Bethnal Green Gardens

Image: © Marathon Taken: 27 Nov 2013

In Victorian times Bethnal Green was the poorest district of London, although two centuries earlier it was a pleasant country area attracting wealthy residents. The centre of the village was the Green and a large mansion called Kirby's Castle was built there in 1570. It belonged to Sir William Ryder, Deputy Master of Trinity House, when Pepys kept his diary there during the Great Fire. It later became the Bethnal House Lunatic Asylum. The Green is one of the few remaining pieces of the common waste land of Stepney. To protect the land from building development the owners of houses surrounding the Green bought fifteen and a half acres from the Lady of the Manor, Lady Wentworth, in 1667. In 1690 the land was conveyed to a trust under which it was to be kept open, and rent from it used for the benefit of poor people living in the area. As the value of the land rose in the 1880s, the trustees wanted to sell the land for building development and invest the proceeds to bring in a larger income. Both the London County Council and the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association strongly opposed the idea. This was partly because the original trust deed prohibited the erection of new buildings. The land which at that time was rather neglected was bought by the London County Council and laid out as public gardens. These were formally opened to the public on Whit Monday 1895. Tower Hamlets Council now manages Bethnal Green Gardens. In this view the building ahead is the library. In the corner of Bethnal Green Gardens closest to the Tube station is the memorial to the 1943 disaster - see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3767287

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