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Kit Crowley Gardens will be the new name for the former Cassland Road Gardens as residents voted for the local role model from a shortlist of four. The decision was confirmed at a recent full Council meeting.

Kathleen ‘Kit’ Crowley was born in 1918 to an English mother and Barbadian father. Kit experienced poverty and racism, and growing up where survival sometimes relied on the goodness of neighbours shaped her resilience and sense of community spirit.

When interviewed in 2013, Kit said: “You survived with each other… you shared, that's what it's all about, caring and sharing, no good keeping everything to yourself cause you can’t eat it all…”

Kit moved to the newly built Gascoyne Estate in 1948 as a newlywed where she and her husband raised their family. Kit lived there for 62 years, working at Wentworth Nursery for 32 years. She was described by those that nominated her as ‘a role model for children of the Windrush generation growing up in the area’.

Her name will replace Sir John Cass, director of the Royal African Company – an English slave-trading company that trafficked enslaved Africans for profit in the late 17th Century. The former Cassland Road Gardens sign now lives in Hackney Museum as an educational artifact.

Kit's son said: "50, maybe 60, years ago, a college sat close to these gardens – a college where my mother worked as a cleaner. When the college made way for housing, it seemed the bricks had crushed the past. Now the past is restored. Her spirit will forever have this haven, free from dust and traffic, a place of peace and trees and flowers to rest and sit and smile.

Nearly 650 people took part in the consultation to select the new name when signs bearing the previous name were removed in December 2020. A community steering group of local community leaders, cultural experts, historians, teachers and young people shortlisted four names of people who reflected Hackney’s African or African-Caribbean heritage and had links to the area, including nominations by local people. More than half of Cassland Road residents that voted chose Kit as the winner.

Cllr Carole Williams and Mayor of Hackney Philip Glanville at the removal of the old Cassland Road Gardens sign

Cllr Carole Williams said: "Over the last year we’ve all been on a journey into Hackney’s sometimes hidden diverse history, and I’m proud that Kit Crowley Gardens will be the first place to be renamed in our review. We believe that considering the movement over the last year, it’s right that we all take the time to learn about the past and reflect on whether our public spaces best represent the communities that live here. 2020 will be remembered for a long time to come – the pandemic revealed the extent of inequalities across society.

The shocking murder of George Floyd set off a chain reaction which has left the UK asking questions about our own history and structures. The reverberations and responses were visceral, genuine and heartfelt. If we fail to learn the lessons from 2020, we fail our communities.

In Hackney, we committed to reviewing the names of places and spaces – part of our longstanding anti-racism work. Changing the name of this garden is a start of our journey to ensuring public space reflects who we are and what we stand for – elevating those who have made a positive contribution to our borough while retaining the story of those whose names we are removing."

Kit Crowley back row in blue , her lifelong friend Sue Golzey third from right . Wentworth Nursery staff c 1970

Who was Kit Crowley?

Kit (1918-2018) was a beloved member of the local community and her name was voted for by local residents to be the new name of the gardens.

Kit’s father was from Barbados and her mother was English. She had a difficult childhood in a single-parent household, surviving poverty and racial prejudice in nearby Bethnal Green.

In 1947 Kit married John Crowley and they moved into the newly built Gascoyne Estate. This estate provided spacious homes for those, like Kit, that had known only the cramped tenant housing. Kit was to live on this estate for 62 years before moving to the local care home.

Kit worked at the local Wentworth Nursery for 32 years. She knew the value of community spirit, and the importance of looking out for your neighbours. She was described as a role model for the children of the Windrush generation growing up on the Gascoyne Estate.

Stay tuned for updates on when the new sign will be placed in October 2021.

Toyin Agbetu, a founding member of the Council’s naming review - Review, Rename, Reclaim - will join the Mayor’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, which is co-chaired by Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard, Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility and Community Engagement, and Justine Simons OBE, Deputy for Culture and Creative Industries.

The Mayor’s new Commission shares the community partnership values of Hackney's Review, Rename, Reclaim, which launched in June 2020, by identifying the contributions of London’s diverse population and ensuring historical names and figures are celebrated in the public realm.

Since the launch of Hackney’s naming review, Toyin Agbetu has been a member of the borough’s community steering group and has advised the Council on how public places named aftfter slave and plantation owners could be renamed. Hackney’s community-led and public learning approach has helped inform the GLA's London-wide Borough working group and has led the way in how councils and residents can actively reconcile with their own contentious past.

Other successful applicants include actor Riz Ahmed, director of Chisenhale Gallery Dr. Zoé Whitley, art historian and presenter Aindrea Emelife and British GQ Editor and founder of The Queer Bible Jack Guinness. For the full list visit London.gov.uk/PublicRealm