In Gillespie Park

Image: © Marathon Taken: 10 Dec 2014

Gillespie Park is located immediately adjacent to the East Coast Main Line, just south of Finsbury Park station. The original agricultural land where Gillespie Park is now had been bought in 1866 by the Great Northern Railway and developed into goods and marshalling yards. The East Goods Yard, now occupied by the park, was operational from 1877 until 1960, by which time modernisation and decline in rail freight led to its closure and eventual dereliction. In 1981 a proportion of the site was leased to Islington Borough Council for an initial period of ten years to be used as an Ecological Park. In 1986 British Rail announced that they wanted to sell the land for housing but local people organised a campaign and saved Gillespie Park. In 1991 the Council obtained Department of the Environment funding to build an Ecology Centre in the park and this was opened in 1993. The park was declared a Local Nature Reserve in 1996. It is now a peaceful oasis, surrounded by housing and the railway lines out of King's Cross and Moorgate. For more information see http://www.islington.gov.uk/publicrecords/library/Environmental-protection/Information/Leaflets/2012-2013/(2012-10-09)-Islington-Ecology-Centre-and-Gillespie-Park.pdf and http://www.islington.gov.uk/services/parks-environment/parks/islington_nature_reserves/gillespie/Pages/Ecology_centre.aspx

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