Altab Ali Park

You are walking into Altab Ali Park, a space that hides the origins of the entire surrounding neighborhood within its quiet borders. This ground was once home to the fourteenth-century church of Saint Mary Matfelon. Because the church was frequently whitewashed, its brilliant exterior became a local landmark, eventually giving the entire district its name, Whitechapel. What remains of that ancient site today is limited to its floor plan and a few scattered gravestones, marking the footprint of the building that defined this part of London for centuries before it was destroyed during the Blitz in the second world war.