Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Finsbury Park: path repair or lava flow?
A 180° panorama from the foot of the active volcano, Mt. Wirelesstage, showing lava flows (click to enlarge)
NEAR the southern end of Finsbury Park there's a set of inner paths in a Y-shape. The way in which they were repaired in early June – just before Wireless 2015 – says much about Haringey Council's current attitude to our park.
Along with most other pathways, these were refurbished in 2003 with the aid of a £3,384,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
It's important to remember that the finish of the paths was a light beige with pebbles (still visible in many places) and as with all Lottery Fund grants, it would have come with conditions.
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The HLF grant was a big step forward and it was strongly helped by The Friends of Finsbury Park. This real, broad improvement followed years of neglect and disregard by the park's owner, who sees the park as much on its periphery.
Some of the sorry history of our Park is described in Rising from the Ashes (2005)
The Council is under no statutory obligation to maintain parks. Their current disdain for them is at times, barely disguised. Thus, we've heard Cabinet Members using phrases like "the parks have never paid their way" and, "we've considered privatising them". The parks – and especially Finsbury Park – are unloved by the Local Authority. Unfortunately our Park seems to be entering a new and different phase of decline.
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Since the Council Cabinet's Major Events policy (2013), Live Nation's main "Wireless" stage regularly sits just north of the intersection of the 'Y'. These paths are used for heavy-duty access and were gouged by construction traffic during Wireless 2014.
They remained in a gouged state for 11 months. Finally, they were repaired in time for Wireless 2015 – just a week or two beforehand.
Unlike in several other places, the Council's work here largely stood up to the wear and tear of Wireless 2015. The heavy-duty, industrial-strength surface has suffered little, in contrast to the bruised intentions of the Lottery-Funded work.
The tar seal is remarkably thick. And much of the roadway is wide enough to allow two-way (construction) traffic. The dimensions would do credit to an intersection on a rural 'B' road.
Though thick and wide – and at variance from the original – the wodge of tar is also relatively neat compared with the recent black sticking-plaster patches on other pebbled paths.
The appearance of the heavy-duty surfaces reminded me of lava flow that can sometimes be seen on the 'Big Island' of Hawaii.
The timing and nature of this work begs the question: for whose benefit are any repairs in the 'park' being carried out: for residents or mainly for the Council's customer, Live Nation?
CDC
Haringey Counclllor
Liberal Democrat Party
Attentive Council contractors meticulously re-laying Finsbury Park pathways
A judicious application of fresh bitumen is painstakingly guided over paths damaged during LiveNation's Wireless 2014
The re-sealing in full swing, just behind the Wireless stage (out of picture, but to the left of contractor in hi-vis jacket)
Council asphalt cooling down; note the fastidious care taken along the grass verge
Temperatures inside molten lava can sometimes reach as high as those found in a Finsbury Park Event Stakeholder Group meeting
Looking east across lava field (thanks to the U.S. Geological Survey)
A veritable lake of lava (view north towards the Kona coast)
Lava streaming south to the Pacific coast. It's come from explosive forces, deep under the surface
Flowing beneath Pacific gulls, a red-hot river of lava bifurcates in front of scorched earth (looking south-east)
Scorched earth. Red-hot lava is no respecter of any kind of crop
Thick liquid rock, cooling and solidifying. Note height of side-wall of the main flow
Coin leaning against side of liquid, igneous rock
Close-up: Hawaii Five-0 — a 50¢ piece alongside lava flow
Two-tone tar (examples of lava mis-match abound)
Widening of the dual carriageway
Tags for Forum Posts: finsbury park, finsbury park events, wireless festival
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I don't know what your point is Clive. Given that the Council are committed to allowing a number of Wireless - type events in the park, are they wrong to upgrade the paths in the stage area ? You say that the new surface has largely stood up to the wear and tear of Wireless 2015 - is this not a good thing ?
Your exaggerated photo comparisons between the new surfacing and the Hawaii lava flow are reminiscent of your unfortunate series on walls of the world.
