Gillespie Park

I used to be a Drayton Park resident as a kid. Me, my sister and my buds used to travel to the wilds of Gillespie Park and recreate scenes from The Animals of Farthing Wood (the franchise was, after all, based in a nature reserve like Gillespie Park from book 2 onwards). Very good place to learn as a kid; it really helped teach us about nature. From the various shrubbery found there to the frog pond, not to mention the plethora of blackberries that appear around harvest time; Gillespie Park is nothing if not a quintessentially British bastion of nature.
The Drayton Park pathway was something that became available towards the end of my time living in Islington (I moved to Wood Green in the early Noughties). I really made the most of it while I could, though. Whereas the child Helen learnt a lot about nature from the original Gillespie Park, the teen me found piece, quiet and much creative inspiration from the vastness of the fields the Drayton Park entrance led to. Hardly anyone went there in those days (apart from aulde Frank and his marching dog Shep). It was pure tranquillity! The trainline closeby further adds to the peacefulness somehow. I know it shouldn’t, but it just does. That’s probably the ‘city girl’ in me talking mind you…
On the pleasure scale I’d give the area accessible via Drayton Park a 5, and the old skool Gillespie Park a 3, or maybe a 2.5.
But, as a full score, that wouldn’t be fair… I used to read TAoFW’s accompanying magazine ‘Farthing Wood Friends’ as a kid, and cannot deny that having a resource like Gillespie Park Proper (which I refer to the area accessible via the Gillespie road entrance in my mind) really aided my understanding of British wildlife. And of wildlife in general.
So, yes. I’m becoming a 5-​Star whore. But I always did enjoy their single ‘Rain Or Shine’, so no worries!

1* for the path by the train tracks and 3* for the beautiful hidden section near the ecology café with two ponds and a little forest.
I walk past an entrance to this park every day to get to Arsenal tube. Seeing as I’ve lived in this area now for over a year, a sunny Sunday walking back from Finsbury Park seemed the perfect opportunity to visit.
We went via the Finsbury Park entrance, the northern tip of it. The first few minutes were… Underwhelming. Some graffiti, a bleak view of the train tracks and a few weeds were all I could see.
Then, we came to a clearing and it started to become less ‘abandoned alleyway’ and more ‘awesome green space’! Walking past the wind turbine, we were greeted with a blue ecology house with a café and two ponds nearby.
The children in the park were having a delightful time spotting wildlife and running about through the small forest area. Other than about 20 people this oasis in the city is practically empty, so is well worth going if you want a few minutes of solitude amid London life.

Gillespie Park is signatured as «the hidden oasis» within Finsbury Park, but can one say that it is a best kept secret or an oasis? Well, that’s why I’m reviewing it, right?
Facilities:
Gillespie Park isn’t necessarily well equipped with much, if anything but the fascinating thing that they have dotted around the park are eccentricly metalic sculputes intertwined into 2 different styles and had around 3 if not 4 within sight. Unfortunately apart from that and an ecology centre located at the Arsenal side of the park, there isn’t much else.
Great For:
Just because Gillespie Park doesn’t have much to offer in regards to facilities, it does have some key elements that give it that much needed browny points which are:
–The quickest route from Finsbury Park Station to Arsenal Station and when you have tried many routes, you know this to be true
–A great place for anyone that wants to do some train spotting
–A peaceful hidden away park (so it does tick the hidden oasis box) that in the summer I could forsee there being one or two sunbathers but nothing more
–An ecology centre located near the Gillespie Road exit that I have seen some great reviews for
**All in all this park although isn’t packed with much, it still withstands some great features suited for the peaceful parker. Although it is a spey walk through this park, the peaceful nature radiating off of it will certainly make your day as how it’s made mine on multiple occasions**