock Against Racism and theAnti-Nazi League in the 1970s and 1980s. It is still not uncommon for marches or demonstrations to begin or end in Victoria Park.
On 26 June 2014, a campaign to revive the Speakers' Corner at Victoria Park was launched at a democratic theatre event held inShoreditch Town Hall. Hosted byThe People Speak,[16] a participatory campaign and events group, 66 audience members deliberated over how to use the pooled cash revenue from their tickets,[17] and eventually voted to recreate the well-known tradition of free speech and debate in Hyde Park in East London's Victoria Park. The campaign formally launched in July 2014.
During theSecond World War, Victoria Park was largely closed to the public and effectively became one hugeAck-Ack (anti-aircraft) site. The gun emplacements conveniently straddled the path of GermanLuftwaffe bombers looping north west afterattacking the docks and warehouses further south in what is nowTower Hamlets, and so the park was of some strategic importance.
Prisoner of war camps were erected along the north eastern edge parallel to Victoria Park Road and were used to house both Germans and Italians. An air raid shelter was built underground just inside St Marks Gate. On 15 October 1940 a bomb made a direct hit, trapping around a hundred inside and killing fifteen. Much of the park was taken to be used as part of the war effort, which much of the earth being used for allotments, military stations and barrage balloon sites, even the park railings were melted down to be re-used.
More controversially, anti-aircraft activity in the park has been implicated in the crowd panic that caused theBethnal Green tube disaster of 1943. Some eyewitness accounts have led to the suggestion that, after several air raid alerts, the panic run for shelter was caused by a gigantic explosion of noise from the direction of the park. A BBC documentary on the event[18] suggests that this was due to the first firing of the newZ-Battery anti-aircraft rockets. The UK Ministry of Defence, however, disputes this account.[19]
The war destroyed many of the park's beautiful early features: three lodges including the Bonner Lodge were completely reduced to rubble, the palm house was shattered, St Augustine's Church collapsed in on itself and the pagoda, moorish shelter and lido were all damaged. With finances tight after the war ended, most were torn down rather than repaired.
In 1986 theGreater London Council transferred responsibility for Victoria Park toLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets andHackney, through a joint management board, was part of both boroughs. Since 1994 Tower Hamlets has run the park alone.[20]
In recent times, Victoria Park became noted for its open-airmusic festivals, often linked with a political cause. In 1978,Rock Against Racism organised a protest event against growth of far-right organisations such as theNational Front. The concert was played byThe Clash,Steel Pulse,X-Ray Spex,The Ruts,Sham 69,Generation X, and theTom Robinson Band.[21] The 1980 rock docudramaRude Boy featuresThe Clash playing at anAnti-Nazi League event in the park.
London International Festival of Theatre presented pyrotechnics company Group F in 2001 and again in 2004, led by pyrotechnician Christophe Berthonneau. In 2006 through to 2010, Paradise Gardens, a free community festival, produced by Remarkable Productions working in partnership with Tower Hamlets Council's Arts and Events department, re-imagined Victorian pleasure gardens for the modern era, before moving in 2012 to London Pleasure Gardens in Newham.Radiohead played two concerts in the park on 24–25 June 2008.Madness celebrated their 30th year with a fifthMadstock festival there on 17 July 2009.[citation needed]
The park has also become popular amongstdance music's biggest names; Dutch DJTiësto played at Victoria Park in 2009 and again in 2010.[22]
On 24–25 July 2010, Victoria Park was the site of the firstHigh Voltage Festival. Victoria Park has also hostedField Day, The Apple Cart,Underage Festival,Lovebox Festival, andAll Points East.[citation needed]
For children, Victoria Park is host to: aOne O'Clock Club for under-fives and a programme of summer activities and a children's play park including a paddling pool that runs from 1–5pm in the summer months.[citation needed]
The oldestmodel boat club in the world,[23] the Victoria Model Steam Boat Club, founded in the Park on 15 July 1904, is still active today and holds up to 17 of their Sunday regattas a year. The VMSB Club runs straight-running boats just as they did 100 years ago but have also progressed toradio controlled boats andhydroplanes. The first Regatta is traditionally held onEaster Sunday and the Steam Regatta is always held on the first Sunday in July.
The Park is also the home of Tower Hamlets Football Club and Victoria Park United Football club, Tower Hamlets Cricket Club,Victoria Park Harriers & Tower Hamlets Athletics Club, which has its headquarters at St. Augustine's Hall located at the north-east corner of the Park. The club celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2006.
During the summercricket is played every evening on the park's three all-weather wickets, organised by the Victoria Park Community Cricket League. The park also has a popular three-lane cricket net, free to use at all times. It was refurbished to a high standard at the end of 2005, paid for by a grant from theEngland and Wales Cricket Board.
