Signs of Spring: The first primroses appear in Railway Fields

Those pale yellow flowers with their deeper yellow centre in a rosette of deep green leaves are always a welcome sign of Spring. Look out for them in the Spring meadow at Railway Fields and other open land away from the trees.

Primula vulgaris was apparently the Victorian Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's favourite flower. Queen Victoria supposedly sent him bunches regularly and to this day primroses are laid at his statue by Westminster Abbey on April 19th known as 'Primrose Day', the anniversary of his death, every year.

Here's a tenuous connection:

Disraeli was, of course, the Earl of Beaconsfield after whom the Beaconsfield Hotel is named. Disraeli also wrote books called Endymion, Tancred, Venetia, Alroy, Coningsby and Lothair which are the names of the streets on the Ladder nearest to Finsbury Park. Clearly a massive Disraeli fan developed that part of Harringay.

The name derives from the Latin prima rosa meaning ‘first rose’ of the year, despite not being a member of the rose family. In different counties of England it is also referred to as Butter Rose, Early Rose, Easter Rose, Golden Rose and Lent Rose.