Coordinates: 51°29′13.4″N 00°00′28.5″W / 51.487056°N 0.007917°W / 51.487056; -0.007917 Island Gardens is a public park located at the southern end of the Isle of Dogs—hence the name 'Island'—in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets on the north bank of the River Thames. The park was formally opened on 3 August 1895 by prominent local politician Will Crooks—one of many local improvements he instigated.
It is notable for its spectacular cross-river view of the classical buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, the Cutty Sark and the National Maritime Museum, with Greenwich Park forming a backdrop. The northern entrance of the Greenwich foot tunnel is also within the park. It is almost certain that the view from this location is the one that the Canaletto painting 'Greenwich Hospital from the North Bank of the Thames' is taken from, though whether Canaletto himself actually visited the site is in doubt.
The park also gave its name to Island Gardens DLR station. This opened in 1987 as the southern terminus of the DLR's initial system, and was an elevated terminal station situated to the west of the park. The later construction of the DLR extension to Lewisham involved a tunnel under the Thames, and Island Gardens station was relocated approximately 100 metres (330 ft) north, close to the northern entrance to the tunnel by Millwall Park. The new station is largely underground, and the original elevated station was demolished.
-
Island Gardens
-
View of Greenwich from Island Gardens
Famous quotes containing the words island and/or gardens:
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Within the memory of many of my townsmen the road near which my house stands resounded with the laugh and gossip of inhabitants, and the woods which border it were notched and dotted here and there with their little gardens and dwellings, though it was then much more shut in by the forest than now.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)