An emerging radical history of open spaces in Hackney is being put together by Hackney History.
The ever-wonderful 'The radical history of Hackney' has published notes towards a history of the East London borough's parks and green spaces originally put together the Radical History Network's meeting on a similar subject.
Covering nearly 800 years in potted form, the history covers music festival, political gatherings and radical events but thankfully misses out the terrible Class War bonfire which might have happened once or twice...
The authors are asking for help with anyone who can fill the gaps.
“The Park is called the People’s Park
And all the walks are theirs
And strolling through the flowery paths
They breathe exotic airs,
South Kensington, let it remain
Among the Upper Ten.
East London, with useful things,
Be left with working men.The rich should ponder on the fact
Tis labour has built it up
A mountain of prodigious wealth
And filled the golden cup.
And surely workers who have toiled
Are worthy to behold
Some portion of the treasures won
And ribs of shining gold.”
An ode to Victoria Park, 1872
(from Victoria Park, East London: The People’s Park)[/i]
Comments
Looks great, thanks for
Looks great, thanks for flagging up!
Would you be able to post the actual thing to the history section as well? (It's easy if you just view page source on the page itself, copy the HTML code and paste it into the body field here, then choose input format "full HTML")