Finsbury Park | Almost everything has changed

Greetings,

Following the theme of “changing London”, I’ve been taking trips to parts of the city that I either used to live, or hang out a lot, to see how they’ve changed. This time I ventured to the Finsbury Park area of North London.

Finsbury Park is named after the literal Finsbury park, which is one of the largest parks in London touching multiple postcodes. I actually entered and walked through the park from the Manor House end near Stoke Newington. I was going to go check out Stoke Newington, since I used to hang out there a lot back I the day, but I decided Finsbury Park is large enough itself, so I’ve left Stokey for another day.

I exited the park at the Islington end where the Finsbury Park train/underground stations are. Wow! I could immediately see how much that area has changed in such a short period of time. The area around the station itself has changed slightly but around the back entrance, where the market is, has completely changed. The most notable thing is that all the homeless people under the bridge have gone. There used to be dozens of them camped up there.

A lot of the old buildings have been removed and replaced by new modern structures that appear to be a bit of residential and business units. There are also a bunch of new shops, bars, restaurants and cafes there. It looks like one of those architectural models you see with the fake trees - trees that were planted as adults that were obviously transplanted from somewhere else. That always looks really strange and artificial but, in time, the area will age and everything will fall into place.

Nearer the Holloway Road end, the old Finsbury Park is still there. You can see the colourful textile and wholesale clothing shops that the market is famous for. People travel from countries far away to buy wedding dresses and wholesale clothing here. I looked a bit like a tourist taking photos there, but hey, I might have as well have been.

Peace & Love,

Adé