London’s Pocket Parks: Rosemary Gardens, Islington, N1

This is a large, varied park next to the Regent’s Canal that owes its existence to a poisonous factory and the clearance of the houses that once sat next to it.
This part of London was still fields until a couple of hundred years ago, but a local landmark at the park’s southeast corner, the Rosemary Branch, a large pub, gave the park its name. However, the name has nothing to do with the fragrant plant, but comes from the pub’s location at a branch of the Ros stream – hen