We've found 107 parks

Compton Terrace Garden consists of two elongated enclosures that were originally for the private use of residents of the Terrace. The land was part of the Marquess of Northampton's considerable estate, the name Compton deriving from the C17th owners. Although not completed until 1831, Compton Terrace was planned in 1805 as a row of villas each side of the Union Chapel of 1806. By 1823 9 houses had been built north of the chapel and the lessees agreed to make a private road with a communal garden in front. Maintenance was later transferred to Islington Borough Council and the gardens opened as a public amenity. In 1944 a German bomb destroyed or badly damaged 12 of the 19 houses north of the Chapel and in the 1960s Highbury Roundabout was built over the area devastated by the bomb.

Crouch Hill Park is a new community park that opened in late 2012, but part of the site was once Crouch Hill Recreation Centre and its gardens, which existed from the 1920s. After it closed in 2004 it subsequently became derelict. Redevelopment of the site began in April 2011 and in addition to the public park, the site includes new buildings of Ashmount Primary School, CAPE Play and Youth Project and Bowlers Community Nursery, as well as improvements to the existing multi-use games area.

Culpeper Community Garden is named after the C17th herbalist Nicholas Culpeper. It has been in existence since the 1980s and is situated adjacent to Culpeper Park, a small public park. The idea for the community garden arose in 1982 when Anthea Douglas, who was then teaching disadvantaged children, realised they needed a proper garden facility. She secured a grant from Islington Council before seeking out a suitable patch of derelict ground. The site she discovered was being considered for future development but as this was not scheduled to begin for some 10 years, it was agreed she could use it in the interim and it has been going ever since. Run on organic lines, the garden comprises a lawn, ponds, rose pergolas, ornamental beds, vegetable plots, seating and a wildlife area, with a greenhouse, small resource centre and tea hut for members. There are over 50 plots including raised beds for disabled gardeners, which provide small gardens for community groups, children, and for people living nearby without gardens. Tending the garden is a communal effort by garden members and volunteers.

The site is a former burial ground of St Bartholomew's Hospital, which was used for the burial of unclaimed bodies. It was located east of Mssrs Sewards Dye House. After it closed for burial the site was let as a carter's yard before being laid out as a public playground by the MPGA in 1891, which was maintained by St Luke's Vestry. It is now tarmaced and used as a playground by Dallington School, bounded by a rendered wall to Seward Street with railings above, gate piers and a number of plane trees. The site has been identified within the Bunhill and Clerkenwell Urban Design Study as being potentially suitable for public open space.

Dalmeny Park is a small secluded park behind Victorian housing, reserved 'for use by children and elderly' containing a playground, sandpit, grass and some trees. In the 1870s building was beginning to cover the rural area and by the 1890s much of the surrounding housing had been completed although land to the south of the park site remained unbuilt on until the early C20th. Previously for private use of residents of the surrounding housing the park is now public, owned by LB Islington.

Dartmouth Park takes its name from the Earl of Dartmouth who bought land here in the mid C18th. Housing development accelerated from the mid C19th and the need to increase the supply of fresh water to serve London's expanding population meant that water companies were building new facilities. Two covered reservoirs were constructed on Dartmouth Park Hill in 1855 by the New River Company and connected to its new waterworks and pumping station by Stoke Newington reservoirs. Dartmouth Park was laid out on the edge of the reservoirs and opened to the public in 1972. The land slopes steeply to the north and the east of the reservoirs, which are now covered with grassland. The top of the slope gives a bird's eye view over south-east London. The park has an enclosed seating area surrounded by a hedge, which local children helped to plant in 1991.

Duncan Terrace Gardens comprise a series of linear gardens between Duncan Terrace and Colebrooke Row, which were built either side of the New River, the man-made water conduit constructed in 1609-13 to supply London's growing population. The New River here was enclosed in underground pipes in 1861 as the area was developed. The southernmost garden opened in 1893, laid out by the MPGA for Islington Borough Council who had acquired the land in 1892. The garden areas to the north remained in the ownership of the Metropolitan Water Board, although part were let for public gardens. When the New River ceased to flow below Stoke Newington in c.1946, the pipes were dug up and ownership of the gardens transferred to Islington Council in 1951. They were then re-landscaped and now form an important link in the series of green spaces along the former course of the New River.

Edward Square was formerly a mid C19th garden square, which opened to the public in 1888 laid out by the MPGA. Bomb damage led to the decline of the surrounding houses, which were demolished in 1964/5. By the 1980s the central garden was unkempt and, following an active campaign by local residents, the park was redesigned in consultation with local people, with an emphasis on involvement of younger users. The new landscaping includes an orchard and meadow area, a cobbled path and paving slabs planted with herbs. The park is designed in four areas, with two lawns either side of a paved area with play equipment and seating.

Elthorne Park is a public park dating from when the area was being largely reconstructed post WWII. From the 1960s Islington Council began building new housing provision in the area, which included the Elthorne estate, built in the 1970s. Within the municipal park is a walled garden commemorating Nobel Peace Prize winner Philip Noel-Baker, which opened in 1984. The Peace Garden was designed by Steve Adams and echoes Modernism in style, with rectilinear components, including paving and a water feature. Two sculptures were installed in the park in 1985, one within the Peace Garden. The park has a conservation area with an avenue of silver birch trees, native hedgerow and a perennial meadow.

The site was previously known as Finsbury Fields, part of the old Moorfields outside the City walls. They were used from medieval times for archery and the Lord Mayor's Hunt, and in the early C17th trees were planted and walks laid out. Following the Fire of London in 1666 many people camped on the Fields, and plague victims were buried here. In the mid C18th John Wesley and the early Methodists first preached in Finsbury Fields to large crowds. Finsbury Square was formally laid out in the late C18th, but none of these early buildings survive. The central garden was originally circular and reserved for the private use of residents well into the C20th. Just before WWII, work had begun on redesigning the garden as a square with a subterranean car park beneath it, but this was not completed until the early 1960s. In 1955 Finsbury Council had acquired freehold of the site and the public garden was then created in its present form with flowerbeds, bowling green and changing rooms, and a refreshment house.

Fortune Street and this small park are named after the Fortune Theatre, which was built for Edward Alleyn and Philip Henslowe in 1600 on Golden Lane, off which Fortune Street runs. The area was bombed during WWII and the site was laid out as Fortune Street Park in the early 1960s. In 2002 refurbishment works were undertaken, which included landscaping, provision of additional seating and re-siting of play equipment.

Freightliners Farm was originally established on waste ground near Kings Cross station in 1973, the name arising from the railway goods vans that were used to house the animals. In 1978 the farm moved to its present site and purpose-built buildings were erected in 1988. A registered charity, it is run by a volunteer Management Committee. It is the only city farm with a non-slaughtering policy and many of the animals are rare breeds. In addition to its farm animals, Freightliners has an ornamental garden as well as a vegetable and kitchen garden, and an orchard has recently been planted, all maintained with assistance from the gardening club.