Islington parks and open spaces
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The London Borough of Islington is surprisingly short on large open spaces, given its status in recent decades as a desirable place of residence. In fact, Islington has the lowest ratio of open space to built-up areas of any London borough. The largest continuous open space in the borough, at 29 acres, is Highbury Fields.
But the problem is, perhaps, more apparent than real. For a start, Islington has excellent access to large open spaces in the neighbouring boroughs of Camden, Hackney and Haringey. In particular, one can live in Islington for years without realising that the substantial Finsbury Park is, in fact, in Haringey, mainly because the district of Finsbury Park is almost entirely within Islington.
Access to Regent's Park to the west and Victoria Park to the east is provided by the 'Green Route' of the Regent's Canal, itself a pleasant refuge from the traffic, and many other open spaces such as Clissold Park in Hackney are situated on the borders of the borough.
Another alleviating factor is that like Camden and unlike Hackney, Islington contains many well-kept public squares and greens, such as Canonbury Square and Thornhill Square.
Because of the perceived open space deficit, many small community gardens grew up in Islington from the 1970s on. Created and maintained by local residents on sites made derelict by The Blitz and redevelopment, not all have survived, but one notable remaining example, open to the public, is Culpeper Community Garden, near the Angel.
The larger open spaces are:
- Barnard Park (9 acres)
- Caledonian Park (18.3 acres - on the site of the former Caledonian Cattle Market once the biggest cattle market in North London)
- Elthorne Park (6 acres)
- Finsbury Square (1.7 acres)
- Fortune Street Park (0.9 acres)
- Gillespie Park (6.3 acres - has nature reserve)
- Highbury Fields (29 acres)
- Islington Green
- Laycock Street Open Space (2.2 acres)
- New River Walk (3.5 acre walk that connects the Angel and Canonbury along the bank of the New River)
- Newington Green
- Paradise Park (4.6 acres)
- Rosemary Gardens (6.5 acres)
- Tufnell Park Playing Fields (4.7 acres)
- Whittington Park (10.1 acres)
[edit] External links
- Park Locations (Islington Council)
- Culpeper Community Garden
- Caledonian Park
