Park of the week

193. Trinity Square Gardens

This small garden, near to Tower Hill, has lawns, mature trees and ornamental planting and a good view of the Tower of London and The Shard. It’s ringed by important buildings (such as the headquarters of Trinity House, topped with a ship's weathervane and housing the General Lighthouse Authority for England and Wales), and bits of London’s ancient Roman wall. It currently holds a Green Flag Award.

The Gardens were created by an Act of Parliament in 1797 as a setting for Trinity House. In 1931 the garden was scheduled in the London Squares Preservation Act, listed under the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney.

The focus of the garden is its memorials. There are two that make up the Merchant Navy Memorial: The First World War section, unveiled in December 1928 to commemorate those of the Merchant Navy and the Fishing Fleet who died in WWI, and the Second World War section added in 1955. 

The First World War section is in the form of a white stone pavilion, inside which are metal plaques inscribed with names of the dead. From here, steps bordered by figures of an officer and a merchant seaman lead to a sunken garden, which is the Second World War section. This is surrounded by stone walls set with bronze plaques. At the centre is a mariner’s compass. The garden also holds a memorial to merchant seamen who lost their lives in the Falklands conflict.

The garden was also the site of the Tower Hill scaffold, where some 125 people were executed, including St Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. In a small, railed area of the garden there is a stone set in the paving marking its place.

Judith Field

Trinity Square Gardens, Tower Hill, London EC3N 4DJ