East Smithfield

Tower Hill Memorial

Tower Hill · 0.1 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.

Altab Ali Park

Whitechapel · 0.6 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.

Bank of England

Tower of London · 0.6 miles

The Bank of England stands on Threadneedle Street in the City of London, opposite the historic Tower of London and at the junction known as Bank Junction. Often referred to as “The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” after an 1797 cartoon, the building is listed as a heritage landmark and is operated by the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. Founded in 1694 to serve as the English Government’s banker and debt manager, the institution has remained at the same site since the early 18th century. It functions as the United Kingdom’s central bank, overseeing monetary stability through the Bank Rate and quantitative easing, and supervising payment systems such as CHAPS. The bank also safeguards the nation’s official gold reserves and manages foreign-exchange holdings. Although it no longer provides consumer banking, it maintains a limited public service for exchanging superseded banknotes. Visitors can view the façade from the surrounding streets and observe the distinctive architecture that houses the world’s second-oldest central bank. The location is readily reachable on foot via Bank Junction, with the Tower of London a short walk away. No admission charge or dedicated visitor facilities are mentioned, and access is limited to external observation and the occasional public-facing service.

Gordon Museum

Borough Market · 0.6 miles

A collection of human pathological specimens, the Gordon Museum of Pathology forms part of King’s College London’s medical teaching facilities. Situated on the Guy’s Campus near Borough Market, the museum holds roughly 8,000 items, ranging from early specimens dating to about 1608 to historic artefacts such as Joseph Lister’s antiseptic spray and Thomas Hodgkin’s first stethoscope used in England. Highlights include the original kidneys, adrenal glands and lymph nodes that enabled Thomas Hodgkin, Thomas Addison and Richard Bright to describe the eponymous diseases, as well as Joseph Towne’s anatomical wax models and Lam Qua’s pre-operative tumour paintings. The collection also contains the mummified remains of Alan Billis, a former taxi driver who participated in research on ancient Egyptian mummification. The museum opened in 1905 on King’s Guy’s Campus after a donation from the lawyer Robert Gordon and was intended solely as a teaching resource. Specimens began to be gathered in 1802 under the first medical curator Thomas Hodgkin, forming the basis of the museum when the first medical school opened in 1826. By 1829 the collection numbered about 3,000 exhibits, and contemporary reports in 1861 placed it among the nation’s foremost medical collections. Admission is free, although the museum is not generally open to the public and access is limited to educational use within the college.

King's Stairs Gardens

Rotherhithe · 0.6 miles

Riverside walks and historic memorials give King’s Stairs Gardens a distinct character along the Thames in Bermondsey, just opposite Southwark Park and a short distance from Rotherhithe. The park is bounded to the north by the river and to the south by Jamaica Road (A200), offering views across the water and a direct link to the riverside promenade created in the early 1960s. Within the green space, stone markers commemorate the Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees of Queen Elizabeth II, the first unveiled by Her Majesty in 1977 and later additions presented by the Earl and Countess of Wessex. The site originated from post-war planning when the London County Council declared Bermondsey a reconstruction area in July 1947 and endorsed a riverside park in early 1948. After a series of objections and a compulsory-purchase order approved in September 1954, a design for the riverside walk was approved in 1960 and opened in November 1962, with the name King’s Stairs Gardens officially adopted the following January. Subsequent phases added grassy areas in the 1960s and, after a reassessment by the Greater London Council in 1968, three further green-space extensions were completed by 1982, establishing the layout that remains today. Protection of the area has been reinforced over recent years. A local campaign in 2010 persuaded Thames Water to abandon plans that would have affected the park, and the London Borough of Southwark granted village-green status in March 2012 under the Commons Act 2006. Fields in Trust added its own safeguard in 2013, and together with the nearby Edward III manor house the garden forms part of Southwark Council’s Edward III’s Rotherhithe Conservation Area.

Finsbury Square

Cheapside · 1.2 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.