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St Mary Matfelon

Buildings and structures completed in 1329Buildings and structures demolished in 1952Buildings and structures in WhitechapelChurches bombed by the Luftwaffe in LondonDestroyed churches in London
Former Church of England church buildingsFormer buildings and structures in the London Borough of Tower HamletsFormer churches in LondonPages containing links to subscription-only content
Whitechapel St. Mary's Church after the fire 1880
Whitechapel St. Mary's Church after the fire 1880

The St Mary Matfelon church, popularly known as St Mary's, Whitechapel, was a Church of England parish church on Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, London. The church's earliest known rector was Hugh de Fulbourne in 1329, and in the medieval period the church was covered in a lime whitewash, which gave the church and surrounding area its common name. Around 1338, it became called, for unknown reasons, St Mary Matfelon. Last rebuilt in the 19th century, the church was severely damaged during the Blitz, and its location and graveyard is now a public garden on the south side of the road.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article St Mary Matfelon (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

St Mary Matfelon
Whitechapel Road, London Whitechapel

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Wikipedia: St Mary MatfelonContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.5163 ° E -0.0686 °
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Address

Whitechapel Road

Whitechapel Road
E1 1DU London, Whitechapel
England, United Kingdom
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Whitechapel St. Mary's Church after the fire 1880
Whitechapel St. Mary's Church after the fire 1880
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Nearby Places

Altab Ali Park
Altab Ali Park

Altab Ali Park is a small park on Adler Street, White Church Lane and Whitechapel Road, London E1. Formerly known as St Mary's Park, it is the site of the old 14th-century white church, St Mary Matfelon, from which the area of Whitechapel gets its name. St Mary's was heavily bombed during The Blitz in 1940, all that remains of the old church is the floor plan and a few graves. Included among those buried on the site are Richard Parker, Richard Brandon, Sir John Cass, and "Sir" Jeffrey Dunstan, "Mayor of Garratt". The park was renamed Altab Ali Park in 1998 in memory of Altab Ali, a 25-year-old British Bangladeshi clothing worker, who was murdered on 4 May 1978 in Adler Street by three teenage boys as he walked home from work. Ali's murder was one of the many racist attacks that came to characterise the East End at that time. At the entrance to the park is an arch created by David Petersen, developed as a memorial to Altab Ali and other victims of racist attacks. The arch incorporates a complex Bengali-style pattern, meant to show the merging of different cultures in East London.Along the path down the centre of the park are letters spelling out "The shade of my tree is offered to those who come and go fleetingly", a fragment of a poem by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. The Shaheed Minar, which commemorates the Bengali Language Movement, stands in the southwest corner of Altab Ali Park. The monument is a smaller replica of the one in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and symbolises a mother and her martyred sons.The nearest London Underground station is Aldgate East on the District and Hammersmith & City lines.