Altab Ali Park is a small

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

on the Whitechapel Road, in

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

, London. Formerly known as St Mary's Park, it is the site of the old 14th-century, once whitewashed church, St Mary Matfelon, from which Whitechapel gets its name. St Mary's was badly damaged by enemy action in 1940, during

The Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

, and subsequently demolished. Little remains of the old church, other than the floor plan and some graves. Those buried in former churchyard include Richard Parker, Richard Brandon,

Sir John Cass Sir John Cass (February 1661 – 5 July 1718) was an English merchant, Tories (British political party), Tory Member of Parliament of England, Parliament and philanthropist. He was also a key figure in the Royal African Company, which was invo ...

, and "Sir" Jeffrey Dunstan, " Mayor of Garratt". The park was renamed ''Altab Ali Park'' in 1998 in memory of Altab Ali, a 24-year-old

British Bangladeshi British Bangladeshis () are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots are from Bangladesh. Bengali Muslims have prominently been migrating to the UK since World War II. Migration reached its peak during the 1970s, with ...

leather clothing worker, who was murdered on 4 May 1978, in the adjacent Adler Street, by three teenage boys as he walked home from work. Ali's murder was one of the many racist attacks that occurred in the area at that time. At the entrance to the park is an arch created by David Petersen, developed as a memorial to Altab Ali and other victims of racist attacks. The arch incorporates a complex Bengali and European style pattern, meant to show the merging of different cultures in East London. Along the path down the centre of the park are letters spelling out "The shade of my tree is offered to those who come and go fleetingly", a fragment of a poem by Bengali poet

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

, which is no longer there. The Shaheed Minar, which commemorates the

Bengali Language Movement The Bengali language movement was a political movement in East Bengal (modern-day Bangladesh) in 1952, advocating the recognition of the Bengali language as a co-lingua franca of the then-Dominion of Pakistan to allow its use in government ...

, stands in the southwest corner of Altab Ali Park. The monument is a smaller replica of the one in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

, Bangladesh, and symbolises a mother and her martyred sons. It was unveiled by the Speaker of the Bangladesh National Parliament, Humayun Rashid Choudhury, in February 1999. The nearest London Underground station is Aldgate East on the

District A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

and

Hammersmith & City line The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and in east London. Coloured pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over . Between and it skirts the City of London, the capital's finan ...

References

External links

Details of Improvements to Altab Ali Park as part of High Street 2012
{{Coord, 51.5162, -0.0685, type:landmark_region:GB-TWH, display=title Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Whitechapel