Rufus went back to nursery last week… and whilst trying to work whilst running a day nursery has been, er, challenging… I’ve realised I’m going to miss our almost daily trips out to the park each morning.
I’ve resurrected this unfinished post penned at the beginning of lockdown, where we found our own little piece of East London that we didn’t have to share with anyone. Now Rufus doesn’t need the park anymore, perhaps I’m in a better position to share… so here’s my post from May… (that I never actually finished, as finding out about the history of this little piece of London took more digging than I had expected…)
original post (well, original-ish as I’ve been working on it off and on for a while) follows…
We’re living in interesting times. After spending and surviving a couple of weeks self-isolating, I realised that the opportunity of getting out of the house for exercise was something I needed to grab with both hands - as I was concerned that perhaps we’d be asked not to leave the house at all at some point in the future.
But where to go?
We’re lucky to live between the Olympic park - and the green spaces of Wanstead Flats - and of the two, the Olympic park is a much more interesting place to visit. And can be reached in sub 10 minutes by bicycle, so it tends to choose itself. But we’re not alone in deciding that the Olympic Park is where it’s at. It’s always busy. Really busy. And it can be hard to keep a two metre distance from folks, or to find somewhere to hang out.
What’s the answer?
At the north end of the park, the grand sweeping parkland spaces peter out not with a bang, but in a whimper of car park, scrubby green space and some nicely landscaped bicycle parking. All that can be heard is a gentle rumble of traffic on the A12 and on other local roads.
We’ve christened it…
Rufus park - as whilst the main park is heaving with joggers, cyclists and everyone else - we can have Rufus park all to ourselves. I mean, there are some other folks - but by and large, the space is ours. But what’s the story?
Eton Manor
Some lazy Googling tells me that the space was originally a farm and a waste dump - that was turned into sports facilities by some folk from Eton College (yes, that one…) but Wikipedia isn’t too helpful here.
As far as I can see Eton College ran a Christian mission to raise living standards in Hackney Wick, East London all the way back in the 1880s… proving that the East End really was another world for folks at Eton - despite being (nominally) in the same city… which led to Eton Manor Boys’ Club - an attempt to provide sporting facilities for the poor of East London.
My reading of those articles suggest that Rufus Park is on a former rubbish dump, bought for use by the boys’ club in 1920. It was christened “The Wilderness” which during Lockdown at least, feels apt, as most mornings the place is deserted…
Wikipedia claims the place had:
...nine football pitches, two rugby pitches, cricket pitches, six tennis courts, a bowling green, a squash court and a running track.
and also that Eton cut their ties with the place in the mid-1960s… at which point the Wikipedia trail goes cold… simply stating that the facilities provided by Eton Manor Boys’ Club had “fallen into disuse” by 2001… well, yes - they’ve had almost 40 years to do so… it’s hardly a surprise.
The Wilderness made it into a 2012 poem by the then Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy - which gives a closing date of 1967 for the facilities there… and no further clue as to what happened to the space between 1967 and 2012…
The best I’ve managed is a finding a long, rather rambling (but wonderful) blog post by Simon Lee Robinson from 2014 - including an aerial photograph of the site from 1955 - as well as what looks like a Google Maps image from 2006 pre-Olympics - showing the site as-was.
So - it doesn’t look un-used, it just looks like a scrubby bit of green space that was probably used by locals (although, until the Olympic park redevelopments - there probably weren’t that many locals in any case) as some basic green space… just across the road from the Hackney Marshes.
Simon’s post also reminded me about the short film “What Have You Done Today, Mervyn Day?” produced by the band Saint Etienne - which showcases a pre-Olympic post-industrial East London that it’s hard to imagine now…
Which reminds me that I really need to find my copy, as it’s well overdue being re-watched…
Simon’s blog post also referenced (in rather general terms) the blog of writer and film-maker John Rogers… there’s a lot to read and explore on his website - and I read (and adored) the kindle preview of his book this morning… so I’ll be adding that to the ever growing list of books I need to read.
At this point the park has provided two real functions during lockdown - led me down a rabbit hole trying to research some history about the site for this post - and has provided somewhere I could go to get out of the house with Rufus every morning, where he could run around, exploring car park, gravel and green space in equal measure. Well, I say equal, given the choice he always chooses the gravel…
…and it was nice to add some routine to a world suddenly lacking in routine. Thank goodness those first few weeks were so sunny…
Eventually though, as lockdown continued, we did move to another interesting park, a little closer to home. Perhaps I’ll try to write about that one too…