Four potential locations for the new park were identified and a site in Hornsey Wood (three miles north of Finsbury) was eventually selected as London's next great park. It was co-designed by superintending architect Frederick Manable and landscape designer Alexander McKenzie who also designed Southwark Park (write-up), Victoria Embankment Gardens and Alexandra Palace Park (write-up). The initial plans had suggested the name 'Albert Park' in memory of the then-recently deceased Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. However, the name Finsbury Park was chosen to reflect that it was the people of Finsbury that had lobbied for its creation. The park was the first municipal park to be authorised by its own act of parliament, the Finsbury Park Act 1857. So, unusually, the Finsbury Park neighbourhood takes its name from the name of the park.
Finsbury Park is a classic Victorian-era public park and sits wholly within the London Borough of Haringey. It occupies land which was previously a large woodland estate called the Manor of Brownwood and was used by the Bishops of London as a hunting ground. At this time the manor house was called Copt Hall. The house and the estate were later known as Hornsey Wood and Hornsey Wood House. The land was also historically used for grazing livestock, and gradually the woodland began to be cleared to facilitate this. This in turn led to it becoming an area of recreation with a rifle range and a man-made pond. Hornsey Wood House evolved into a tearoom before later becoming the Hornsey House Tavern. The building was eventually demolished in the 1860's to make way for the laying-out of the park.
During the park's creation a 5-million-gallon subterranean reservoir, roughly the size of a football pitch, called 'Hornsey Wood Reservoir' was constructed directly beneath the park. It is now also known as 'Finsbury Park Reservoir'. The spoil from its construction was dumped in various nearby locations but some of it was retained and incorporated into the landscaping of the park. The reservoir was decommissioned in the early twenty-first century and has now been drained. For obvious safety reasons it is closed to the public, but it was used for scenes in the 2009 Sherlock Holmes, 2012's Skyfall, and the 2014 Paddington film. There are plenty of photos on the internet of the insides, which contains some wonderful Victorian brickwork.
Opened in 1869, the park covered an area of 110-acres and the current-day park occupies the exact same footprint. It currently features a mixture of open grassland, wide avenues lined with mature trees, an arboretum, a boating lake (created by enlarging the existing pond), playgrounds, art exhibition space and a cafe. Some of the park's original features such as a bandstand, open-air theatre, boathouse and conservatory have sadly been demolished as part of the park's evolution. There is a man-made river called New River running through the northern end of the park. This was created in 1613 to channel drinking water from Ware, in Hertfordshire, to London. The park has hosted musical performances for its entire existence and in modern times has been the location of numerous large-scale rock / popular music concerts and festivals including performances from artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Sex Pistols, Pulp, Oasis, Rage Against the Machine, and The Stone Roses. It has been the venue for the Wireless Festival since 2015 and also hosts the Krankbrother electronic music festival.
It is also a hub for sports and contains the London Marathon Finsbury Park Athletics Track where the infield is used for football, rugby and is home to the London Blitz American football team who have been based at the park since 1994. Elsewhere in the park are facilities for tennis, netball and basketball, plus there's a bowling green, outdoor gym and a skatepark. The northern corner of the park contains diamonds for softball and baseball, and is home to The London Mets. The park has been home to a free, weekly, timed 5 kilometre event called Finsbury parkrun since 31 October 2009, and was the sixth one to start in London. It is currently the twenty-third oldest parkrun still in operation. It is put on by volunteers from the local community and is open to all abilities including wheelchair users and those who wish to walk the course.
This write-up is from my third visit to the park, the first being in 2012 and the second in 2017. On all three occasions I have used public transport to travel to the venue as it makes sense to utilise the great transport links. At the southern tip of the park is a large transport hub centred around Finsbury Park station, in fact it is noted as being the third busiest underground station outside zone 1. The station is served by London Underground trains on the Victoria Line and the Piccadilly Line. It is also served by National Rail services on the Great Northern route and some Thameslink services also stop here. A large number of London buses stop right outside the station/park, including the 4, 19, 29, 106, 153, 210, 236, 253, 254, 259, 310, W3 and W7. In addition to the main transport hub, just outside the northern end of the park is Harringay Green Lanes London Overground station which is served by the Suffragette line. Piccadilly Line users also have the option of alighting at Manor House station.
