Attlee Centre

Whitechapel Gallery

Whitechapel · 0.1 miles

The Whitechapel Gallery occupies a prominent spot on the north side of Whitechapel High Street in Tower Hamlets, housed in a building designed by Charles Harrison Townsend that opened in 1901. Its architecture is recognised as a key example of the British Modern Style, and a 2009 extension incorporated the former Passmore Edwards library, roughly doubling the exhibition space and enabling year-round public access. Since its foundation the gallery has presented work by leading contemporary artists and has staged a series of historically important shows. In 1938 it displayed Pablo Picasso’s *Guernica* as part of a touring protest against the Spanish Civil War, and during the post-war period it championed emerging British talent through exhibitions such as *This is Tomorrow* (1956), the first UK showing of Mark Rothko (1961) and the 1964 *The New Generation* display featuring John Hoyland, Bridget Riley and David Hockney. Later programmes have included retrospectives of Lucian Freud, Frida Kahlo and recent commissions by the Guerrilla Girls, reflecting the venue’s ongoing role in contemporary art discourse. Visitors should note that admission carries a charge and that wheelchair access is limited, although on-site toilets are available. Opening hours are listed on the gallery’s official schedule, and the site remains a publicly funded institution offering both temporary exhibitions and an archive gallery for research and education.

Altab Ali Park

Whitechapel · 0.1 miles

A small green space set back from Whitechapel Road, Altab Ali Park occupies the historic footprint of the 14th-century parish church of St Mary Matfelon, the building that gave Whitechapel its name. The former St Mary’s Park retains the outline of the demolished church, which suffered extensive damage during the Blitz in 1940 and was later removed. Within the remaining layout visitors can see the original floor plan and a number of graves, among them those of Richard Parker, Richard Brandon, Sir John Cass and the self-styled “Sir” Jeffrey Dunstan, once mayor of Garratt. The park was renamed in 1998 to commemorate Altab Ali, a 24-year-old British Bangladeshi leather-worker who was killed on Adler Street in May 1978. An entrance arch, designed by David Petersen, serves as a memorial to Ali and other victims of racist attacks; its interlaced Bengali and European pattern symbolises the cultural mix of East London. In the southwest corner stands the Shaheed Minar, a reduced replica of the monument in Dhaka that marks the Bengali language movement. Unveiled in February 1999 by Bangladesh’s parliamentary speaker Humayun Rashid Choudhury, the structure represents a mother and her martyred sons. A former path once displayed letters forming a fragment of a Rabindranath Tagore poem, though that feature is no longer present. The nearest Underground access is Aldgate East station on the District and Hammersmith & City lines. As a public park, entry is unrestricted and no admission charge is recorded. The site offers a combination of historic remnants, commemorative art and open space within the Whitechapel neighbourhood.

All Hallows Staining

Leadenhall Market · 0.6 miles

A medieval tower dating from around AD 1320 survives at the corner of Mark Lane and Dunster Court, in the north-eastern part of Langbourn ward, City of London. The stone structure marks the former All Hallows Staining church, a Church of England parish that once lay close to Fenchurch Street railway station and the historic Leadenhall Market. The ruins are listed as a historic feature and are currently looked after by the Sanctuary in the City, which also oversees St Olave Hart Street and St Katharine Cree. The church first appears in records from the late 12th century and received the suffix “Staining” to distinguish its stone building from other All Hallows churches that were timber. It survived the Great Fire of 1666, but the tower and a small west-end fragment collapsed in 1671, possibly because of extensive burials against the walls. Rebuilding took place in 1674, after which the interior was described as a simple, narrow room with a modest cornice. In 1870 the parish merged with St Olave Hart Street and the main body of the church was demolished, leaving the tower as the sole remnant. The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers, whose hall once stood nearby, has owned and maintained the tower since that time, and the structure was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950. Beneath the yard once lay the remains of Lambe’s Chapel Crypt, relocated in 1872 and subsequently listed at Grade II alongside the tower. After wartime damage to St Olave Hart Street, a prefabricated church used the tower as its chancel between 1948 and 1954, and a new church hall was erected on the site in 1957. As of 2025 the block containing the tower is undergoing redevelopment, involving demolition of surrounding buildings and reconstruction of the crypt within a new office development, while proposals aim to remove modern infill from the tower’s south and east arches.

