Grove Hall Park is a 1.19 ha public park in Bow in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London. It includes play areas, a ball games area, and a small walled memorial garden. Grove Hall Park was opened as a

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to r ...

in 1909 following its purchase by the local authority in an auction in 1906. Previously the land had been in the possession of the Byas family, who had established Grove Hall Private Lunatic Asylum on the plot in 1820. This establishment primarily catered for ex-servicemen and was featured in

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' novel ''

Nicholas Nickleby ''Nicholas Nickleby'' or ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (or also ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the ...

'' (1839). In 1878 it was the largest asylum in London with capacity for 443 inmates. In 1930 the park was extended with land that had served as the garden for the St Catherine's Convent, Bow. The former convent Church of Our Lady and St

Catherine of Siena Catherine of Siena (Italian: ''Caterina da Siena''; 25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and on the Catholic Church ...

, which opened in 1870, survives in Bow Road, but the Dominican convent itself moved to

Stone, Staffordshire Stone is a canal town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, north of Stafford, south of Stoke-on-Trent and north of Rugeley. It was an urban district council and a rural district council before becoming part of the Borough of Staffor ...

, in 1926.Taking Stock. Catholic Churches of England and Wales
Retrieved 4 July 2014.
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External resources

* Photographs of Grove Hall Park in summer

* A description of Grove Hall in 1898, when it was still a lunatic asylum
Retrieved 4 July 2014.

References

{{coord, 51.5297, -0.0180, type:landmark_region:GB, format=dms, display=title Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Bow, London