Finsbury Park Station is a busy transport interchange in North London. The interchange consists of an interconnected National Rail station, London Underground station and two bus stations. The main entrances are by the eastern bus station on Station Place. The National Rail ticket office here lies in between one entrance marked by the Underground roundel symbol, while the other is marked by the National Rail symbol, and provides direct access to the main line platforms. There is another exit by the western bus station along Wells Terrace, incorporating the Underground ticket office, plus a narrow side entrance to the south on the A503 Seven Sisters Road. The complex is located in Travelcard Zone 2.
The station is named after the nearby Finsbury Park, one of the oldest of London's Victorian parks. It is also used by many Arsenal supporters on matchdays, as the club's ground is just a short walk away.
When the Victoria line was built in the 1960s, the walls in Finsbury Park station were decorated with mosaics of duelling pistols, which can still be seen. This was based on a mistaken identification of Finsbury Park with Finsbury Fields, which was used by Londoners since medieval times for archery and sports, and also associated with 18th-century duels and one of the first hot air balloon flights. However, Finsbury Fields actually occupied a location close to the present-day Finsbury Square. At the same time the long entrance subways and the Wells Terrace booking hall (at the bus tation end) was rebuilt to a high standard.
Finsbury Park station has a long and complex history involving the participation of many railway companies during its lifetime and has been subject to a number of operational changes and changes to the configuration of station infrastructure. British Transport Police maintain a presence at Finsbury Park and have a police station located at the Wells Terrace entrance.
Ticket barriers were installed to platforms 1, 2, 5 and 6 in 2011.
Read more about Finsbury Park Station: In Popular Culture, London Underground, Bus Connections, The Station in Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words park and/or station:
“and the words never said,
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We sat in the car park till twenty to one
And now I’m engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.”
—Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984)
“[T]here is no situation so deplorable ... as that of a gentlewoman in real poverty.... Birth, family, and education become misfortunes when we cannot attain some means of supporting ourselves in the station they throw us into. Our friends and former acquaintances look on it as a disgrace to own us.... If we were to attempt getting our living by any trade, people in that station would think we were endeavoring to take their bread out of their mouths.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)