Islington history

The name was originally Gislandune, which meant Gisla’s Hill - presumably Gisla was a prominent Anglo Saxon landowner. It was a fashionable area in the 16th century, and Henry VIII owned two houses near Newington Green for his mistresses, and hunted nearby, probably for mistresses. Queen Elizabeth used to visit Sir Walter Raleigh at his house in Upper Street, and the Earl of Leicester at his place in Essex Road. In the 17th century Islington was the home of London’s main dairy farms. In the 18th century it was a place where Londoners went to have tea and a day out. The arrival of the Regent’s Canal and later the railways caused Islington to become more industrial, and a number of slums developed, although 19th-century Islington remained a prosperous area. In the early 20th century, only Barnsbury and Canonbury remained moderately prosperous. The creation of the Camden Passage antiques market in the 1960s made the area more fashionable again.