Victoria Park, East London

Victoria Park (known colloquially as Vicky Park or the People's Park) is a park in Bow in Greater London, England. The park is 86.18 hectares of open space that opened in 1845. It stretches out across part of the East End of London, bordering parts of Bethnal Green, South Hackney, Cambridge Heath and Old Ford, such as along Old Ford Road, London E3 and Victoria Park Road E9. The park has also been applied to the neighbourhood around it which is entirely within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The park has two cafes, The Pavilion Cafe in the West and The Park Cafe in the East. There are two playgrounds, one on either side of the park, as well as sporting facilities and a skatepark in the East. The park is home to many historic artifacts and features and has decorative gardens and wilder natural areas as well as open grass lands. Victoria Park is also used as a concert venue and hosts many festivals each year. The park is approximately a mile away from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Owing to its proximity to the Olympic park, it became a venue for the BT London Live event along with Hyde Park during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The park has in recent years gone through a 12 million pound refurbishment and many of the park's old features have been reinstated or repaired. It has won the Green Flag People's Choice Award for the most popular public green space in 2012, 2014 and 2015, no other park in the UK has won the award three times.

The Crown Estate purchased 218 acres (88 ha) which were laid out by notable London planner and architect Sir James Pennethorne between 1842 and 1846. A part of the area was known as Bonner Fields, after Bishop Bonner, the last lord of the manor of Stepney. The land had originally been parkland, associated with the Bishop's Palace, but by the mid-1800s had been spoiled by the extraction of gravel, and clay for bricks.

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