Bow Common

Bow Common was an industrial district producing and supplying London's town gas demands – the former Victorian Gas works site at Bow Common is one of a few remaining following the surrounding area's ongoing transformation. In 1883 anti-poverty campaigner Andrew Mearns commented on the lack of church attendance amongst locals, and Charles Booth described it as 'worse than almost any district in London.' Slums were cleared during the course of the 20th century, most hastened by bomb damage in the Second World War when Bow was targeted for it being an important artery to feed the demands of the city at that time. St Paul's Church was rebuilt in the fashionable 'new brutalism' style of 1960…

Bow Common was a small common which lay on either side of part of Bow Common Road. In the Middle Ages it was known as Furseyheath, presumably due to Furze (also known as Gorse) growing there. In 1720 it was recorded as Pesthouse Common and in 1745 as Brumley (ie Bromley) Common. From the 1770s onward it was known as Bow Common. It was destroyed in the mid 1800s. Ropery Street approximates to the northern edge of the Common with Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park laid out on adjoining land to the north.