Open green areas in London's East End? - Carlton Square

Carlton Square

My paternal gran lived in London’s East End, and alth­ough the two adults, 10 children and one uncle lived together in a two bed­room flat in Whitechapel, she said she had a great life. How­ev­er I believed that she didn’t see a tree, back garden, park or veget­able garden before arriving in Australia. 

Now 62andthenext10pathways has shown that parts of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets had been very spacious and green. Beginning in the late C17th, small clusters of houses and terr­aces appeared along Mile End Rd when there was already a Sp­anish Port­uguese comm­un­ity. A new suburban neighbourhood was developing in the early C18th, inhabited by a wealthy class of merch­ants and sea capt­ains in larger houses. Only with the development of open land did the wealthier families begin to move away.

But it wasn’t until the Pemberton Barnes Trust, which owned the op­en fields, begun letting them in 1853 that new clusters of lar­ge scale suburban developments appeared along the Mile End Rd. 

Long before the Carlton Square Conservation Area was formally des­ignated in Sept 1987, we need to examine how the conservation ar­ea was protect­ed. It had an ir­reg­ular boundary, extending from Mass­ingham St and Bancroft Rd to the north, to Mile End Rd to the south. It in­cluded the terraces of Tollet St along its western bound­ary, and the Grant­ley St terraces to the east.

With the wealthier inhabitants leaving Mile End, and a large Jewish community of migrants moving into this area, it prom­pt­ed cultural changes. A col­lection of synagogues and cultural institutions were built, including founding the Hospital for Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Mile End Rd by 1799. Mile End Rd was no longer considered a very desirable place of resid­ence; it was becoming a commercial hub, forming the basis for the mix of ten­ure. When the hamlet of Mile End Old Town was assumed by the Borough of Step­ney by 1899, the area had its own workhouse and vestry hall (later library) on Ban­croft Rd.

The mid C19th saw large scale building to provide cheap, sanitary hous­ing for the working classes. The houses were dev­eloped by William Pemberton Barnes Trust on open land known as Globe Fields. The Trust began let­ting the houses from 1853 and later sold 200 properties to the Peabody Trust, now the major landown­ers. There were some areas of later Victor­ian houses built after the first phase, especially south of Alderney Rd, Bancroft Rd and Grantley St.

In the 1960s, the clearing of housing formed a public open space. The conservation area was char­act­erised by its cohesive group of mid-late Victorian housing, which remain lar­gely intact. 

Mile End Hospital

The Victorian terrace houses were generally 2-storeys and raised on a semi-basement. To the front of earlier properties, parapets extend­ing the length of the terrace concealed uniform London roofs. Later properties had overhanging eaves but the original man­sard roofs had disappeared. Originally these houses had been front­ed by ornate-cast iron rail­ings, protecting small front gardens. But by 1993 they had entirely disappeared (perhaps in WW2). 

The only houses which have been lost were in the two streets north of Mass­ing­ham St, the terr­aces at Bancroft Rd’s north­ern end and the houses on Globe Rd. 

Some of the civic buildings along Bancroft Rd have changed use, but the public buildings of historical & architectural sig­nificance were preserved. The Conservation Area included 3 Grade II listed facil­it­ies, 1] the Library, 2] mid C19th Mile End Hospital and 3] two disused burial grounds.

The first of the listed build­ings was Mile End Hos­pital, built in Jacobean style with 3-storeys in red brick, white stone dres­s­ings and geom­etric designs. Its centre had balust­raded bay windows over 2-storeys, surmounted by Flemish gables.

The second, further south along Bancroft Rd, was the Tower Hamlets Library. The library was built in two parts, with the north­ern end built in 1865 and the southern part a bit earlier. The library was reconstructed of white stone with heavy eaves cornice. Presented with banding between the 2-st­oreys, the ground floor had cen­­tral, round ar­ched windows and a door flanked by Tuscan pilasters.

The third was the Jewish Burial Ground opened in 1657, estab­lish­ed by Spanish & Portuguese Jews. The oldest Jewish burial grounds in Britain, note the C18th per­i­m­eter brick wall, with rendered plinth and brick cap­ping. South of Carlton Square Gardens, the Jewish Cemeteries formed a group of open spaces. Burials took place there until 1758. 

Jewish Burial Ground

used 1657-1758

3-bedroom flats

Argyle St

Carlton Square and the adjoining Carlton Square Gardens were the open spaces that were surrounded by rows of terraces. Argyle Rd, Tol­l­et St, Holton St, Portelet Rd and Grantley St generally con­sisted of mid C19th, 2-storey terraces. High­er 3-stor­ey properties with basements existed along Bancroft Rd and Alderney Rd. Their importance was reflected in their later protection against devel­opment above ground, by the 1931 London Squares Preservation Act. 

Views in the area were framed along existing resid­ent­ial streets, where the character of the C19th terrace housing created quality views. Other views existed towards the open garden spaces. This was such an area of special arch­itectural and historic interest that Carlton Square Conservation Area complied perfectly with the Plan­ning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

Arnold Circus, Bethnal Green

Finally let me mention Arnold Circus, the famous bandstand at the centre of what was once the worst slum in London. Construction began in 1890 on new flats in Bethnal Green, which would eventually be recognised as the city’s first public housing project. The new development opened in 1896; its 19 blocks of five-storey tenements surrounded the beautiful Arnold Circus gardens and bandstand, constructed from materials from the demolished flats.

Note Mile End and Bethnal Green