Calling at... British railway stations: Finsbury Park (FPK/ZPF)

Finsbury Park is a major interchange station on the Great Northern routes out of Moorgate and London Kings Cross, as well as being a stop on the London Underground's Piccadilly and Victoria Lines.

Great Northern 717 009 arrives

Information
Type:	National Rail (Great Northern & Northern City Lines) & Transport for London (Piccadilly & Victoria Lines)
Station codes:	FPK/ZPF
Opened:	1861
Platforms:	12

The station was first opened as Seven Sisters Road (Holloway) by the Great Northern Railway in 1861 on the East Coast Main Line out of London Kings Cross. The station was renamed Finsbury Park in 1869 after the Edgware, Highgate & London Railway built a line from the station to Edgware.

In 1904 what became the Northern City Line was built linking from Moorgate through Finsbury Park. The Piccadilly Line arrived in 1906 [1] though the current route dates from 1932 and the line's extension through to Cockfosters.

Also in the 1930s London Underground planned to take over the line to Edgware and make it part of the Northern Line as part of the Northern Heights project, the Second World War and a lack of finance killed off these grand plans, the existing line through to Edgware was closed in 1970. However the Northern City Line did become part of the Northern Line until it was passed to British Rail in the 1970s. Originally the Northern City Line was underground at Finsbury Park but these platforms were take over by the Victoria Line which opened at Finsbury Park, part of the first section of the line, in 1968. Since the 1970s the Northern City Line at Finsbury Park has used surface platforms.

Finsbury Park has, can be seen, a complicated history and resulting interchange of different lines and services (including two bus stations). The National Rail and London Underground stations are fully integrated though have separate ticket offices.