The park is open daily from 7:00am to dusk.[1]
In 2010 the National LotteryBig Lottery Fund awarded the London Borough of Tower Hamlets a £4.5 million grant towards a £12 million programme of major improvements to Victoria Park.[22][24] Plans included a new building, the Hub, comprising a cafe, public toilets, community rooms and adult play facilities to promote healthy living.
The landscape has been restored in many places, and the Old English gardens restored to include new water features. In 1842 a pagoda was put in London's Hyde Park as an entrance to its Chinese Exhibition, and when the exhibition finished it was moved to Victoria Park's island in the west boating lake for ornamental purposes. The original architect for the park, Pennethorne, designed a bridge to the island that matched the style of the pagoda; this was never built, however, and duringWorld War II the pagoda suffered much damage.[citation needed]
The pagoda was eventually demolished in the 1950s, while the water surrounding the island was filled in, shrinking the lake and making what was the island part of the park landscape. With the park's refurbishments that began in 2010 it was decided to restore the island to its former glory; the lake was extended back around the original area, the pagoda was replicated through the use of many photographs and eye-witness information and then, to complete Pennethorne's unfinished vision, the plans for his original bridge were discovered and the bridge built after over 100 years. As a finishing touch, pedalos and row boats were brought back on to the West lake, a feature which had been missing from the park for decades.
The Burdett-Coutts fountain (named after the Victorian philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts) had a partial restoration of its intricate granite carvings and sculptures. In recent years the fountain had been fenced off due to graffiti and vandalism, but along with the restoration the fences were removed, and four symmetrical mirror pools were placed around the fountain along with decorative flower beds. The area is now a public space, with many benches offering an attractive place to sit.
A modern addition to the park is the Memoryscape trail, an audio trail winding through the park that visitors listen to using headphones. The trail consists of many historical facts and tidbits of information, and includes accounts from people who grew up in and around the park, with one person for example reminiscing about the prisoner of war camp in the park during World War 2. Visitors can either download the tracks from the council's website and put them on their own device, or they can get a pair of pre-loaded headphones from the hub in exchange for a small refundable deposit.
As part of the2012 Summer Olympics, theRomanian Cultural Institute commissioned artistErnö Bartha to produce two sculpturesBird andSkyscraper in the West Lake.[25] Despite both being made of hay enforced with steel frames they still remain in the park and have become a prominent feature of the lake receiving their own plaques in 2015.[26]
London Buses Routes 277, 425 serve the heart of the park, 8, 339, D6, and Night Route N8 on Roman Road. 309 and D3 atLondon Chest Hospital via Approach Road. 388 (westbound) on Victoria Park Road.
Mile End tube station for theCentral line,District line,Hammersmith & City line services toStratford,Upminster,Barking orCentral London is 10min viaGrove Road, you can take the 277 or 425 toMile End which is 5min away.Cambridge Heath station forNational Rail services toLiverpool Street andEnfield orChingford is 5mins away via Bishops Way. Victoria Park had its own rather grand stationVictoria Park railway station (London), on theNorth London Railway, closed in 1943. The station survived into the 1960s, but when the line to Stratford reopened, it was replaced byHackney Wick railway station, which is also a short walk from the eastern end of the Park.
TheRegent's Canal borders the west side of the park, whileHertford Union Canal borders the south side of the park; this offers access to walking or cycling on their towpaths. TheNational Cycle Route 1 (NCR1) passes here on the Hertford Union Canal.Mare Street orMile End orHackney Wick can easily be reached from here.
The northern end of theGreenway walk/cycle path toBeckton, viaQueen Elizabeth Olympic Park andNewham General Hospital, starts nearby on the eastern side of Victoria Park.
In summer 2008, the park was voted London's best local park byTime Out magazine.[19]
In 2011 it won its firstGreen Flag award (which it has retained every year since,) and it was again voted London's favourite park, this time in the national People's Choice Award, a UK wide competition.[27] In 2013 Victoria Park was also certified a Green Heritage Site by English Heritage and Keep Britain Tidy, an award given in recognition of achieving the required standard in the management and interpretation of a site with local or national historic importance.
In 2013 the park came second in a national vote to find the public's favourite Green Flag Awarded park, beaten only byMargam Country Park in south Wales from a field of 1,448 qualifying open spaces.[28]
In 2014, Victoria Park reinstated itself as the most popular park in the UK, with over 13,000 votes in the Green Flag Peoples Choice Awards.[29] The park also was once again rewarded both Green Flag and Green Heritage status.
In August 2015 it was revealed that the park had retained its Green Flag People's Choice Award, winning the most votes for a park in the UK.[citation needed]
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