Wapping Gardens

Wapping Gardens occupies land that tells a story of social reform in Victorian London. In the late nineteenth century, this space was carved out of a dense and overcrowded slum district as part of a mission to improve living conditions for the city's laborers. The area was cleared under the Artizans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act of eighteen seventy-five, a piece of legislation designed to replace hazardous housing with healthier public environments. When the gates officially opened to the public in eighteen ninety-one, the site transformed from a cramped residential quarter into the open, green recreational space you see today.