Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park

🔥🚯 Please stop the repeated bonfires and littering in the Cemetery Park 🚯🔥

For the last month, staff and volunteers have been dealing with a persistent and deeply frustrating problem.

Almost every evening, people have been lighting bonfires in the seating area that marks the site of the former Non-Conformist Chapel — then leaving the fires smouldering overnight alongside large amounts of rubbish, bottles, cans and food waste.

This is not harmless fun. It is:
❌ Dangerous
❌ Antisocial
❌ Damaging to the Cemetery Park
❌ Disrespectful to other visitors, volunteers and staff

Bonfires in parks can quickly get out of control, damage habitats, harm wildlife, scorch tree roots and create serious safety risks — especially when abandoned and left unattended 🔥🌳🐦

Each morning, staff and volunteers are left to deal with burnt debris, scattered litter and the aftermath of repeated vandalism. It’s exhausting, disheartening and unfair on the many people who care deeply about this special green space.

THCP is a historic closed cemetery, nature reserve and community space used and loved by thousands of people every year 🌿💚
Please treat it with respect.

👉 Action:
If you use the Cemetery Park, enjoy it responsibly:
🗑️ Take your litter home
🔥 Do not light fires or disposable BBQs
👀 If you witness vandalism or dangerous behaviour, please report it to FoTHCP staff or the appropriate authorities

We want the Cemetery Park to remain safe, welcoming and beautiful for everyone — people and wildlife alike.

🌿🚯🔥

Next Friday 29th May! Join the May free Craft drop in group! What will we be working on this month? Sewing? Knitting? Darning socks? Is there anything you'd like to learn in this friendly, community meet up? Let us know and we'll see if we can help 💕✂️🖍️🪡🧶

🦺You bring whatever you are working on.
🫖We provide tea, biscuits and conversation to encourage on our way.

Friday 29th May
10-1130am
Meet at the Cemetery Lodge

Reserve your free place via the link in bio or https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thefriendsoftowerhamletscemeterypark

Extra Extra! Read all about it! 📰The Cemetery Park is back in the East London Advertiser! 🗞

It may be yesterday’s news to some of you, but you can read all about our brand-new nest box monitoring project. 🐦 We’ve had over 50 percent of our boxes occupied by Blue T**s, Great T**s and even a Wren. The valuable data collected by our trained volunteer monitoring group will be handed over to the national British Trust for Ornithology’s Nest Record Scheme. 🐣

You can find the East London Advertiser for free in local supermarkets like the Bromley-by-Bow Tesco and the Whitechapel Sainsbury’s. It is available digitally and physically every Thursday and we regularly write updates about the Cemetery Park for the paper, so keep your eyes peeled! 🌱

Follow the link below to read the E-edition: 👇📰🗞👇

https://edition.pagesuite.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=9b178582-ec70-40a6-806c-3883925f0b66

Extra Extra! Read all about it! 📰🗞 The Cemetery Park is back in the East London Advertiser! It may be yesterday’s news to some of you, but you can read all about our brand-new nest box monitoring project.🐣

We’ve had over 50 percent of our boxes occupied by Blue T**s, Great T**s and even a Wren. The valuable data collected by our trained volunteer monitoring group will be handed over to the national British Trust for Ornithology’s Nest Record Scheme at the end of the bird breeding season. 🐦

You can find the East London Advertiser for free in local supermarkets like the Bromley-by-Bow Tesco and the Whitechapel Sainsbury’s. It is available digitally and physically every Thursday and we regularly write updates about the Cemetery Park for the paper, so keep your eyes peeled! 🌱

Follow the link below to read the E-edition 📰:
👇
https://edition.pagesuite.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=9b178582-ec70-40a6-806c-3883925f0b66

CALL OUT FOR VOLUNTEERS!

The FoTHCP Summer Fair is coming up on Saturday 22nd August. We are a small staff team here and rely on our wonderful volunteers at our Summer Fair. Could you offer a few hours of you time on the day? We need all hands on deck!

If you would like to join our brilliant team for a day of fun at the Fair, please get in touch!

