Visit Mile End Places

Welcome to Visit Mile End Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Mile End

  

Mile End Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Mile End

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Mile End history

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Toponymy

Mile End is recorded in 1288 as La Mile End, meaning ‘the hamlet a mile away’ The mile distance was in relation to Aldgate in the City of London, reached by the London-to-Colchester road. In around 1691 Mile End became known as Mile End Old Town because a new unconnected settlement to the west and adjacent to Spitalfields had become known.

Beginnings

Mile End Road is an ancient route from London to the East. It was moved to its present-day alignment after the foundation of Bow Bridge in 1110. In the medieval period, it was known as ‘Aldgatestrete’, as it led to the eastern entrance to the City of London at Aldgate.

Peasants’ Revolt

In 1381, an uprising against the tax collectors of Brentwood quickly spread across the South-East of England. The rebels of Essex, led by a priest named Jack Straw, and the men of Kent marched on London. On 14 June, the young king Richard II rode to Mile End to meet the rebels and signed their charter. The king subsequently had the leaders and many rebels executed.

Expansion

Mile End Hospital was established as the infirmary for the local workhouse in 1859. Mile End Arena was a ring covered with a canopy with crumbling walls and rickety corrugated iron behind Mile End station in 1933, and was only used in summer. Mileend Arena opened in 1933 and closed in 1953. The Guardian Angels Church was opened in 1903 and paid for by Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, as a memorial to his youngest sister, Lady Margaret Howard.

Second World War

Mile End was hit by the first V-1 flying bomb to strike London in 1944. Eight civilians were killed, 30 injured and 200 made homeless by the blast.

Reconstruction

A part of Mile End remained mostly derelict for many years after the Second World War, until it was cleared to extend Mile End Park.

Contemporary

Mile End Hospital became the Royal London Hospital (Mile End) in 1990. Mile End Stadium hosted a gig by Britpop band Blur in 1995. A groundbreaking project funded by the Millennium Commission called the Green Bridge, a pedestrian and cyclist separation structure which was built over the A11 in 2000.

Mile End geography / climate

Mile End is in a part of London known as the East End and boasts an unusual landmark. The “Green Bridge” is known affectionately as the banana bridge, due to its yellow underside. It allows Mile End Park to cross over Mile End Road, and contains garden and water features.

You can visit Mile End places with Walkfo Mile End to hear history at Mile End’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Mile End has 860 places to visit in our interactive Mile End map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Mile End, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Mile End places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Mile End & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 860 audio facts unique to Mile End places in an interactive Mile End map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Mile End Places Map
860 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Mile End historic spots	Mile End tourist destinations	Mile End plaques	Mile End geographic features
Walkfo Mile End tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Mile End

  

Best Mile End places to visit

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Mile End has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Mile End’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Mile End’s information audio spots:

Southwark Park Southwark Park is located in Rotherhithe, in central South East London . It first opened in 1869 by the Metropolitan Board of Works as one of its first parks . It takes its name from being in what was the old Parliamentary constituency of Southwark .

Potters Fields Park Potters Fields Park is a small public park situated in the London Borough of Southwark . The park is located south-west of Tower Bridge and south-east of City Hall, London .

King’s Stairs Gardens King’s Stairs Gardens is a riverside park in Bermondsey, London . It is bordered to the north by the River Thames and to the south by Jamaica Road (A200)

Statue of Trajan, Tower Hill The statue of Trajan is a bronze sculpture depicting the Roman Emperor Trajan. It is located in front of a section of the London Wall built by Romans, at Tower Hill in London.

Knollys Rose Ceremony The Knollys Rose Ceremony is an annual event led by the Company of Watermen and Lightermen . The ceremony dates to 1381 and is held each year in June . A single red rose is snipped from the garden in Seething Lane, placed on an altar cushion from All Hallows-by-the-Tower .

Seething Lane Seething Lane is named after an Old English expression meaning “full of chaff” Samuel Pepys lived there and is buried in St Olave’s Church at the junction with Hart Street .

St Andrew Hubbard St Andrew Hubbard was a parish church in the Billingsgate ward of the City of London . It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and not rebuilt .

East India Arms The East India Arms is located on Fenchurch Street in the City of London . It is next to the place where the East India Company had its headquarters .

Liberty of Norton Folgate Norton Folgate was a liberty in Middlesex, England . It was adjacent to the City of London in what would become the East End of London .

Holy Trinity Church, Rotherhithe Holy Trinity Church is a Church of England parish church in Rotherhithe, south east London, within the diocese of Southwark .

Visit Mile End plaques