Ghost building

St Augustine's Church - Victoria Park - ghost building

St Augustine's Church - Victoria Park - ghost building

When we photographed the stone we did not notice the rectangular clearing around it but this Google Satellite image displays the space well. This clearing is, in our terminology, a 'ghost building', similar to the Roman Amphitheatre. See Ghost Buildings for more - we note that churches are the most popular buildings to be commemorated in this way.

Site: St Augustine's Church - Victoria Park (2 memorials)

E9, Victoria Park, near Brookfield Road entrance

When we first found this plaque-less stone we published it in May 2020 as a puzzle - what did it commemorate?

2021: We were contacted by Dennis Jenner who solved the mystery. He wrote: “The stone marks the site of St Augustine's Church, built in 1867, destroyed during World War 2. It had a plaque on it with a brief explanation but sometime in recent years the plaque has been stolen.”

Wikipedia gives "Following wartime bomb damage, the Church of St Augustine in nearby Victoria {Park} was closed in 1953 and its congregation merged with St Mary’s to form St Mary of Eton with St Augustine.

Dennis sent this Tower Hamlets audio which confirms the position of the church and also details how the Park was used (extensively) during WW2.

The stone is in a rectangular clearing, the space left by the removal of the church. The surrounding trees can be seen in the photograph of the church so they were not, as we first thought, planted to commemorate the church. The stone is placed at the position of the alter.

The nearby entrance to the park, almost opposite Brookfield Road, is known as St Augustine’s gate.

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
St Augustine's Church - Victoria Park - ghost building

Subjects commemorated i

St Augustine's Church, Victoria Park

This church was built, inside the Park, in 1867 to meet the needs of the expa...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
St Augustine's Church - Victoria Park - ghost building

Also at this site i

St Augustine's Church - Victoria Park - stone

St Augustine's Church - Victoria Park - stone

We've over-lightened the photo so you can see the indentation which used to h...

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Nearby Memorials

Globe Theatre remains

Globe Theatre remains

SE1, Park Street

On Park Street there's a plaque for the Globe but behind that, and possibly missed by some people, is the actual Globe, or rather marking...

1 subject commemorated
St Paul's medieval footprint

St Paul's medieval footprint

EC4, St Paul's Churchyard

The modern information board reads: These gardens are laid out as the footprint of the Chapter House and Cloister of the Medieval Cathedr...

2 subjects commemorated
Priory of the Order of St John of Jerusalem

Priory of the Order of St John of Jerusalem

EC1, St John's Square

These cobbles mark out the site of the original circular church of the medieval priory of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.

1 subject commemorated
Ghost of old London Bridge

Ghost of old London Bridge

SE1, Tooley Street

To the casual passerby these strips look like the expansion joints one sees on bridges. It was David Brown who drew our attention to what...

1 subject commemorated
St Mary’s church, Greenwich

St Mary’s church, Greenwich

SE10, King William Walk, St Mary's Gate into Greenwich Park

The excellent Greenwich Phantom tells us that the footprint of the old church is shown "by a beech hedge, some of the foundation stones m...

1 subject commemorated

Previously viewed

Alfred Turner - lost blue plaque

Alfred Turner - lost blue plaque

SW6, Munster Road, 44

Our colleague Alan Patient took this photograph in 2010. By 2016 it had been replaced by the "Turners and Paget" plaque.

2 subjects commemorated
Margery Allingham

Margery Allingham

Writer. Born Margery Louise Allingham in Ealing. Initially she studied drama and speech-training to cure a stammer. She turned to writing, and in 1929 published her first successful novel, 'The Cri...

Person, Literature

1 memorial
Sam King

Sam King

SE24, Warmington Road, 2

Sam King M.B.E., born 1926, Mayor of Southwark, 1983-84, wartime R.A.F. serviceman, passenger on the Empire Windrush, West Indian communi...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Kirsty MacColl

Kirsty MacColl

Singer-songwriter. Born Mayday Hospital, Thornton Heath, daughter of Ewan. Killed in a swimming / motorboat incident in Mexico. Whether the person actually responsible for her death was properly pr...

Person, Music / songs, Mexico

1 memorial