Stations › Other London stations › Finsbury Park

Finsbury Park

A busy north London interchange on the East Coast Main Line’s suburban lines, opened in 1861 as Seven Sisters Road (Holloway). Great Northern and Thameslink trains call at the surface platforms, with the Piccadilly and Victoria lines below and a same-level interchange between those two.

8Platforms
1861Opened
11.2 millionEntries and exits (2024-25)
41stBusiest station in Britain (2024-25)

Platforms 8

Platform plan, to scale from OpenStreetMap87654321Platform 1. About 810 ft (247 m) long, off OpenStreetMapPlatform 2. About 820 ft (251 m) long, off OpenStreetMapPlatform 3. About 870 ft (266 m) long, off OpenStreetMapPlatform 4. About 820 ft (251 m) long, off OpenStreetMapPlatform 5. About 820 ft (250 m) long, off OpenStreetMapPlatform 6. About 650 ft (197 m) long, off OpenStreetMapPlatform 7. About 760 ft (231 m) long, off OpenStreetMapPlatform 8. About 710 ft (216 m) long, off OpenStreetMapBelow ground: the Piccadilly and Victoria lines’ platforms 1 to 4. Same scale, in line with the plan above1234N100 ft (30 m)Platforms, tracks and outline © OpenStreetMap contributors

Seen from above, to scale: the platforms, tracks and the station building’s outline (the grey line) from OpenStreetMap, the lines running roughly north to south. North is marked top left, and the scale bottom left. Point at a platform for its number and length.

Facts

Opened
1861, as Seven Sisters Road (Holloway), by the Great Northern Railway; renamed Finsbury Park in 1869
Platforms
8 National Rail platforms (1–8), with the Piccadilly and Victoria lines below
Routes
East Coast Main Line suburban lines; Hertford Loop; Northern City Line to Moorgate; Thameslink
Underground
Piccadilly Victoria
Operators
Great Northern, Thameslink
Managed by
Great Northern (Govia Thameslink Railway)
Listed
No listing found for the station
Interchanges
2.20 million (2024-25)

unverified Some of these figures haven’t yet been checked against an official source or a published history. What’s in doubt ↓

Trains

The trains the operators run here, as the sources give them.

History 8

  1. The station opens as Seven Sisters Road (Holloway), little more than a rural halt on the railway embankment, eleven years after the Great Northern reached London.
  2. Renamed Finsbury Park, after the park nearby.
  3. The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens, with Finsbury Park as its northern terminus; David Lloyd George opens the line.
  4. After years of congestion here, where passengers changed between tube, buses and trams, the Piccadilly line is extended east to Cockfosters and Finsbury Park becomes a through station.
  5. The Victoria line opens, with Finsbury Park one of its six original stations, giving a same-level interchange with the Piccadilly line.
  6. Moorgate services are reconnected to Finsbury Park, about a decade after the Northern City line was cut back to Drayton Park to make way for the Victoria line.
  7. A new western entrance opens, with six ticket gates, and with lifts serving the Piccadilly and Victoria lines and the Network Rail platforms.
  8. Network Rail announces the station completely step-free, with new lifts to platforms 3/4 and 7/8 under the Access for All scheme.

Sources 11

Show the 11 sources from Transport for London, Office of Rail and Road, National Rail and 5 more

Where the sources disagree:

  • Exact opening day (1 July 1861) and renaming day (15 November 1869) are from Wikipedia only. London Reconnections gives only the year 1861. The 1869 renaming, and its link to the park, are from Wikipedia and from RailScot and Islington Guided Walks snippets in search results that were not opened.
  • The platform count of 8 (numbered 1–8) is from Wikipedia’s infobox; Network Rail names only platforms 3/4 and 7/8. Wikipedia says platforms 2/3 and 6/7 share a track but gives a different track count in its text, so the track layout is not stated. A search summary of a government tender notice also said eight platforms, but the notice itself could not be opened.
  • The four Underground platforms are from Wikipedia only.
  • Wikipedia gives 19 September 1932 for the Piccadilly line extension that made Finsbury Park a through station; TfL’s guide says only that the line was extended to Cockfosters in the early 1930s.
  • Wikipedia gives 8 November 1976 for the transfer of the Northern City Line to British Rail and the Moorgate surface service (marked citation needed there); London Reconnections says only about a decade after 1968. Wikipedia also gives 3 October 1964 for the end of Northern City passenger service to Finsbury Park (not confirmed).
  • The 387 and the Thameslink 700 are inferred from Wikipedia’s service list (Great Northern to King’s Cross, Letchworth and Cambridge; Thameslink to Brighton, Horsham, Cambridge and Peterborough) and the TfL API listing Great Northern and Thameslink at the station. No operator page confirming current stock at this station was opened. The Class 717 on the Moorgate route is from GTR’s 1 October 2019 release, which does not name Finsbury Park.
  • Long-distance operators (LNER, Lumo, Grand Central, Hull Trains) were not found to call here and were left out; this was not checked against a timetable.
  • No listing, architect or present-building date was found; no source opened describes the present station building.
  • The Thameslink call pattern (all day or not) was not confirmed from an operator timetable.
Top