Victoria Park, East London

Victoria Park is a large open space that stretches out across part of the East End of London, England bordering parts of Bethnal Green, Hackney, and Bow, such as along Old Ford Road, London E3. The park is entirely within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Second world war

During the war, Victoria Park was largely closed to the public and effectively became one huge Ack-Ack (anti-aircraft) site, also including a POW camp for, at first, Italian, then German prisoners. The gun emplacements conveniently straddled the path of German bombers looping northwest after attacking the docks and warehouses further south in what is now Tower Hamlets, and so the park was of some strategic importance.

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The plotting rooms for the gun sites were in underground bunkers at the

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bottom of Cassland Road, Hackney Wick. A Hackney resident of the time says:

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:"When in the Army in 1952, I was driven to these operation rooms, to help shut them down to be eventually demolished.

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:"To my surprise, in all my years of living no more than five minutes walk away I never knew they were there, besides, bombs had dropped all around in that vicinity and that place was missed. Nevertheless the plotting operation rooms were far below ground."

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Given the obscurity of this war room at the time, it is doubtful if any evidence of a deep shelter can be spotted now.

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More controversially, anti-aircraft activity in the park has been implicated in the panic that caused the Bethnal Green tube disaster of 1943. Some eyewitness accounts have led to the suggestion that, after several air raid alerts, the panic run for shelter was caused by a gigantic explosion of noise from the direction of the park. A 2003 BBC documentary suggests that this was due to the first firing of the new Z-Battery anti-aircraft rockets. The UK Ministry of Defence, however, disputes this account.

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