Finsbury Park

Finsbury Park is a place in London, at the junction of the London Boroughs of Islington, Haringey and Hackney. The park itself is in the borough of Haringey, with the border between Haringey and Hackney running along the Seven Sisters Road (the A503) to its south-east. The area south-west of Stroud Green Road/Blackstock Road (the A1201) is part of Islington.

It is not to be confused with Finsbury, which is some miles further south, close to the City of London. Persons attending weddings at Finsbury Registry Office (also known as Islington Registry Office), need to be wary of this common confusion: the registry office is in Finsbury, not Finsbury Park.

The large public park (112 acres) which gives the area its name was one of the first of the great London parks that appeared in Victorian times.

It is situated in the old parish of Hornsey, in the county of Middlesex.

As early as 1833, a select committee reported to the House of Commons in favour of the establishment of parks for the eastern, southern and northern districts of the Metropolis. Over the next few years, Battersea Park in the South and Victoria Park in the east were created, but it was not until 1857 that the Finsbury Park Act gave the Metropolitan Board of Works the right to compulsory purchase 250 acres of land in north London situated north and south of Seven Sister’s Road. Finsbury Park is therefore the first municipal park in the UK.