Potters Fields Park is an open space by the River Thames, popular with residents, workers and tourists alike.  It surrounds City Hall, home of the Mayor of London and the Greater London Assembly, and is overlooked by Tower Bridge to the east and the Tower of London on the other side of the Thames.  It is one of the few riverside spaces in central London and the result of a merging of a former recreation ground that had been created from a disused burial ground with an open space created in the 1970s when former riverside warehouses and wharves were demolished.  The park’s name links the two areas for coincidentally both are able to claim, in different ways, the origins of the name Potters Fields. There is also a short street named Potters Fields running along the east side of the park which in the 19th century linked the two areas.

The southern area of the park was leased to the parish of St Olave (St Olaf’s House link in Tooley Street at the west end of Tooley Street was built on the site of the church) by the Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth (St Olave’s School).  The parish required more ground for burials and the additional burial ground, leased for 500 years, was consecrated in 1586.  Potter’s field is a term that refers to a burial ground for paupers or people from outside the area.  A map of 1682 names the burial ground as Pott’s Fields.  

To the north, by the riverside and very close to the location of The Scoop, a pottery was opened some time before 1618 by Christian Willhelm where very fine Delftware was made.  Southwark became a centre for the manufacture of Delftware in the 17th century and it’s thought that Christian Willhelm’s factory was the first.  Called the Pickle Herring Factory, after Pickle Herring Stairs nearby leading up from the river, it employed about 40 potters and was in operation, under various owners, until the early 18th century.

By the early part of the 19th century, burial grounds were becoming grossly and dangerously over-crowded and the connection was made between outbreaks of disease and the insanitary conditions in graveyards.  An Act of Parliament in 1853 prevented further burials within London and many existing burial grounds were closed.  The St Olave’s burial ground annexe in Tooley Street was closed in 1853.  Those who sought the closure of the burial grounds also pressed that the land be used as public open space rather than being built upon and it became illegal to build upon any ground that had formerly been used for internments.  The former burial ground was laid out as a recreation ground by the St Olave’s Board of Works in 1888 when they also acquired the freehold.  Also called Tooley Street Garden, it was mainly asphalted and said to be well used and neatly kept.  There are some tombstones still remaining within the park that are lined up along the south eastern boundary.