The park you're currently in is the sole relic of the Royal Surrey Zoological Gardens. Though diminutive now, this location once served as a vast playground for the whole of London.
Royal Surrey Gardens were pleasure gardens in Newington, Surrey, in the Victorian period, slightly east of The Oval. The gardens were the grounds of Walworth Manor House, the civil parish of Newington.
The site was acquired in 1831 by impresario Edward Cross to be the location of his new Surrey Zoological Gardens, using animals from his menagerie at Exeter Exchange in competition with the latest London Zoo in Regent's Park. A large circular domed glass conservatory was built in the gardens, 300 feet (90 m) in circumference with over 6,000 square feet (560 m2) of glass, to contain separate cages for lions, tigers, a rhinoceros, and giraffes. The gardens were heavily planted with native and exotic trees and plants and dotted with picturesque pavilions. It soon became a firm family favourite and it wasn’t long before it received the royal stamp of approval. Queen Adelaide (Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen) visited shortly after its opening and Queen Victoria visited twice, in 1836 and 1848.
The gardens were used for large public entertainments from 1837, such as re-enactments of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the Great Fire of London, or the storming of Badajoz, using large painted sets up to 80 feet (24 m) high, and spectacular firework displays, as had become popular at Vauxhall Gardens before its demise.
Unfortunately, times (and tastes) changed, and the Crystal Palace provided stiff competition when it opened in 1851. Cross retired in 1844, leaving the Gardens under the management of William Tyler, who sold the animals in 1855 in an attempt to keep the enterprise afloat. The following year, seven people were killed in a stampede during a sermon by the local Baptist minister Charles Spurgeon, and the resulting backlash helped tip the Gardens into bankruptcy.