The King Cole site

Name

Grave marker of King Cole, Aboriginal cricketer

Connection

A member of the Australian Aboriginal Cricket Team of 1868 has a grave marker here.

Location

Meath Gardens, Smart St, London E2 0SN

How to get there

Nearest underground stations: Bethnal Green (Central Line) and Mile End (Central, District and Hammersmith and City Lines).

Story

This is the grave marker of King Cole (traditional name – Bripumyarrimin), a member of the Australian Aboriginal Cricket Team which toured London and England in 1868. King Cole became unwell on the tour and died in London in June 1868. The story of the tour, its background, details of matches and aftermath make fascinating reading – here. The site of King Cole’s grave marker has undergone many changes and you can find details below.

Entry to Meath Gardens

The plaque is in the foreground

Detail of the plaque

‘On the south side of Roman Road, beyond the sorry huddle of stalls, and out behind the low and middle-rise barriers of public housing, is the relic of Victoria Park Cemetery (VPC 1845), one of the most notorious bone pits of its era. They folded whole streets into the clay, stamped them down below the grass line as they were later to stack them above. Ground lucky to call itself contagious. This is where the Australian Aboriginal cricketer “King Cole” was buried, lace-lunged, and where a commemorative eucalyptus tree still struggles for life. Meath gardens is a favourite of mine, one of the extramural city’s numinous (unvisited) locales. Rain is a given here, even when the surrounding streets are glitzed with sunlight. Trees, fat with the arguments of the dead, take on the most extraordinary shapes. They dominate otherwise undistinguished turf. They repel dogs. Silence is a specific quality; it deafens you, nourishes the imagination, irritates with a joyous madness. Talk in tongues, if you will, but keep your lips buttoned.’ Iain Sinclair 105.8/1029

This description by Iain Sinclair paints a rather dismal picture. It was confirmed when I visited the site on a cold damp day in February 2018. What a different picture it was when I returned to Meath Gardens in June 2018, following the 150th Anniversary Tour. A new interpretive board sits alongside the existing small plaque and an Aboriginal flag is proudly raised – a little piece of Aboriginal Australia in London's East End!

The new interpretive board and flag in the background

Further information

Visit the Lords Cricket Ground, in Londown Under – here

Read more about the 150th anniversary tour – here

Further information from Wikipedia – here

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