Altab Ali Park

The Shaheed Minar replica, Altab Ali Park

Altab Ali Park is a small park on Adler Street, White Church Lane and Whitechapel High Street, London E1;^[1] formerly known as St. Mary's Park it is the site of the old 14th Century white chapel, St. Mary Matfelon, from which the area of Whitechapel gets its name.^[2] Having been destroyed in The Blitz in 1940,^[3] all that remains of the old church is the floor plan and a few graves. Included in those buried on the site are Richard Parker, Richard Brandon and Sir John Cass.^[4] This graveyard is the final resting place of 'Sir' Jeffrey Dunstan, Mayor of Garratt (died 1796 - see Hone's Everyday Book 1827, p. 859).

The park was renamed Altab Ali Park in 1998^[5] in memory of Altab Ali, a 25-year-old Bangladeshi clothing worker, who was murdered on 4 May 1978 in Adler Street by three teenage boys as he walked home from work.^[6] At the entrance to the park is an arch created by David Peterson, 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.^[7]

Along the path down the cenre 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 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 the martyred sons.^[8]

The nearest London Underground station is Aldgate East on the District and Hammersmith & City Lines.

External links

• Altab Ali Park website
• Details of Improvements to Altab Ali Park as part of High Street 2012

References

1. ^ Parks in Tower Hamlets
2. ^ Exploring East London: Whitechapel
3. ^ Middlesex Heraldry
4. ^ Find a grave
5. ^ London Footprints
6. ^ Brick Lane Tour
7. ^ "Altab Ali Arch". Whitechapel's Free Art and History. Archived from the original on 2008-03-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20080328050646/http://exploringeastlondon.co.uk/Whitechapel/Whitechapel.htm#Altabarch. Retrieved 2008-07-15. 
8. ^ "Shaheed Minar". Banglapedia. http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/S_0264.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-01. 

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Coordinates: 51°30′58″N 0°04′07″W / 51.5162°N 0.0685°W / 51.5162; -0.0685

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