| Finsbury Circus | |
|---|---|
 Finsbury Circus Gardens. Image Credit: Realm | |
 Interactive map of Finsbury Circus | |
| Type | Park |
| Nearest city | City of London, England |
| OS grid | TQ 328 816 |
| Coordinates | 51°31′04″N0°05′11″W / 51.5179°N 0.0864°W /51.5179; -0.0864 |
| Area | 2.2 hectares |
| Created | 1812 (redesigned 2025) |
Finsbury Circus is a park in theColeman Street Ward of theCity of London,England. The 2-acre park is the largest public open space within the City's boundaries.[1]
It is not to be confused withFinsbury Square, just north of the City, orFinsbury Park, a few miles away.
The circus was created in 1812 on the site of the formerLower Moorfields, an area which was originally part of theManor of Finsbury, a manor which had existed since the 12th century,[2] on which the secondBethlem Royal Hospital had stood since 1675.[3] The "circus" of the name reflects the elliptical shape of the space, similar to thecircus venues of ancient Rome, in this case with a long axis lying west-east.
The original houses, the last of which were demolished in 1921,[were these not just converted to offices?] were intended for merchants and gentlemen, but were soon broken up internally and leased for solicitors and other professions. The gardens, featuring a circuit oflime trees, were developed by William Montague to the specifications of the architectGeorge Dance the Younger in 1815.[4] In 1819[5] theLondon Institution moved into "ingeniously planned and elegantly detailed"[6] premises designed by William Brooks[7] at the north end of the circus; it closed in 1912 and the buildings were used for the University of London until their demolition in 1936. Fronting onto the circus from the 1820s was the substantial South Place Unitarian Chapel, erected under the leadership ofWilliam Johnson Fox; this evolved intoConway Hall Ethical Society.[8]
The circus was opened as a public park in the early 20th century, under powers granted to theCity of London Corporation in theCity of London (Various Powers) Act 1900 (63 & 64 Vict. c. ccxxviii).[9] The gardens had previously been a private space for the use of the freeholders or lease-holders of the surrounding buildings, who objected to theircompulsory purchase, fearing that their use by the public would create a nuisance which would lower the value of their property.[10] The campaign to make them a public space was led byAlpheus Morton, deputy-Alderman forFarringdon Without and a member of the Corporations' Streets Committee,[10][11] and the circus became known with the Corporation as "Morton's Park".[12]
Fronting the northwest quadrant of the oval, with fronts on roads entering the Circus from the west standsEdwin Lutyens's massive Britannic House (1921–25, listed Grade II), designed for theAnglo-Persian Oil Company, which becameBP; its free-standing architectural sculptures are byFrancis Derwent Wood.[13] It was built on the site of the last remaining original houses, and is now home to international law firmStephenson Harwood.[14]
Until renovation of the park in 2024, it had aLawn Bowls club in the centre, which had existed in the gardens since 1925. Abandstand, built in 1955, was located nearby.
The gardens are closed to the public from Monday 20 November 2023 until late 2024, for renovation work to take place.[15] The gardens partially reopened in May 2025.[16]
The nearest Tube station isMoorgate, 150 metres to the west, withLiverpool Street Station about 350 metres to the east.
Finsbury Circus has been used as the finish point for theMiglia Quadrato each year. In recent years it has also played host to the start of the Miglia Quadrato since the event start was removed fromSmithfield Market.
During the years 1860–65 Finsbury Circus was threatened with demolition in favour of a railway station; public protests averted the loss, but in 1869 the oval was tunnelled for theMetropolitan Railway.[17]
From 2010 to 2020 the central section of the gardens were taken up for the construction of the Liverpool StreetCrossrail station. This included the excavation of a 16m diameter, 42m depth shaft to allow the construction of the platform tunnels beneath. The project was due to be completed in September 2018, but due to mismanagement it missed that deadline, going over budget by £896,700 as of April 2019.[18] The work was finally completed in 2020.
In July 2020, the City of London Corporation announced the park would reopen to the public in August 2020, after a call in June for design proposals to transform the gardens into a sustainable multipurpose space.[19] The winner of the design competition was announced in October 2020 as Architecture00 + Studio Weave, with Realm (previously called ReardonSmith Landscape), whose plan includes a one-storey garden pavilion constructed from natural materials.[20]
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