Barking Park

About

Barking Park is a public park covering 30 hectares to the northeast of Barking town centre in east London. It was opened as the Recreation Ground in 1898 by the Barking Town Urban District Council and is now the oldest public park in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It lies north of Longbridge Road and south of the neighbourhood of Loxford, with the northern boundary of the park along Loxford Water also the borough boundary with Redbridge.

History: The classic Victorian park for the urban district of Barking Town was established from land acquired in 1896. It was officially opened on 9 April 1898 by Councillor C. L. Beard JP, Chairman of Barking Town Urban District Council. The park's most significant feature is a 910-metre (2,990 ft) long boating lake on the north side of the park. Rowing boats were introduced first, and then on 1 April 1953, motor boats and a Mississippi style paddle steamer called Phoenix II made their debut. The paddle steamer continued to operate on the lake until 1967. The park contains a war memorial, renovated in 2000, for men of the Barking Town Urban District who fell in World War I and World War II. A lido was built in 1931 but this was closed...