Meath Gardens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Meath Gardens is a 4.1642 hectares (10.290 acres) park in Bethnal Green in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, England, and opened to the public in 1894. Before it became a park, it was the Victoria Park Cemetery.
Land for Victoria Park Cemetery was purchased in 1840, by Charles Butler, who would later (1852–68) be MP for Tower Hamlets.[1] Butler then transferred the land to create a privately owned burial ground, which was opened in 1842.[2] The cemetery was never consecrated.[3] There were two chapels in the cemetery, designed by the architect Arthur Ashpitel,[4] both of which have since been demolished.[5] The surviving Gothic arch gateway (with the inscription 'VPC 1845') was restored in 2017.[6]
One of the burials in the cemetery was Bripumyarrimin, known as King Cole, who was a member of the Australian Aboriginal cricket team in England in 1868, the first representative cricket team to tour England from Australia. Bripumyarrimin died on the tour from tuberculosis and pneumonia and was buried in an unmarked grave in the cemetery.[7] A commemorative plaque was set into the ground by the Aboriginal Cricket Association in 1988, and a further commemoration occurred in 2018 on the 150th anniversary of the tour.[8] Bripumyarrimin's grave was the inspiration for the 2010 novel The Clay Dreaming by Ed Hillyer, better known as the graphic artist ILYA.[9]
Although well-managed initially, the cemetery was a poor financial venture, becoming insolvent in 1853, and eventually ceased trading.[10] It closed to burials in 1876, with some 300,000 bodies interred.[11] It was allowed to fall into ruin: Lt-Col J. J. Sexby, the first Chief Officer for Parks for the newly formed London County Council, described its state as 'a disgrace and a scandal'.[12]
The cemetery records are held at the London Metropolitan Archives.[13]
