Where to Stay in Islington, England

What is Islington known for?

Antique shops, galleries and the long run of restaurants along Upper Street give Islington its reputation, and The Angel marks where the shopping thickens. Essex Road runs parallel. Highbury Fields and Regent's Canal mark the far edges of the district, and between them the streets stay mainly residential in a way that surprises visitors expecting the whole of Inner London to be offices.

Bookshops and galleries fill the gaps.

What are the main landmarks in Islington?

Islington's own streets are only the start. The British Museum, Sir John Soane's Museum, the Courtauld Gallery and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology all lie within a short journey, and the Wellcome Collection and the Charles Dickens Museum are no further. The BT Tower marks the skyline.

Older London shows through at the London Mithraeum, the London Stone and St Mary-le-Bow, while the Barbican Centre, the Rainbow Theatre and St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch account for the performance side.

What is the history of Islington?

Islington's history is written in its street names rather than in monuments. High Street, Upper Street and Essex Road are the old lines, and the district that grew along them turned from open ground on the edge of London into a mainly residential quarter of Inner London without ever acquiring a civic centre of its own. Highbury Fields kept its grass.

Regent's Canal drew a hard edge on one side, and the terraces filled in everything between it and the shops until the residential pattern that still governs the place was set. The deeper record belongs to the city beyond. The London Mithraeum and the London Stone reach back to Roman foundations, Temple Church, London and St Mary-le-Bow to the medieval city, and St Giles-without-Cripplegate carries a gate name from the same period.

Christ Church, Spitalfields and Dennis Severs' House preserve the eighteenth-century streets of Spitalfields. Mansion House carries the civic side. The Charles Dickens Museum and the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland mark the nineteenth century, and the Rainbow Theatre belongs to a far later chapter again, one in which the district's halls counted for more than its churches.

Where is Islington?

Islington occupies a stretch of north London inside the London Borough of Islington, and its shape follows the roads more than any natural feature. High Street runs into Upper Street. Essex Road takes a second line through the same ground, Southgate Road closes it to the east, and the district reaches from those shopping streets out to Highbury Fields at one end and Regent's Canal at the other.

Little of it is anything but built.

What is the climate of Islington?

Brick holds the warmth across Inner London. Islington sits in the temperate band of the northern hemisphere, far enough from any mountain range or continental interior that the swings between seasons stay narrow and the extremes are brief when they come. Rain arrives without warning.

Highbury Fields and the towpath along Regent's Canal fill quickly on the mild days, which run through most of the year rather than a short summer window.

How do you get to Islington?

The Angel is where most arrivals begin. From there Upper Street runs one way and Essex Road the other, and almost everything a visitor wants in Islington sits along one of the two within a walk of twenty minutes. Southgate Road takes traffic east.

Anyone coming for the British Museum, the Barbican Centre or the London Transport Museum will be travelling in rather than out, which makes the district an easy base and a poor destination for a car.