Victoria Park
London’s largest Local Authority Park. ‘East London’s Hyde Park’.
Indeed, Victoria Park was filmed doubling as Hyde Park in “Pride”, which starred Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West. It was never a royal park, although it was indirectly part-funded by royalty and is named after Queen Victoria.
It was built to provide fresh air and recreational facilities for East Londoners, in an era of cholera and TB. Prince Albert laid the foundation stone of the London Chest Hospital, near the entrance. Its bathing lakes were popular with swimmers and model boat owners.
There is a large variety of significant trees.
Unusual monuments include copies of a Greco-Roman sculpture, a Chinese Pagoda, Angela Burdett-Coutts’s drinking fountain, two shelters from old London Bridge and a memorial to all those in Hackney Wick who died in World War I.
After suffering World War II and post-war neglect, Victoria Park was restored with Heritage Lottery Funding, in time for the 2012 Olympics.
