This vault contains the ashes of Dr. Alfred Salter (died 24th August 1945) and of his wife Ada Salter (died 4th December 1942).
It's difficult to interpret "this vault" since all there is, is a low brick wall in front of a planting bed, with the tree. Is it possible that the ashes had first been deposited in an actual vault, at a cemetery, and were later brought here, together with the plaque?
Site: Salter vault (1 memorial)
SE1, Druid Street, Dr Salter playground
This area is covered by the Goad Fire Insurance Plan of London Vol. VII: sheet 154. But the normally reliable Old Maps Online is not currently providing a working link. We can however report that in 1887 the southern part of the area now occupied by this playground was covered in small 2-storey domestic dwellings, railway cottages. The middle area is labelled "Cooperage, barrels stored in yard" and along the northern section was part of a rope walk, which stretched almost as far to the east as Church Street (now Tower Bridge Road). It ran parallel to this wall and the flats behind.
The area had changed little by 1914 (the line of the rope walk can be seen here as 'Sard's Rents'). But a post-war aerial photo (1944-50) show the area cleared, and the housing block to the north-west already built.
We did this map research to confirm that there had not been a cemetery here. There is no sign of a tree in the aerial photo. We'd guess that the playground was first laid out a year or two after the war ended and that the tree was planted and the ashes deposited at that time, probably with some ceremony.
The significance of the tree was brought to our attention by Londonist who inform that the plaque is below one of Ada's favourite trees, a Tree of Heaven.
