Site for King Edward VII Memorial Park, Shadwell, looking south-east from The Highway. In the foreground is wasteground containing detritus from where buildings have been demolished in Middle Shadwell, Leading Street, Broad Bridge, Shadwell Green, Gould’s Hill and Garth Street. In the background on the right are Shadwell Pumping Station and an accumulator tower, both of which have tall chimneys. In the centre is the Rotherhithe Tunnel ventilation shaft. On the left behind a fence are Shadwell Fish Market and a warehouse and some cranes at Bell Wharf. In the foreground, six workmen are clearing rubble with picks, spades and wheelbarrows. The fish market opened in 1885 as competition with Billingsgate but did not prosper, was sold to the City of London Corporation in 1901 and closed in 1914. African slaves were shipped via Bell Wharf and there is an account of one escaping from a ship there in the mid-eighteenth century. The pumping station, accumulator tower, fish market and Bell Wharf no longer exist. The ventilation shaft is one of an identical pair (the second being at the other end of the tunnel on the south bank of the river) designed by Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice for the London Country Council and it opened in 1908. It was Grade II listed in 1983, listing number 1260101. The King Edward VII Memorial Park, opened in 1922 as Shadwell’s first park, is on the site of the other buildings.
