‘Beating the Bounds’ around Mildmay, Canonbury, Dalston and De Beauvoir

This walk between Islington and Hackney boroughs follows the lines of Balls Pond Road and Southgate Road, including a stroll through pretty De Beauvoir Town. There’s a wealth of interest on either side of the border, including a leper hospital, almshouses, inns of pleasure and ill repute, 19C residential roads, market gardens, a livestock market, vanished churches, factories and a manor house.

This is one of a series of walks exploring the borders of today’s Islington Borough (with Hackney and Camden), looking at how this has evolved over the centuries due to a mix of changing land ownership, parish church catchments, significance of early settlements and roads, and natural features such as springs and ponds.