Park of the week

92. Thornhill Square 

This square, a quiet oasis off the Caledonian Road in the Barnsbury area of Islington, is the largest in the borough. It’s bounded by Victorian terraced houses, all listed buildings. We drove past it on the way to a different park, but it was on our list, so I stopped there instead. We will visit that one another time, when I feel up to the grind that is the Archway Road, and beyond, that forms our route to Islington.

The gardens and the land around them were originally owned by Thomas Thornhill in the 19th-century, who developed it for housing. The land where the garden is was at the time used as a commercial market garden nursery and the garden was formally opened in 1890, but for the private use of the residents. The gardens were donated to Islington Council in 1947 for public use, and in 1953 the gardens were re-designed and landscaped as part of the Council’s “Coronation Year” improvements.

The garden has mature trees, lawns, rose beds, ornamental borders, benches, and a playground. It’s a haven for insects and is a site of local importance for nature conservation. A local community group looks after it in collaboration with Islington Council. One of the donors to the group is listed as “a former Prime Minister, whose house backed onto the gardens”. That must have Sir Tony Blair, who lived in the next street from 1993 to 1997.  

Another famous resident was Edith Garrud, who trained the suffragette unit “The Bodyguard”, in jujitsu and the use of Indian clubs to protect Emmeline Pankhurst. 

There are no café or toilets in the garden, but there used to be toilets (later demolished). These gained unexpected notoriety in 1977, when the decapitated head of the London gangland criminal, Billy Moseley was found there. Other body parts were found in the Thames. His disappearance, apparent torture, and eventual murder was a major news story in the mid nineteen seventies. The Sunday mirror, for example, described it as “the world’s most gruesome jigsaw”.

Two men were convicted of his murder in 1977 and jailed for life, but their conviction was overturned in 2002 when it was proven that the police evidence against them had been falsified. Whoever dumped the head in the garden toilet is still unknown.

Judith Field

Thornhill Square, London N1 1BQ