London consists of so many neighbourhoods, formerly distinct villages. When you dive into each one, you realise they are all ‘London’ but they have their own particularly flavour, atmosphere, energy (I won’t say ‘vibe’).
Overlaid onto all that is the question of one’s own particular experiences, memories of each place. That party you went to. The wallet that got pinched. The job interview that went pear-shaped. The time you slipped on the pavement in the rain outside the tube station. The beautiful encounter in the bookshop. OK, that’s enough of that.
To business.
Islington N1 has a lot of the standard shops, banks and restaurants you see in any neighbourhood. I don’t need to name them, do I? Sainsbury’s. The Body Shop. Marks & Sparks. Papa John’s. Five Guys. Gail’s. Wetherspoon’s (or ‘Spoons’ as it is affectionately known). Pizza Express. And so on.
But… most of the eateries and pubs are independents and offer a staggeringly wide choice of cuisine, including an increasing offering to vegetarians and vegans.
Back in the 70s, if my memory serves, I figured there was one restaurant in Islington, Frederick’s in Camden Passage (yes, Camden Passage is weirdly in Islington). Amazingly, it is still there. But the difference now is that there are a hundred, probably more, other restaurants. Frederick’s was quite posh. Looks like it’s still upmarket, so it’s somewhere you’d go on a special occasion, unless you have a seven figure salary and every day is a special occasion, or rather, a normal occasion.
On my recent tour of Islington, I couldn’t really stop at every restaurant to try the food (otherwise my tour would last until Christmas) but at least I have arrived at a scientific method of making recommendations.
It goes like this. I cycle. I have camera. As I pass restaurants I simultaneously pedal and snap, snap and pedal. Quite dangerous, but productive. I capture a moment and a bunch of people, sitting outside (it’s sunny), looking like they are having a good time. Well, it is sunny.
I can now relay the results of this forensic analysis.
Le Sacre Coeur in Theberton Street. It’s a French Bistro: busy, full in fact, people looked fairly happy. In fact, ditto La Vita e Bella pizza place and Mem & Laz Brasserie (‘Mediterranean’)… in that short stretch of street off Upper Street (the main street) there is also Kilis Kitchen (Turkish), La Farola Café (Spanish) and Rosa’s Thai Angel. And that’s just one tiny pocket of Islington. Really, if you can’t find a cuisine to suit you in Islington, you’re either very fussy and/or you are food and people intolerant.
I can’t go through all the other places to eat. But I spotted another one worth mentioning, using my patented method: Sichuan Vegan in Upper Street – looks like a good choice for the increasing number of vegans, particularly vegans who like a bit of spice. I seem to recall that Sichuan food packs a punch.
Let’s move on to pubs. For me, Islington always meant The King’s Head, also in Upper Street. And it’s still going strong. Lots of character, and history. For about 30 years after the change of currency from pounds, shillings and pennies (and guineas), to decimal in 1971, The King’s Head kept on with the old format and kept using the old tills. So they’d charge you one pound, sixteen shillings and sixpence rather than charge the new-fangled decimal equivalent.
I popped in there and discovered they have finally migrated to decimal. While I was in there, I admired the old photographs and posters of actors and playwrights, including Tom Stoppard. That’s because The King’s Head is a theatre as well as a pub, if you like a nice old pub and a spot of entertainment, it’s worth a visit.
I noticed the current and forthcoming plays are all themed around the title ‘Queer Interrogation’. For example there’s a show coming up called ‘Alex the Great’, not so much a presentation of Alexander’s Asian conquests as a story thus (according to the billing): ‘a Greek-Cypriot dad battles with his estranged wife and angry gay son while refusing to deal with his own secret sexuality’. Could well be worth a visit. There are plenty of other interesting shows looming including ‘Bi-topia’ and ‘Gays Having Babies’.
I should mention a couple of the many other pubs I noticed… The Old Queen’s Head in Essex Road and The York by Islington Green, a focal point of the neighbourhood. There is also a nice pub with a strange name, Hicce Hart, on the corner of Penton Street and Chapel Street.
There is so much entertainment and things of interest in Islington. Take art galleries, for example. Clarendon Fine Art, TAG Fine Arts, Moosey Gallery, James Freeman Gallery, The Fine Arts, Handel Street Projects, to name a few. And a gallery a friend set up in Cross Street, No 20 Arts, which has plenty of interest shows of contemporary works.
Cinemas: the Odeon, Everyman, Electric Theatre, and Vue multiplex, so plenty of choice.
Lots of quirky, local, independent shops, including a few tattoo parlours, a neat poster shop in Cross Street, Twentieth Century Posters, and an archetypal London street market, Chapel Market (weird, the street is actually officially called Chapel Market). It’s worth a wander, even if you don’t want to buy anything (it offers a strange melange of fruit, veg, and mobile phone cases). Bear in mind there are lots of interesting stores, cafes and pubs along the street as well. You might find yourself delving into old bric-a-brac or antiques stores, or diving into Manze for jellied and live eels (they also do, unsurprisingly, pie and mash).
Yes, Islington is full of surprises, and absolutely packed with places to enjoy. I particularly like Criterion Auctioneers, 53 Essex Road… definitely worth a browse through the amazingly varied and packed stock of antiques, ephemera and memorabilia. They now do the auctions online, on their website, and you can visit their showroom to view the items. It really is surprising that so many people choose to buy their crockery from John Lewis or IKEA, when you can buy a Royal Doulton complete dinner service for about fifty quid!
So that concludes my short Islington report. I’m going, going, gone.
