London Guide
Bethnal Green
Once a pleasant country village to the northwest of Stepney, Bethnal Green had become one of the poorest parishes in London by Victorian times. Much altered by slum clearances and wartime bombing, the old village green is now the Bethnal Green Gardens centred around the church of St John, built in the 1820s by John Soane, and sporting an unusual square tower topped by a slender stone cupola. The chief sight here is the Museum of Childhood, to the north of the gardens, with its celebrated collection of doll's houses.