Park of the week

109. Compton Terrace Gardens

These are a pair of gardens running in front of a row of houses, parallel with Upper Street in Islington, London N1. They were created in 1823 and were originally private spaces for the houses but are now open to the public. 

Compton Terrace was built piecemeal between 1805 and 1831 as upmarket townhouses for professionals working in the City of London. It’s set back from Upper Street, which was even noisier and busier than it is today as it was not only the main route into the City for people, but also for cattle to be taken to Smithfield market. In the early 19th century, it’s estimated that over 30,000 cattle were brought to the market each week and in 1870, Charles Dickens described Upper Street as being “amongst the noisiest and most disagreeable of thoroughfares in London”.

Today, the gardens are smaller than they were originally, their symmetry destroyed by a German V1 bomb that fell on the north end of the terrace in June 1944, destroying twelve of the nineteen houses and the gardens in front of them. Highbury Corner roundabout occupies this area today.

In 1956 the local authority bought the land. By the 2000s the gardens were run down, and in 2009 a local group of volunteers, with a small grant from the council, took over the management. The gardens now contain 130 mature trees, with a large lawn running through the middle, and lots of park benches on the eastern side. 

There are two large anchor shaped flower beds in the gardens, and no one knows why. It’s presumed that a former gardener may have laid them out like that for some personal reason, and they’ve never been changed since.

Judith Field

Compton Terrace Gardens, Compton Terrace, London N1 2UN