If travelling by vehicle there are possible parking options on the nearby residential side streets. I would suggest doing some research beforehand to ensure you have the latest information and head for an appropriate location. From what I can see as of September 2026 the residential side streets to the north, west and east have restrictions but these are largely operational between Monday and Friday, and do not apply on Saturdays. Where restrictions do apply on a Saturday, they tend to be active on event days only. Event days are defined as days when a large event is taking place in Finsbury Park where more than 10,000 people are expected to attend. Restrictions on some streets may also apply on days when Arsenal Football Club have a home match. The roads around the south of the park are closer to Finsbury Park station so they tend to have further restrictions in place, including all day on Saturdays, so avoid the south.
There is also a retail car park (Arena Retail Park / Sainsburys) to the north of the park which has free customer parking for up-to two hours. The previous pay-and-display car parking facilities within the park itself are no longer available, but three accessible spaces for Blue Badge holders have been retained. Access to these is not usually possible before 10am. If one is required, the advice is to contact the parkrun team beforehand and they will attempt to arrange for earlier vehicle access. Cyclists are generally well catered for as there are a few bicycle racks in the park adjacent to the cafe and playgrounds, which are all close to the parkrun meeting area. Should the racks be full, there are metal fences around the playgrounds and the lake which could be used. It is requested by the parkrun team that if cyclists are securing bikes to the fences that the playground entrance is not blocked and sufficient space is left on the pathways.
Should an overnight stay be required, there are a reasonable number of independent options right opposite the park on and around Seven Sisters Road. For well known chain options, there are two branches of Travelodge, Best Western and a Maldron all within walking distance. The parkrun tourist's number one choice, Premier Inn, does not have a branch in the vicinity. The closest is at Archway which connects to Harringay Green Lanes via the London Overground. The next closest option is the Tottenham Hale branch which is just a few stops away on the Victoria Line. Finally there are two Premier Inns in Southgate which is just a few stops away on the Piccadilly Line and the room rate will probably be significantly cheaper.
Once in the park, the parkrun meeting point can be found on the west side of the park, right next to the lake and the cafe. A first-timers briefing is held outside the cafe. There are toilets in the same building as the cafe, and they can be accessed via their bespoke doors facing towards the lake. Their official opening time is meant to be 9am, but on all three of my visits they have been open earlier. For the record there are also toilets inside Finsbury Park station located on platforms 7 and 8, with additional male toilets on platforms 3 and 4. All of these toilet options appeared to be in quite a sorry state, especially the gents in the train station, but they did the job.
Given that this parkrun isn't technically in Finsbury, I did wonder if the naming of this event would be more accurate if it was Finsbury Park parkrun. As far as I can tell it has always been just Finsbury. Incidentally the official pop-up sign does have the event's name as Finsbury Park, so the anomaly has obviously been noted somewhere! This event has grown larger each time I have visited and now regularly attracts between 600 and 800 participants every week, so you'll have no trouble spotting everyone upon arrival. Just like my original visit, it does retain that flash mob vibe as most of the locals seem to arrive after 8.55am. The course is just under two anti-clockwise laps and the surface underfoot is tarmac, so road shoes are the best footwear option. The park can be described as undulating so expect a bit of a gentle roller-coaster ride - My GPS data recorded 59 metres of elevation gain over the 5 kilometre course. Those who wish to participate with a dog or a buggy are of course welcome to do so. Wheelchair users are also welcome but I would make note of the undulations which I imagine will give the arms quite a workout and a kerb which is detailed below.
To give you a better idea of the park's elevation profile, the central and western sections of the park (athletics track, pond, basketball/netball courts and cafe) are its highest points so in general moving away from the centre means going downhill and going back towards the centre is uphill. The park has a wide avenue/road which creates a loop around the perimeter of the park and a large proportion of the parkrun route uses this. The zebra crossing near the cafe is used as the parkrun's start line where participants line up facing to the south. The main briefing takes place here. The initial stretch of the parkrun course heads gently downhill, passing the tennis courts and meandering down to the park's southern tip. Taking a sharper turn to the left, the carriageway straightens out and, running parallel to Seven Sisters Road, a long gradual climb begins. The incline averages 3% until reaching the crest at the Manor House entrance.
