General Information

Located in a central part of London, Postman’s Park is one of the largest parks in the city. In the past a shortage of space for burials in London meant that corpses were often laid on the ground and covered over with soil instead of being buried; Postman’s Park, built on the site of former burial grounds, is significantly elevated above the streets which surround it…

Additional Information

In 1972 key elements of the park, including the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice (the most notable part of the site), were listed Grade II to preserve their character. Following the 2004 film “Closer”, based on the 1997 play under the same title by Patrick Marber, Postman’s Park experienced a resurgence of interest. Key scenes of both the film and the play were set in the park itself.

History: Highlights

Opened in 1880 on the site of a former churchyard and burial ground of St Botolph’s Aldersgate church, the park expanded over the next 20 years to incorporate the adjacent burial grounds of Christ Church Greyfriars and St Leonard, Foster Lane, as well as the residential area demolished during the widening of Little Britain in 1880.

History: Explained

The ownership of the previously mentioned site became the subject of a lengthy dispute between the church authorities, the General Post Office, the Treasury, and the City Parochial Foundation. The severe lack of burial space in London meant that graves would be frequently reused in London’s burial grounds, and the difficulty of digging without disturbing existing graves led to bodies often simply being stacked on top of each other to fit the available space and covered with a layer of earth. In 1831 and 1848, serious outbreaks of cholera had overwhelmed the crowded cemeteries of London, causing bodies to be stacked in heaps awaiting burial, and even relatively recent graves to be exhumed to make way for new burials. In the wake of public concerns following the cholera epidemics and the findings of the Royal Commission, the so-called “Act to Amend the Laws Concerning the Burial of the Dead in the Metropolis” (Burials Act) was passed in 1851. Under the Burials Act, new burials were prohibited in what were then the built-up areas of London. With London’s churchyards and burial grounds no longer used for new burials, in 1858 it was decided to convert the churchyard of St Botolph’s Aldersgate to a public park. Progress in clearing and covering the burial ground was slow, and it was not until 28 October 1880 that the churchyard was reopened as a public park. Laid out with flower beds and gravel paths, the park became a popular place for local workers to spend breaks. In 1887, the burial ground of Christ Church Greyfriars was given to the parish of St Botolph’s Aldersgate. The burial ground was cleared and the ground level raised by 1.8 metre to allow its incorporation into the new park. In 1873 and 1895 the GPO building was greatly expanded in size, with the 1895 extension bordering the southern edge of the park itself. The park became extremely popular with workers in the GPO building, and soon became known as “Postman’s Park”.

The Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice: Highlights

In 1900, the park became the location for George Frederic Watts’s Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice, a memorial to ordinary people who died saving the lives of others and might otherwise have been forgotten. It is designed in the form of a loggia and a long wall housing ceramic memorial tablets.

The Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice: Explained

At the time of its opening, only four of the planned 120 memorial tablets were in place, with a further nine tablets added during Watts’s lifetime. Following Watts’s death in 1904, his wife Mary Watts took over the management of the project and oversaw the installation of a further 35 memorial tablets in the following four years, as well as a small monument to Watts. However, disillusioned with the new tile manufacturer and with her time and money increasingly occupied by the running of the Watts Gallery, Mary Watts lost interest in the project and only five further tablets were added during her lifetime.

Closer: Highlights

Postman’s Park came to increased public notice in 2004 with the release of the BAFTA- (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and Golden Globe-winning film “Closer”, which stars Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Clive Owen, and is based on the 1997 eponymous play by Patrick Marber.

Closer: Explained

A key plot element in the film revolves around Postman’s Park, in which it is revealed that the heroine Alice Ayres (played by Portman in the film) has in fact fabricated her identity basing on Ayres’s tablet on the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice, which she had read at the time of her first meeting with Dan Woolf (Jude Law) at the start of the film.

Interesting Facts

The park’s name reflects its popularity amongst workers from the nearby General Post Office’s headquarters.