King Edward Memorial Park

King Edward Memorial Park occupies a site with a transformation far more dramatic than its peaceful green lawns suggest. Before the park opened in nineteen twenty-two, this ground hosted a short-lived and commercially disastrous fish market that shuttered after less than twenty years of operation. The land was then reclaimed to fulfill the dying wish of King Edward the Seventh, who had expressed a desire for a dedicated riverside park for the people of East London. His son, King George the Fifth, eventually inaugurated the space, dedicating it to the public forever.