Altab Ali Park

Altab Ali Park is located on Adler Street, White Church Lane and Whitechapel Road. Formerly known as St. Mary's Park, it is the site of the old 14th-century white church, St. Mary Matfelon. This is what gives the area of Whitechapel its name. St Mary's was heavily bombed during The Blitz in 1940. All that now remains of the old church is the floor plan and a few graves.

It was renamed Altab Ali Park in 1998 in memory of Altab Ali, a 25-year-old Bangladeshi Sylheti clothing worker. He was murdered on 4 May 1978 in Adler Street by three teenage boys as he walked home from work. Ali's murder was one of the many racist attacks that came to characterise the East End at that time.

At the entrance to the park is an arch created by David Petersen. It was developed as a memorial to Altab Ali and other victims of racist attacks. The arch incorporates a complex Bengali-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.

The Shaheed Minar which commemorates the Bengali Language Movement, stands in the southwest corner of Altab Ali Park. The monument is a smaller replica of the one in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and symbolises a mother and her martyred sons.

The park currently holds a Green Flag Award

Facilities

• Play area for ages 4 and below
• Play area for ages 5 and above  
• Turf area with floodlights
• Benches.

For more information please contact the Parks and Open Spaces Service at parks@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Size: 0.48 (hectares)
Location: Alder Street, London E1
Nearest Underground station: Aldgate East
Bus: 25, 205 and 254   

Before you travel please visit TFL for directions and maps.