adm1n Daniel Defoe 1660 – 1731. Born Cripplegate died Ropemakers Alley, Moorfields Have you been to Bunhill Fields and seen this? This impressive memorial to famous author Daniel Defoe does him proud but did you know that originally he had a much more modest headstone? Almost 150 years after his death, as the appreciation of his story telling grew it was … Read More
Highbury & Islington station serves both the Victoria Line (light blue) and London Overground (orange) and is located on what is still referred to as Highbury Corner. But that corner was obliterated by a WW2 bomb becoming first a roundabout and today a welcome patch of open space next to the station. After the bomb … Read More
Paradise Park is a 4.57 acre area located on Mackenzie Road in Holloway. It is popular with families because of its children’s play area, the RSPB Sparrow Meadow, the open grass area and outdoor gym equipment, as well as Freightliners Farm. However, the area now covered by Paradise Park was the scene of one of … Read More
Out on the eastern most edge of Islington, on the border with Hackney, is an area known as Mildmay and, within it, the last resting place of the ashes of a notable young poet, novelist and essayist: her name was Amy Levy. Today, if you wish to discover where she is located, you will have … Read More
ANGEL TUBE STATION In our second Blog we are going to the tube station at the other end of Central Islington, Angel station. One of Angel’s claims to fame is being one of the light blue properties on the Monopoly board sharing the colour with Pentonville Road, also in Islington, and Euston Road. The station … Read More
Highbury Park forms the middle section of the road that links Stroud Green to Canonbury, the sections at each end named Blackstock Road and Highbury Grove respectively. On the western side of Highbury Park, either side of Sotheby Road, there are two elegant terraces of shops. Remnants of a vitreous enamel sign at the southern end show this was created as The Broadway, Highbury Park, part … Read More
Finsbury Park is at the north-east tip of Islington and unusually the area is named after the large park, not the other way around. The park itself was formally opened in 1869 – now Grade II listed it was the first municipal park to be authorised by its own Act of Parliament. It’s a long … Read More
Copenhagen House Copenhagen House was a famous tavern & tea-garden which stood in what is now Caledonian Park, N7, from the early 17th century until 1855. As a pleasure garden it attracted Londoners keen to take tea, play skittles or fives (an early version of squash, said to have be invented here), watch boxing (and … Read More
Born in Northamptonshire in 1654 and came to London as a boy to be apprenticed for seven years to a ‘vendor of small coals – charcoal’. He set up his own business in Jerusalem Passage. Passionate about music, a musician and book collector, Britton starts London’s first Music Society. Accessible only by a rather rickety … Read More
Finsbury Park station is at the meeting point of three London boroughs – Islington, Hackney and Haringey. Now a busy intersection between several railway lines and two lines on the London Underground it was originally just a small, almost unnoticed, pause for the mainline trains of the Great Northern Railway as they cut across the … Read More