Quaker Gardens, Islington

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Quaker Gardens is a small public garden in south Islington, London, near Bunhill Fields. It preserves a surviving part of a Quaker burial ground used from 1661 to 1855. About 12,000 burials took place here, including many Quakers who died in the Great Plague of 1665–66. Graves were not marked with stones or monuments, except for a wall tablet once dedicated to George Fox, a founder of the Quaker movement; a newer marker now stands there.

The garden also has a children's playground and a tarmac ball court. A Quaker meeting house sits at the north-west corner, the last remaining part of the Bunhill Memorial Buildings, which were redeveloped in 1976.

In the 1870s, the Bedford Institute Association began holding meetings at the site. In 1880–81, parts of the burial ground were sold to build the Bunhill Memorial Buildings, which included a large meeting house, rooms for committees, an adult school, a reading room, and other facilities. The war damaged the buildings in 1944, and only the caretaker’s house survived; it is now used as a Quaker Meeting House.

The garden is bordered by Bunhill Row, Banner Street and Chequer Street, with entrances from Banner Street or Chequer Street. The name Bunhill Fields reflects old burial uses in the area, including a reference to bones moved from St Paul’s Cathedral in 1549.