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.
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Island Gardens
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View of Greenwich from Island Gardens
Famous quotes containing the words island and/or gardens:
“Know that, on the right hand of the Indies, there is an island called California, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, which was peopled with black women.... Their arms were all of gold.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe, wilder than a Bengal jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences. Serpents, bears, hyenas, tigers rapidly vanish as civilization advances, but the most populous and civilized city cannot scare a shark far from its wharves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)