Finsbury Park is a 112 acre (45 hectare) public park in the London Borough of Haringey between Harringay, Stroud Green, Finsbury Park (Town) and Manor House in North London. It was one of the first of the great London parks laid out in the Victorian era. The London Borough of Haringey is a London borough in North London, England, and forms part of Outer London. ... Harringay is an area of north London in the United Kingdom and part of the London Borough of Haringey. ... Stroud Green is a suburb (and administrative ward) of Greater London located in Haringey. ... See also: Finsbury Park for a separate entry on the park Finsbury Park is an area in London, England which grew up around an important North London railway interchange at the junction of the London Boroughs of Islington, Haringey and Hackney. ... Ightham Mote For the London district, see Manor House, London. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ...

Overview

Avenue of Mature Trees, Finsbury Park

The park provides a large green space in central north London. It has a mix of open ground, formal gardens, avenues of mature trees and an arboretum area with a mix of more unusual trees. There is also a lake and sports facilities including an athletics stadium and facilities for football and hurling. Permanent softball and baseball diamonds are also located within the park. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 401 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (2216 × 3311 pixel, file size: 3. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 401 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (2216 × 3311 pixel, file size: 3. ... Look up Football in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the Cornish sport, see Cornish Hurling. ... Softball is a team sport, in which a ball, eleven to twelve inches (or rarely, 16 inches) (28 to 30. ... This article is about the sport. ...

In recent years the park was also used for large public events such as Madstock, the Fleadh and Big Gay Out. Madstock! is a live album by ska/pop band Madness, released on November 2, 1992 (see 1992 in music). ... A Fleadh is an event of Irish traditional music, many of which take place across Ireland and parts of Britain and the US each year. ... Facepartys Big Gay Out is a United Kingdom live popular music event, dance party and fun fair organized by the profile and community website Faceparty for the LGBT community, in London. ...

A £5 million Heritage Lottery Fund Award, made in 2003, enabled significant renovations including cleaning the lake, building a new cafe and children's playground and resurfacing and repairing the tennis courts. A play here! sign outside a newsagent, incorporating the National Lotterys logo of a stylised hand with crossed fingers. ...

History

Before the Park

The park was landscaped on the north-eastern extremity of what was originally a woodland area in the Manor or Prebend of Brownswood. It was part of a large expanse of woodland that was cut further and further back during the period of London's great expansion in the 19th century. Londoners have been using the area as a recreation ground for much longer. In the mid eighteenth century a tea rooms had opened on the knoll of land on which Finsbury Park is situated. Londoners would travel out to escape the smoke of the capital, enjoy the remains of the old Hornsey Wood and get a fabulous view over London to the south and Essex to the east. Around 1800 the tea rooms were developed into a larger building which became known as the Hornsey Wood House/Tavern. A lake was also built on the top of the knoll with water pumped up from the nearby New River. There was boating, a shooting and archery range, and probably cock fighting and other blood sports. The Hornsey Wood Tavern was destroyed in the process of making the area into a park, but the lake was enlarged. However, once the park had opened, a pub across the road from its eastern entrance along Seven Sisters Road called itself the Hornsey Wood Tavern after the original (the pub was later re-named the Alexandra Dining Room, but closed for business in April 2007). Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Essex is a county in the East of England. ... A tea room is a variety of café found particularly in England, but also present in other parts of the UK, as well as Australia, India, New Zealand, and some other Commonwealth countries. ... There are also other rivers called the New River New Gauge where water leaves the River Lea at the start of the New River The New River is a man-made waterway in England, opened in 1613 to supply London with fresh drinking water. ... Seven Sisters is a locality in London at one end of Seven Sisters Road, which runs from Tottenham to join the A1 in Islington. ...

Creation of the Park

Lost Moments in the Evening Sunshine in Finsbury Park

During the early part of the second quarter of the 19th Century, following developments in Paris, Londoners began to demand the creation of open spaces as an antidote the the ever-increasing urbanisation of London. In 1841 the people of Finsbury in the City of London petitioned for a park to alleviate conditions of the poor. The present-day site of Finsbury Park was one of four suggestions for the location of a park. Originally to be named Albert Park, the first plans were drawn up in 1850. Renamed Finsbury Park, plans for the park's creation were finally ratified by an Act of Parliament in 1857. Despite some considerable local opposition, the park was formally opened on Saturday 7th August 1869. Although the park's name was taken from the area where the 19th Century benefactors who created it lived, Finsbury Park had earlier been part of an area that bore the name as part of the Finsbury division of the Ossultone Hundred.
Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 536 pixelsFull resolution (3872 × 2592 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 536 pixelsFull resolution (3872 × 2592 pixel, file size: 2. ... Finsbury is a place in the south of the London Borough of Islington. ... Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Francis Augustus Charles Albert Emanuel, later HRH The Prince Consort) (26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... The Finsbury Division was one of four divisions of the Hundred of Ossulstone, in the county of Middlesex, England. ...

20th Century to Present

The City from Finsbury Park

Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries the park was a respectable and beautifully manicured space for people to relax and exercise. By the early 20th century, it was also becoming a venue for political meetings including pacifist campaigns during the First World War. During World War II, it hosted anti-aircraft guns and was one of the gathering points for heavy armour prior to the D-Day invasions. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 536 pixelsFull resolution (3872 × 2592 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 536 pixelsFull resolution (3872 × 2592 pixel, file size: 1. ... The City of London is a geographically-small city within Greater London, England. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Land on Normandy In military parlance, D-Day is a term often used to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. ...

Despite decline during the 1970's recent lottery funding has enabled something of a renaissance in the park's fortunes.

Source: A Park for Finsbury, Hugh Hayes, 2001

Friends of Finsbury Park

A Summer Evening in Finsbury Park

The Friends of Finsbury Park [1] (founded in 1986) publish a history of the park and organise a range of environmental and arts activities in the park. They have produced a Vision for Finsbury Park supported by many local people and community groups.
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Nearest tube and rail stations

• Finsbury Park station
• Manor House tube station
• Arsenal tube station
• Harringay railway station
• Harringay Green Lanes railway station

Finsbury Park Station is a busy transport interchange in North London. ... Manor House tube station is a station on the Piccadilly Line of the London Underground in London, on the boundary between Zone 2 and Zone 3. ... Arsenal Tube Station at night Platform of Arsenal tube station - Gillespie Road is still clearly displayed on the wall Arsenal tube station, in Highbury, north London, is a London Underground station located near Arsenal Stadium, the home of Arsenal football club. ... Harringay railway station is a railway station in Harringay, North London. ... Harringay Green Lanes railway station is a railway station in Harringay, North London. ...

External links

• History of the park and list of community events from Friends of Finsbury Park website.
• A blog for the Finsbury Park area, including some information on the park itself.

Evening Rush Hour in Finsbury Park

Mackenzie Garden in Finsbury Park

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