This year Bart’s Hospital is celebrating its 900th anniversary on the same site that it was founded in 1123. It was originally part of St Bartholomew’s Priory, founded by a courtier of Henry 1 in thanks for surviving a bout of malaria while on pilgrimage to Rome. St Bartholomew’s was only one of four great ... Read More
Tours take place on Saturdays and, during the summer, on some weekday evenings. The Saturday Tours cover the history of the Tower and Park while the weekday tours are shorter looking at the Clock and its mechanisms as well as affording the views from the top of the Tower. Our guided tours are led by ... Read More
Amid the cafes, estate agents and fashionable shops of Upper Street, today’s Islington has some clues to its rural and agricultural past. It was a different place 250 years ago. People came to enjoy the cleaner air and escape the City of London. It was a major route out of London and was dominated by ... Read More
The streets in Islington's most western area, adjacent to Kings Cross station, used to be slathered with signage. On this tour we look at some of the examples that are still visible, whether painted onto walls or as carved panels. Hear about the businesses, brands and people behind the signs – innovative inventions, bogus potions ... Read More
A wander from Angel to Caledonian Road following a trail of evocative signage and advertisements for trades and brands of the past in this leafy residential area of Islington. Find out about beer retailers, chemists, instrument makers, garages, hardware, insulation and so much more
The contribution to the day from Clerkenwell & Islington Guides is: From Archers to Wizards Meeting point: Outside Angel tube station, by the benches in front of NatWest bank, Islington High Street, N1 8XX. Five hundred years of Islington history told through the people who influenced politics and culture. Meet the man who gave us ... Read More
Canonbury Tower was built in the late 16th century and is a rare survivor of Tudor domestic architecture in London. The Tower was added onto a manor house built in the early 1500s as the country retreat of the Canons of St Bartholomew’s Priory in Smithfield. On this 90-minute tour you’ll see the existing Tudor ... Read More
On this two-hour tour we'll be walking through the many ways that Islington has met that most unusual of human needs: the need to have fun. Fun, like all culture, is subject to the whims of fashion, and Islington is littered with traces of activities and institutions that have gone from ubiquity to obscurity. We'll ... Read More
A historic walk winding either side of the border between Camden and Islington boroughs – also the route of the now-buried River Fleet. We will see signs of the river course, traces of wells and tributaries, seek out border markers and explore varied architecture from pretty Georgian houses to old warehouses and religious orders.
A weekday winter's morning canal walk, strolling east from the Angel and ending near Hoxton. A mix of canal history, horse stables, trendy apartments, cafes, tranquil basins and wildlife at a time of year when the towpath is usually relatively quiet.