Finsbury Circus

Finsbury Circus as seen from Tower 42 to the southeast of the square in 2008

Finsbury Circus is an oval square in the City of London , north of the London Wall . In the middle of the square is a 2.2 hectare public park registered in the English Heritage Register of Historic Parks and Gardens . Due to construction work on the new, underground Crossrail railway line , most of the park has been inaccessible for around seven years since March 2010.

Finsbury Circus was built in 1814 on the site where the Bethlem Royal Hospital had previously stood. The square is accessible by three feeder roads from the east, south and west. At the eastern entrance to the square there were two churches opposite: Finsbury Chapel and the Roman Catholic Church of St Mary Moorfields , in whose crypt Carl Maria von Weber was buried from 1826 until he was transferred to Dresden in 1844.

City plan with Finsbury Circus, around 1872

Since after the Reformation of the 16th century in England only the Church of England was allowed to maintain churches within the city walls (the "wall") , the area around Finsbury Circus was until the end of the 19th century the decline in the population of the A preferred settlement for other religious communities in favor of commercial settlements. During the 19th century the Presbyterian Albion Chapel, a Unitarian church, a church of Welsh Baptists, a church split from the Presbyterian congregation (Finsbury Chapel) and the Roman- St Mary Moorfields Catholic Church and a synagogue . Of all these churches, only the church of St Mary Moorfields exists today, following the construction of a smaller church building on Eldon Street.

In the 19th century, Finsbury Circus was also a preferred location for the medical profession. From 1823 to 1899, in the immediate vicinity of the square, next to St Mary Moorfields Church on Blomfield Street, was a predecessor institution of the Moorfields Eye Hospital .

In the second half of the same century, the French Consulate General in the United Kingdom had its seat at 38, Finsbury Circus.

There has been a bowling green in the park since 1925 . It's the only one in the city.

Together with parts of the adjacent streets, the square forms the Finsbury Circus Conservation Area . This is bordered by London Wall in the south, Moorgate in the west, Eldon Street in the north and Blomfield Street in the east.