You can dm us, or email [email protected]

THANK YOU!

🦇✨ Explore the park after dark! ✨🦇
Join us tonight for a Guided Bat Walk at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park and discover the secret nightlife of one of the World's most fascinating mammals.
Using bat detectors, we’ll listen in on their high-pitched calls as they swoop through the Cemetery Park hunting for insects 🦟. Along the way, you’ll learn all about the bat species that call our green oasis home and why these nocturnal mammals are so important for biodiversity 🌱.
📍 Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park
📅 18th May 2026 8pm to 9:30pm
🎟️ Booking required via Ticket Tailor (link below or via the bio!)
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thefriendsoftowerhamletscemeterypark/1962338
Perfect for curious adults and families alike — bring a torch and wrap up warm 🔦🧥.
Spaces are limited, so don’t miss your chance to experience the Cemetery Park in a whole new light (or rather, darkness!). 🌌

You may notice a new face around the park – say hello to Kit, our Seasonal Park Ranger 👋

He’ll be helping us out until the end of the year, looking after the park, its visitors, and our volunteer groups.

Kit's from Scotland but has lived in London for the past 7 years. He’s carried out practical conservation work on sites across the city and the surrounding countryside with London Wildlife Trust and the National Trust.

He's a frequent hiker and camper and works with charities to encourage more people to get outdoors and connect with nature.

Grab him for a chat when you see him in the park!

Wildflowers are out in full bloom across the Cemetery Park’s meadows in May. Goat’s Beard (Tragopogon pratensis) also known as Meadow Salsify and, Ruben, the Cemetery Park Officer’s favourite, Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon.

The plant, as its common name suggests, only flowers during the morning sun and closes its flower at noon. It flowers from May – August, so be quick to catch it across site during the morning shine.
Tragopogon pratensis is said to have roots that can be boiled and eaten like potatoes with fresh stems supposedly tasting like Asparagus and newer leaves edible as well.

If you’d like to help us maintain our wildflower meadows, consider volunteering with us by following the link below:

https://fothcp.org/nature-conservation-volunteering/

Something NEW for Summer Crafters!

Make your own reusable Festival Flower Headpiece!

In this 3 hour workshop we will provide all the materials, skills and creative inspiration for you to make your own Festival Headband! We'll be sewing flowers and making pompoms until our Summer dreams come true!

Saturday 11th July
10am-1pm

Book here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thefriendsoftowerhamletscemeterypark/2167406 or via link in bio.

🌺✨ Red Valerian putting on a show at the Cemetery Park! ✨🌺

As you enter Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park via the Southern Grove gates, you’ll be greeted by vibrant clouds of Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber) blooming brightly among the graves 🌿💖

Despite the name, the flowers aren’t always red — you might spot shades of:
💗 Pink
❤️ Crimson
🤍 White
— all glowing in the spring sunshine ☀️

🌍 Mediterranean roots

Red Valerian was introduced to Britain from the Mediterranean in the 1600s as a garden plant, but quickly escaped and made itself at home in the wild.

It absolutely loves hot, dry, well-drained places, which is why old gravestones and walls suit it perfectly — our sunny grave tops recreate the rocky conditions of its Mediterranean homeland 🌺

🐝 A pollinator favourite

One of the best things about Red Valerian is its very long flowering season, often blooming from May right through to October 🌸➡️🍂

That means months of nectar for wildlife including:
🐝 Bees
🦋 Butterflies
🌙 Moths
—including the incredible Hummingbird Hawk-Moth, a day-flying moth that hovers like a tiny hummingbird while feeding 😮✨

🥗 Edible… but not delicious!

All parts of the plant are technically edible, though quite bitter, and have occasionally been used in soups and salads 🌿🍲

And despite the name, it’s not closely related to the Valerian used in sleepy teas 😴☕

👉 Action:
Next time you enter the Cemetery Park, pause and enjoy these bright splashes of colour 🌺
Watch for buzzing pollinators, snap a photo 📸, and share your sightings with us!

🌺🐝✨