It looks here as if the Council has done something sensible and should be congratulated.
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Permalink Reply by Matt on
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Well, I chuckled :) I'm now off to track down 'Walls of the World'!
This peculiar section of the park seems to be the one area that consistently has money spent upon it. Is it purely for use by lorries during events, as by itself it's rather a redundant piece of pathway, not leading anywhere or really offering much of a shortcut?
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Matt, that steel wall is up again this weekend. Even though the latest event is only a third the size of Wireless (in terms of attendees), the area barred to the public is almost as large as for Wireless. Post Wireless, parts of the park had recovered. Some responsible Councils allow parkland that's been used for an event to lie fallow, in order for it to recover fully.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon T on
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The management plan (2013-16) states
"Pathways providing vehicular access to sections of the bandstand field have also been upgraded to withstand light vehicles".
So the recent resurfacing is consistent with that. As to different finishes, once the HLF money had all been spent it would be up to the council to specify suitable materials. Finsbury Park is Listed Grade II so if anyone wished to query it they could contact English Heritage.....
PS If the original poster had reduced the pictures to thumbnails and tiled them he might have got his point across more effectively. Sub-optimal graphic design, in my book.
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the recent resurfacing is consistent with that
Oh, more than that Gordon: the lava-flow area has been upgraded to withstand main battle tanks!
However, is this specification necessary or appropriate in a public park in any event?
once the HLF money had all been spent it would be up to the council to specify suitable materials.
Unless maintenance standards were stipulated in a contract by the HLF.
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CLIVE, PLEASE ASK (not me): 1) ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2) THE HLF, 3) HARINGEY COUNCIL for information from your 'enquiry' post here, please.
(For once, yes I'm shouting. Unaggresively. 2015 Sigh).
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Gordon there's no need to shout!
Can I invite you to put aside for a moment the current "Management Plan" from which you quote?
I assumed that you're an ordinary resident and member of the public and that possibly you might have views simply as an ordinary park user.
Naturally I either have been or will be in touch with the organisations you mention – I have heard of all of them and know where to reach them!
None of the outfits you mention are regular park users. I was wondering if you (or others) might have a view on whether or not the degree of catering to the Council's customer, to which I've drawn attention, is acceptable to you, in your opinion.
I am sorry you felt the graphic design was sub-optimal and that this led to my getting my point across less effectively, in your book.
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1. A Management Plan can't be 'put aside' since that's what the council works to. No?
2. I live in Harringay ward and I walk and cycle in the park. I regret the intermittent intrusion of events in the baseline functioning of the park, but it's also objective to acknowledge the income from events that the council receives which benefits the park directly and/or the council coffers.
I hope you, or FoFP, will report here any responses from the three external bodies I referenced. Please?
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Gordon, management plans can be amended: it doesn't have the force of Statute or anything like it. Currently the Council is conducting a Scrutiny review of the Events in Finsbury Park and I hope this leads to change.
You may contribute to it if you wish.
I appreciate that the Local Authority is the de jure (legal) owner of Finsbury Park, but in general terms, do you see it as Council's property (an asset to dispose as they wish) – or is it the public's park?
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Gordon is there any degree of commercialising or privatising in the park or selling of land at the edge, with which you'd be unhappy?
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Another rhetorical device: of notionally asking me a question, formulated to adduce your own view, as if I had offered a previous opinion which I did not.
To reiterate, it's the Council's property and the people's park, and the permanent tension between the two is being played out on HoL and elsewhere. You perhaps would like me to offer a partisan view - I don't have one, because I don't have a fixed opinion on the situation.
All I will say is that the park has varied considerably while I've lived here since the late 70s and it has gone through a couple of cycles of decline and revival in that time. At times GLC or Haringey Council indifference/lack of funds led to periods when I would avoid it as a risky place to traverse - perhaps the people's park (or a park left alone to the people, but not in a good way). Perhaps at the moment the pendulum has swung the other way and it's safer and busier at the cost of periodic council-led disruption and use of assets. You pays yer money....
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