Space to Visit

Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks Memorial Garden is largely woodland consisting of sycamore, horse chestnut, poplar, lime and pear trees with understorey of elder, rowan, hawthorn, garden privet, mulberry and fig, the latter three species presumably left over from the former garden on this site that was originally used by employees of the gasworks. At the centre of the site is the memorial garden consisting of a clearing that is largely grassed, with two belts of mature poplar trees down each side. After becoming neglected when the gasworks closed in the 1970s, the garden was restored and made publicly accessible in 2005. The Memorial Garden was laid out to commemorate those who worked at the Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks who had died in the two world wars. The listed memorial structures comprise a cast-stone Rotunda with six spiral-fluted Corinthian columns set on decorative pedestals and supporting a heavily enriched frieze with an openwork wrought-iron dome. Its paved circular stone base has a floral mosaic at the centre on which is a stone memorial tablet with two bronze plaques. The upper plaque has an angel with sword and armour. Adjacent to the Rotunda is another memorial with a bronze plaque set on a stone tablet with a chamfered rectangular stone base. There is also a Memorial Lamp in the form of a tall column topped with a flame, originally lit by gas that burnt constantly. A statue of Sir Corbet Woodhall (1841-1916), engineer and Governor of the Gas Light and Coke Company, which had formerly stood at the Beckton works, was moved to the Memorial Garden after the gasworks closed.