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23-752: Finsbury Park is a public park in Harringay , north London, England. The park lies on the southern-most edge of the London Borough of Haringey . It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey , succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey . It was one of the first of the great London parks laid out in the Victorian era . The park borders the neighbourhoods of Finsbury Park , Stroud Green , and Manor House . Finsbury Park should not be confused with Finsbury , which

46-406: A bosquet , somewhat like a highly formalized glade; it might have a central pool or fountain. The diarist Samuel Pepys relates a conversation he had with the architect Hugh May: Then walked to Whitehall, where saw nobody almost, but walked up and down with Hugh May , who is a very ingenious man. Among other things, discoursing of the present fashion of gardens to make them plain, that we have

69-403: A bank against its outer edge. The top of the bank should be at least 230 millimetres about the surface level of the green. Generally, greens are built in a square shape as close to 40 metres as possible. This allows for games to be played in either direction. The advantages of playing in different directions are that: the wear on the green is more even, and; the players do not need to face towards

92-452: A mixture of open ground, formal gardens, avenues of mature trees and an arboretum . There is also a lake, a children's play area, a cafe and an art exhibition space. Sports facilities in the park include football pitches, a cycling club, a bowling green , a skatepark , an athletics stadium, and tennis and basketball courts. Unusually for London , the park hosts two facilities for "American" sports: an American football field, home to

115-472: 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 ratified by an Act of Parliament in 1857. Despite some local opposition, the park was opened in 1869. During the First World War

138-407: A rink for outdoor play will be between 4.3 metres and 5.8 metres (for indoor play the minimum width of a rink is 4.6 metres). The centre line of the rink can be marked along the surface of the green starting at 2 metres from each end ditch. The side boundaries of each rink are shown by boundary pegs. The side boundary of the outside rink (also called a ditch rink) should be at least 600 millimetres from

161-464: Is a district of Central London roughly 3 miles (5 km) to the south, forming the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Islington . The park was landscaped on the northeastern extremity of what was originally a woodland area in the Manor or Prebend of Brownswood. It was part of a large expanse of woodland called Hornsey Wood that was cut further and further back for use as grazing land during

184-447: Is played on its own portion of the green. These divided portions of the green are called rinks. The length of a green in the direction of play will be between 31 metres and 40 metres. The green should have a suitable level playing surface made of grass or of an approved synthetic material. The green is surrounded by a ditch between 200 millimetres and 380 millimetres wide, and between 50 millimetres and 200 millimetres deep. The ditch has

207-732: The London Blitz , and diamonds for softball and baseball , home to the London Mets . The Parkland Walk provides a pedestrian and cycle route that links the park with Crouch Hill Park , Crouch End , and Highgate Underground station . The park has hosted many live music performances and music festivals including: the Irish-themed Fleadh (Irish for ‘festival’; 1990–2003), Great Xpectations Festival (1993), Big Gay Out (2004–2005), Rise Festival (2006–2010) and Wireless Festival (2014–2019, 2022–). By

230-551: The lawnmower , lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on them. The world's oldest surviving bowling green is the Southampton Old Bowling Green , which was first used in 1299. When the French adopted "boulingrin" in the 17th century, it was understood to mean a sunk geometrically shaped piece of perfect grass, framed in gravel walks, which often formed the centre of a regularly planted wood called

253-401: The 2010s, the number of live festivals decreased, as local council finances were stretched thin. Furthermore, there were the issues of damaged park property and yellowing, unsightly grass, as well as no-entry blockades due to the special events. Local residents would be inconvenienced and prevented from accessing select areas and thoroughfares of the park, often for several days at a time, during

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276-490: The Greater London Parks and Open Spaces Act 1967, claiming Haringey’s actions were unlawful because the event shuts off 27 per cent of the park when the maximum permitted by legislation is 10 per cent." They lost the case, but the decision made it abundantly clear that the council held Finsbury Park in trust, and that any funds raised in the park from events must be used for the park itself. This somewhat reduced

299-814: The London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey maintains 240 hectares (590 acres) of parks and open spaces . By 2015, 20 of these were accredited with a Green Flag Award . Until their disbandment in April 2009, the parks were patrolled by the Haringey Parks Constabulary . Haringey Council maintains three local nature reserves . This London location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bowling green Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud , UK , invented

322-567: The Middle Ages. In the mid-18th century a tea room had opened on the knoll of land on which Finsbury Park is situated. Londoners would travel north to escape the smoke of the capital and enjoy the last remains of the old Hornsey Wood. Around 1800 the tea rooms were developed into a larger building which became known as the Hornsey Wood House/Tavern. A lake was also created on the top of the knoll with water pumped up from

345-524: The best walks of gravell in the world, France having none, nor Italy; and our green of our bowling allies is better than any they have. Bowling green specifications for the lawn bowls variation of the sport are stipulated in World Bowls' Laws of the Sport of Bowls. For the variant known as crown green bowls , no such stipulation is documented by the national governing body and bowls clubs are free to form

368-404: The dimensions and other specifications as they feel fit. Generally a "crown green" has just that: a crown or raised centre section with the outer edges of the green dropping off towards the surrounding ditch. Other greens are generally as level as possible. Several games of bowls can be played on a bowling green at the same time. The number of games depends on the dimensions of the green. Each game

391-477: 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 demolished in the process of making the area into a park, but the lake was enlarged. 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. This pub

414-712: The number of events in the park, moving forward, but also allowed for more rational investments to be made in improving the park (e.g., maintaining the property, new playgrounds, refreshing the Richard Hope play space, etc). Finsbury Park has been used as a filming location for music videos such as Groove Armada 's " Song 4 Mutya ", feature films such as Rachid Bouchareb 's London River and TV programmes such as Silent Witness . Related sports: Rounders  • Welsh baseball 51°34′16″N 0°06′03″W  /  51.5712°N 0.1009°W  / 51.5712; -0.1009 Parks and open spaces in

437-482: The park was known as a location for pacifist meetings. During the Second World War , the park was used as military training grounds and also hosted anti-aircraft guns . Through the late 20th Century the park began to fall into a state of disrepair with most of the original features gone by the 1980s. This decline was worsened in 1986 when the then owner, Greater London Council , was wound up and ownership

460-531: The run of a festival. Local MP David Lammy went as far as to say: "There are parts of the park that look like the Serengeti—a bald dust bowl where there was once grass." A local group, The Friends of Finsbury Park, (unsuccessfully) took Haringey Council to the High Court in a bid to stop future large, live music events. "The group had contended the council had no right to grant the festival permission under

483-468: The sun when playing. In cities, where outdoor space is limited, greens are rarely 40 metres in length (they are generally still square, however). It is not unusual to find greens that are rectangular in shape. On rectangular greens games are played in one direction only. The length of a rectangular green is still between 31 metres and 40 metres. The width can vary from as little as 8 metres (enough for one rink) to as much as 60 metres or more. The width of

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506-603: Was later renamed the Alexandra Dining Room and closed for business in April 2007. It was subsequently demolished. 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 to the ever-increasing urbanisation of London. In 1841 the people of Finsbury on the northern perimeter of the City of London petitioned for

529-471: Was passed on to Haringey Council , but without sufficient funding or a statutory obligation for the park's upkeep. 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. The park now contains tennis courts, a running track, a softball field and many open spaces for various leisure activities. The park has

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