Finsbury Circus

Finsbury Circus is a park in the City of London, England; with an area of 2.2 hectares it is the largest public open space within the City's boundaries.

The 'circus' of the name reflects the elliptical shape of the space, similar to the circus venues of ancient Rome, in this case with a long axis lying east-west.

It has a Lawn Bowls club in the centre, which has existed in the gardens since 1925.

A bandstand, built in 1955, is located nearby.

The circus was created in 1812 on an area which was originally part of Finsbury Manor, having existed since 1527, on which the second Bethlem Royal Hospital had stood since 1675. The original houses, the last of which were demolished in 1921, were intended for merchants and gentlemen, but were soon broken up internally and leased for solicitors and other professions. The gardens, featuring a circuit of lime trees, were developed by William Montague to the specifications of the architect George Dance the Younger in 1815. In 1819 the London Institution moved into "ingeniously planned and elegantly detailed" premises designed by William Brooks at the north end of the circus; it closed in 1912 and the buildings were used for the University of London until their demolition in 1936.

The circus was opened as a public park in the early 20th century, under powers granted to the City of London Corporation in the City of London (Various Powers) Act 1900. The gardens had previously been a private space for the use of the freeholders or lease-holders of the surrounding buildings, who objected to their compulsory purchase, fearing that their use by the public would create a nuisance which would lower the value of their property. The campaign to make them a public space was led by Alpheus Morton, deputy-Alderman for Farringdon Without and a member of the Corporations' Streets Committee, and the circus became known with the Corporation as "Morton's Park".

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