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:''This is an article about the 'park' called Finsbury Park. For the 'urban area' of Finsbury Park, see: Finsbury Park local area.''



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.

Contents

Overview

History

Before the Park

Creation of the Park

20th Century to Present

Friends of Finsbury Park

Nearest tube and rail stations

External links

Overview

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.
In recent years the park was also used for large public events such as Madstock, the Fleadh and Big Gay Out.
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.

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).

Creation of the 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 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.

20th Century to Present

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.
Despite decline during the 1970's recent lottery funding has enabled something of a renaissance in the park's fortunes.
In Spring 2007, Groove Armada filmed their music video for the song Song 4 Mutya featuring Mutya Buena at the park.
Since 1995 the London Mets Baseball club have trained and played their home games on two diamonds within the park.
:''Source: A Park for Finsbury, Hugh Hayes, 2001

Friends of 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.

Nearest tube and rail stations

★ Finsbury Park station

★ Manor House tube station

★ Arsenal tube station

★ Harringay railway station

★ Harringay Green Lanes railway station

External links

★ History of the park and list of community events from Friends of Finsbury Park website.

★ A blog for Finsbury Park N4 - Aggregator of N4 community information, park activities and events.

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