Above: Looking east across a small part of the green.
There was a time when every village in the land now called Inner London had a green. The site of Clerkenwell Green still exists although most of it is now covered by Tarmac. There is Parsons Green, in Fulham. There is Stepney Green, in east London. Camberwell Green is a well-known landmark in SE London, which is more like a park today.
A village green was at the centre of the community. The village church often was erected beside the green and the lord of the manor (if there was one) usually had his house facing onto the green. In the case of Bethnal Green, it was a hamlet of the enormous parish of Stepney whose church still stands some distance to the south of Bethnal Green. Bethnal Green was quite late in being created a parish and the parish church was built on part of the green itself.
According to the topographer Daniel Lysons, Bethnal was a corruption of Bathon Hall which would have been the residence of a notable Bathon family who owned large parts of Stepney, of which the parish of Bethnal Green was part. The ‘green’ at Bethnal Green was extensive, lying on the east side of Cambridge Heath Road. Much of the ‘green’ is still in existence and has been renamed Bethnal Green Gardens.
-ENDS-
Know Your London 