East Greenwich Pleasaunce is a public park in East Greenwich, in south-east London. It is situated to the north side of the railway line between Maze Hill and Westcombe Park railway stations and south of the A206 Woolwich Road.
The park, opened in 1857, was originally the graveyard of Greenwich Hospital. Due to construction of a railway tunnel as part of the London and Greenwich Railway, the remains of around 3000 sailors and officers, including those who fought in the Battle of Trafalgar and the Crimean War were removed from the Hospital site in 1875 and reinterred in the Pleasaunce (named after the former Royal Palace of Placentia or Palace of Pleasaunce).
Those buried in the Pleasaunce include:
- Lieutenant James Berry (d.1930), Curator of the Royal Naval Museum for 17 years
- Sir John Liddell (d. 29 May 1868), Director-General of the Medical Department of the Royal Navy (1855-1864)
- Anthony Sampayo, French Ambassador to England
- James Shepherd (d.1907) for 18 years Queen Victoria's boatswain's mate on the Royal Yacht HMY Victoria and Albert II
In 1926 the Pleasaunce was sold to the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich, the Admiralty reserving rights of further burials. Railings around the tombstones were removed and part of the ground was landscaped as a park.
Today, the Pleasaunce has a small children's playground (installed in 2001), a mother-and-toddler drop-in centre (the One O'clock Club) run by Royal Borough of Greenwich, a cafeteria and a small war memorial.
Famous quotes containing the words east and/or greenwich:
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 14:21,22.
“Strange now to think of you, gone without corsets and eyes while I
walk on the sunny pavement of Greenwich Village.”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)