Mural in Ion Square

Ion Square stands on a site that once held thirty-eight small, cramped terraced cottages, built around 1845 for workers in the local brick and tile trade. These original homes faced a communal garden, creating a tight-knit enclave that remained a residential anchor for over a century. During the height of the Blitz in the early 1940s, German bombing raids struck the square with devastating force, killing at least nine residents and leaving only five of the original buildings standing. The site was cleared in the aftermath, transforming what was once a private Victorian square into the open, landscaped public space of Ion Square Gardens seen today. The presence of murals in the vicinity serves as a creative layer over this history of destruction and regeneration, reflecting the neighborhood's long-standing identity as a place of constant turnover, from the arrival of French Huguenot refugees in the seventeenth century to the modern evolution of East London.