Radio Taxis has “Lived” in the Finsbury Park area since about 1970, when we moved to 157 Stroud Green Road, from West Hill, Highgate. We next moved in 1990 to Mountview House, so we do have history here.
The Park Theatre and The Evolution of Finsbury Park By Robert MacDonald Watson, Group Company Secretary
Park Theatre Facade
Park Theatre – The Main House
Park Theatre Auditorium
Finsbury Park is a real hub. Not only is it on the boundaries of three London Boroughs, Haringey, Islington and Hackney but it also has the major transport interchange at Finsbury Park Station. The Park itself was officially opened in 1869, giving North Londoners a lung full of fresher air. In its locale, it has a track and gym, a skate park, the American Garden, football pitches, a bowling green, tennis courts, a lake and even softball, baseball, basketball and an American football field. It has also just undergone a £5m Heritage Lottery Fund restoration and improvement programme. You will also find Alexander McKenzie’s historical flower gardens and the Furtherfield Gallery, London’s first gallery for all networked media art. Finsbury Park Station was originally built in 1861 as part of the Great Northern Railway. What is now known as the Northern Line appeared in 1904, the Piccadilly Line in 1906 and finally, the Victoria line in 1968 (with an official opening of the line in 1969) when the Northern Line was cut back to Drayton Park. In 2007 the station was refurbished with new shops, businesses and restaurants following. Now 2.5million passengers a year interchange at Finsbury Park. There is an £80m local development plan, the City North Scheme, for shops offices and c.200 homes in the Fonthill Road, although this is still in planning. However, planning has been granted for a state of the art building for the bespoke framer John Jones together with a 450 bedroom student accommodation courtyard scheme, affordable housing and commercial units. The area itself acquired some unwelcome notoriety when extremists operated out of the North London Mosque, but with new leadership taking over there in 2003 things have gone back to normal. Just to the south is located the Arsenal Football Club’s state of the art Emirates Stadium which can be viewed really well from the railway travelling towards Kings Cross. Moving on to Arts and culture, Finsbury Park has produced John Lydon of Sex Pistols fame and actresses Kate Beckinsale, Minnie Driver, Emily Mortimer and Naomi Harris. The latest Arts project is the building of the £2.2m new Park Theatre Café and Bar complex in Wells Terrace, just 100 metres from one of the Station’s exits. Jez Bond, Artistic Director and previously a freelance director of regional and touring productions, found the location for the Park Theatre in 2009. Construction is well underway to produce a 200 seat two tier Theatre, a 90 seat studio and a Café Bar with a late licence. It will involve an off West End writing programme, increasing young people’s access to the Theatre and it will provide the local area with its first Theatre for 50 years since the old Empire closed down. It is hoped to be a “catalyst for positive change in North 4”. The Park Theatre has attracted a stellar list of Ambassadors and supporters to help it raise funds and profile. These include Sir Ian McKellen, Tamzin Outhwaite, Celia Imrie, Roger Lloyd Pack, David Horovitch, Sean Mathias and the latest Ambassador Hattie Morahan. Jez Bond is joined by his wife Melli Bond as Creative Director and Sarah Rutherford as Writer in Residence and an energetic and lively artistic management team. Currently, the team has raised £250,000 towards the £400,000 target so that part of the complex that would otherwise have been used as flats and now will house an education suite. The Theatre is due to open in early 2013 and there is a fund raising gala night at the Globe Theatre in September. In June, the three boroughs met at the Theatre to sign the Finsbury Park Accord. This is an 11 point plan to treat the area as a single town centre with a view to overcoming the problems of crime, housing and unemployment. The facade of the Theatre is almost finished and a majority of the steelwork is in place for the two auditoriums. We now look forward to the roof going on in the coming weeks. The new Park Theatre is eagerly awaited and Radio Taxis is happy to have also become associated in a small way with the Theatre and we hope drivers will get to know it as well as their passengers.
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