Luscious parks, glorious gardens and pockets of green spaces dotted all around the city are a definite plus of living in London. Finsbury Circus Gardens is on that list and is in fact the largest and oldest public park in the City of London, with its origins harking all the way back to 1607.
Although the park has been very well kept all these years, being over 400 years old it’s expected that it gets a little work done and is set to temporarily close to the public from today (Monday, November 20) for a full redevelopment – a park facelift if you will. The park will reopen again to the public late next year once it receives a much-deserved revamp.
The park spans over two acres with the present garden being laid out in 1815 to a design by George Dance the Younger on the site of the former Lower Moorfields which was part of the Manor of Finsbury, a manor that had existed since the twelfth century. It is a garden steeped in history and has stood tall and constant as the city has evolved over the centuries. Finsbury Circus Gardens eventually opened to the public in the early 20th century, featuring a lawn bowls club and a bandstand.
Of late, the park hasn’t been open much as the Crossrail project took over much of the space in March 2010 and didn’t reopen again until August 2020. Once the park was handed back over to the City of London, it was decided that it would receive a full redevelopment.
Plans for the park made by Hackney-based Architecture00 + Studio Weave with ReardonSmith Landscape include the creation of an ‘urban forest’ on the west side of the park, a new oval-shaped pathway inside the existing Yorkstone-paved outer ring, and a dedicated space for food trucks and coffee carts with the park’s Grade II listed water fountain dating from 1902 to be re-sited. The transformation is set to be a stunning one.