Victoria Park, London
Victoria Park (known colloquially as Vicky Park or the People's Park) is a park in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, England. It is the largest park in Tower Hamlets and one of London's most visited green spaces with approximately 9 million visitors every year. The park spans of open space and opened to the public in 1845. Park Facilities There are two cafes in the park, The Pavilion Cafe in the west and The Hub in the east. There are two playgrounds, one on either side of the park, as well as sporting facilities and a skatepark 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 a lawn bowls club. Victoria Park is used as a concert venue and hosts many festivals each year. The park is approximately a mile away from the Queen 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, and many of the park's old features have been reinstated or repaired. It has won the Green 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. The park is Grade II* listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. History Origins A mass petition to the Queen, in support of a recommendation by epidemiologist William Farr, led to the creation of the park. The Crown Estate purchased which were laid out by notable London planner and architect Sir James Pennethorne between 1842 and 1846. A part of the area was known as Bonner Fields, after Bishop Bonner, the last lord of the manor of Stepney. Bonner's Hall, also known as Bonner's Palace, served as a residence of the Bishops of London, and was pulled down in 1845 to make way for Victoria Park. 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 of Regent's Park, having been designed by Pennethorne's teacher John Nash, and is considered by some as the finest park in the East End. It is bounded on two sides by canals: the Regent's Canal lies to the west, while its branch, once known as the Hertford Union Canal, runs along the southern edge of the park. There is a gate named after Edmund Bonner, and guarding the main entrance at Sewardstone Road are replica statues of the Dogs of Alcibiades, 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