Jack the Ripper Museum

East Smithfield · 0.6 miles

Visitors can explore a recreation of the East End of London as it looked in 1888 within a five-room museum on Cable Street, near East Smithfield. The attraction opened in August 2015 and presents a series of waxwork scenes and period artefacts linked to the unsolved murders attributed to Jack the Ripper. Admission is subject to a charge and the venue offers step-free access for wheelchair users. Opening hours are listed on the museum’s own schedule, and the site is reachable on foot from the surrounding neighbourhood. Inside, the layout includes a mock police station from Leman Street, a reconstruction of victim Mary Jane Kelly’s bedroom, and a staged representation of the Catherine Eddowes murder scene, complete with an effigy of PC Edward Watkins. The basement houses a simulated morgue that displays memorials to the so-called canonical five victims as well as other women killed in the period, and it holds items such as the whistle and truncheon used by Watkins. The building was originally submitted for conversion in August 2014 as a Museum of Women’s History, described in the planning application as the first dedicated women’s museum in the United Kingdom. After the façade was revealed as a Jack the Ripper Museum in 2015, local residents protested, leading to disputes over the shop front and signage that were subsequently reviewed by the Planning Inspectorate. The museum’s founder, Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe, has explained that the focus shifted to the victims’ perspective during development.

Tower Hill Memorial

Tower Hill · 0.6 miles

Located in Trinity Square Gardens on Tower Hill, London, the memorial complex commemorates civilian, merchant seafarers and fishermen who lost their lives to enemy action and have no known grave. Two principal monuments dominate the site: the First World War memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, and the Second World War memorial, by Sir Edward Maufe. Both feature bronze panels that list the missing, while the Lutyens structure presents a vaulted corridor reminiscent of a Doric temple. The Maufe garden is set below ground level, accessed by steps, and includes relief sculptures of the seven seas by Charles Wheeler together with two sentry figures representing a Merchant Navy sailor and an officer. The First World War memorial was commissioned after the loss of more than 17,000 merchant seafarers and the sinking of over 3,300 British and Empire-registered vessels. Queen Mary unveiled the Lutyens design on 12 December 1928 after a rejected river-bank arch proposal. The Second World War memorial, reflecting the higher toll of 4,786 ships and 32 000 lives, was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in November 1955, after which relatives were invited to lay flowers. A third addition, dedicated to merchant seamen killed in the 1982 Falklands conflict, was installed in 2005. Both war-time memorials are protected as listed buildings – the Mercantile Marine Memorial at grade I and the Merchant Seamen’s Memorial at grade II* – and form part of a national collection of Lutyens’ war memorials. The site is on Crown land, offers step-free wheelchair access, and can be reached via the surrounding gardens in the Tower Hill area.

Finsbury Square

Cheapside · 0.6 miles

A public green of about 0.7 hectare lies on the east side of City Road, opposite Bunhill Fields, and is managed by Islington Council. The square incorporates a six-rink grass bowling green and an underground NCP car park, with two former petrol-station sites now used for surface parking. It is served by bus routes 21, 43, 141 and 214 and sits roughly 200 m north of Moorgate station, 300 m north-west of Liverpool Street station and 400 m south of Old Street station, making it easily reachable on foot or by public transport. An occasional farmers’ market is held on the site, and entry to the green is free. Originally laid out in 1777 as a planned quadrangle of terraced town houses surrounding a central garden, the area was previously part of the open Finsbury Fields in the parish of St Luke’s. From the late-19th century the residential buildings were replaced by larger commercial premises. Throughout its history the square has hosted a range of occupants, including the Temple of the Muses, James Lackington’s bookshop and the early home of the rabbinical seminary that later became the London School of Jewish Studies (1855–81). In the early 20th century the City of London Yeomanry were based at 39 Finsbury Square, a site now occupied by City Gate House. Today the western side contains a 150 000 sq ft office block used by the London Metal Exchange, while the north side is dominated by Triton Court and Royal London House, the latter now operating as The Montcalm Hotel. The east side houses the University of Liverpool’s London campus and Grant Thornton’s offices. The square continues to function as an open space within a dense commercial district, offering both recreational facilities and easy access to surrounding transport links.