Continuing on the main avenue, the northern section of the park features a long gentle downhill curve beneath the mature trees. The road here has quite a severe camber, so take care at this point. At the northernmost tip of the carriageway, the course leaves the road and cuts inwards towards the lake and the athletics track. This bit involved leaving the road and going onto the pavement, which mostly involves going up the lowered kerb, which is of note to buggy walkers/runners and wheelchair users. This inner section features a shorter, but steeper, incline of around 7-11%. The final section of the lap heads along the path which runs in between the northern side of the lake, the bowling green and the athletics track. The path is followed around to the south of the lake where it passes through McKenzie Gardens and rejoins the main carriageway at the zebra crossing to start lap two.
At the end of the second lap, the finish can be found on the southern side of the lake just after the McKenzie Gardens section. Barcode scanning takes place on the grass after the finish line and the scanned tokens are placed in the collection baskets. If you take a glance to the south you may spot some central London buildings in the distance, including The Shard. Overall the course is easy to navigate and there are marshals positioned at all the key points. On the subject of marshals, and I mentioned this in my previous write-up, but one of this event's long-standing regular marshals is the 1970 Commonwealth Games 20 Mile Race Walk bronze-medalist William (Bill) Sutherland, which is pretty special. There is an interview with him which you can watch on YouTube. I recorded the course with my Garmin and the GPS data can be viewed on Strava (you may need an account). I also made a Relive course fly-by video that can be viewed on YouTube. For the record the course was exactly the same as it was on both of my previous visits.
In terms of expected numbers of participants, there can be quite large differences from week to week so it could be anything between 500 and 1000 (but, normally in the 600-800 range). The park's wide avenues mean the course can cope quite easily with this amount. The attendance record of 1,029 was set on 25th April 2026 which was the weekend of the London Marathon. It's been really interesting to visit the event during three different phases of its evolution. In 2012 I took part in event 150 which had 81 finishers and the event was like a flash mob where at 8.45am there were only about 3 of us waiting. The whole thing was put on by just 4 volunteers. Then at event 396 in 2017 the event had grown to 360 finishers and 21 volunteers. This write-up is from my third visit which was at event 743 on 3 October 2026, where 914 people attended and 47 people volunteered. The full historic list of attendances can be found on the results history page.
For post-parkrun refreshments the Finsbury Park Cafe is the obvious choice and has an elite food hygiene award which is given upon achieving three consecutive 5 star hygiene ratings. It has a good selection of drinks and breakfast options, plus if you are around later in the day they have plenty of other cooked meals on offer. Outside the cafe is an outdoor chess board and the cafe has a chess set which they loan out for free (we borrowed it and had a couple of games). Next to the Manor House entrance is the Park View Cafe which again has a wide selection of options, and is more 'caff' than cafe. There are plenty of other options scattered around the local streets and the immediate vicinity around Finsbury Park station has a few of the big name chain options like Costa, Starbucks, Gail's and Pret.
When it comes to cancellations, the tarmac course and the large number of trees mean that ice, snow and storms present a risk which may lead to last minute cancellations. However, the biggest reason for the parkrun cancelling is to make way for the summer festivals, whose arena and other facilities makes it virtually impossible for the parkrun to take place. As a result it is possible for the parkrun to be postponed from the end of June until mid-August, however the number of cancellations can vary from year to year. Other events such as fun fairs and park maintenance have also led to past cancellations. The annual Tough Mudder event which had previously been responsible for cancellations no longer takes place in the park due to extensive damage caused to the ground during its 2023 event. Occasionally it is possible to re-route the parkrun course to avoid cancellations for smaller events.
Finsbury parkrun is a long-standing event which clearly has a great team of volunteers in place to ensure things run smoothly every week. The park is really nice and always seems to be packed with people enjoying this wonderful green space away from the busy streets. We had a brilliant visit which extended hours beyond the packing away of the parkrun. A huge thank you goes to all of the volunteers that make this wonderful event happen every week.
Related Links:
- Finsbury parkrun GPS data (September 2026)
- Relive course fly-by video (September 2026)