[2] The southern pocket of Woodville North, historically called Finsbury Park,[3] used to be a much stronger and active industrial area, with a Government Supply Depot for military purposes operating in the area during the Second World War, which was the basis for the existence of a railway line and station that is now the location of an Islamic mosque, it was not until the outbreak of World War II that building commenced on this land, which was mostly vacant, that the name of Finsbury so named after the London suburb, became well known as a manufacturing centre of munitions.

The commonwealth government already had plans for making munitions in South Australia when war broke out in 1939.

The next five years showed huge production figures of items which were used at Hendon and also at the big filling factory at Salisbury.

These factories were working three shifts around the clock and the employees for Hendon and Finsbury combined totalled over 3000, the majority being women.

The initial settlement of the suburb coincided with a large wave of immigrants from Eastern Europe following the Second World War.