Finsbury Park residents’ reunion after 45 years apart

Former Finsbury Park residents enjoyed a games-filled reunion last week, the second since finding each other after 45 years apart.

The friends met at Clissold Park on Saturday for a picnic, games and reminiscing.

Sandra Hardman, 58, said: “It was amazing. We felt to have yearly reunions was too long to wait so we have organised to see each other every few months or so. We met at the Round Wall - always played a lot of games from that spot and that was where you used to meet.

“Many of us had enjoyed great times. Adults we may be, but we had a fantastic time playing with a frisbee and a ‘best forgotten’ game of rounders.

“Although the park had changed a great deal since we were young, it was lovely to see that Clissold House was still there, along with the aviary and animal enclosures. Some of us even went for a dip in the paddling pool.”

The group knew each other as children playing on the St John’s Court Estate, in Queens Drive, and found each other again after one of their members, Jim Bull started a Facebook group. He said: “I was on a night shift at work and I was bored so I made a little group, added friends and it ballooned. It’s a small group but it will be a year old next month and its gone really well.”

The first reunion the group had was last May with one member flying all the way from Australia to meet up. Sandra, who is on the Ancestry website, managed to track down many of the people who had lived on the estate as youngsters.

If you lived in the St. John’s Court Estate between 1957 and 1970, contact Jim Bull: bulliesbashers1959@live.co.uk