London’s Little Italy & the Legends of Islington


A walk through London’s Little Italy up to the fields of Islington

This walk is based on the first part of Chapter 8 of my book This Other London.
Starting at Chancery Lane Station on High Holborn, we go into the curious anomaly of Ely Place, owned by the Bishops of Ely and once technically part of Cambridgeshire. We visit the Old Mitre Pub where Sir Christopher Hatton danced with Elizabeth I. We go along Hatton Garden, the centre of Britain’s diamond trade, and into Leather Lane Market. The walk through Little Italy takes us in search of Fagin’s den in Saffron Hill, a place visited by Charles Dickens who drank in the One Tun pub. We walk along Hatton Wall into Portpool Lane where the Kings Ditch ran and through the Bourne Estate.

London's Little Italy
London's Little Italy
The Heart of London’s Little Italy

The heart of London’s Little Italy lay in the streets falling away from Clerkenwell Road into the Fleet Valley – Back Hill, Eyre Street Hill, Herbal Hill. From here we go up Crawford Passage to Coldbath Square and Mount Pleasant. We stroll through Spa Fields – now Exmouth Market and Wilmington Square where Merlin was said to have a cave in the heart of the hill. The Merlin’s Cave Tavern stood in Merlin House on the site of Charles Rowan House. Next we walk through Lloyd Square to Percy Circus where Lenin stayed in 1905. Back on Amwell Street we recount E.O Gordon’s powerful mythology of London at the head of the Pen Ton Mound, now the New River Head Upper Reservoir on Claremont Square. Passing down Penton Street our walk ends at White Conduit House, once a celebrated pleasure garden and the true home of cricket.

Video filmed January 2021

Islington’s Lost River and the source of the Walbrook

Islington the Watershed

It feels apt to be posting the blog on the day of the launch of my text, The Black Path, in the London Adventure series published by The Three Imposters. Walking the Philley Brook (Filly Brook, Fillebrook) with the brilliant Compilerzone in August that sound artist Brigitte Hart put me in touch with a friend who had pushed his cheese barrow along the length of the Black Path. What a great story. The conversation with Berto the Cheese Merchant turned to the matter of the Angel, and Berto mentioned Stephen Myers book, Walking on Water, which maps one source of the Walbrook rising in Islington and roughly following the course of City Road before making its confluence with the eastern branch of the Walbrook around Curtain Road. Berto placed the source outside the public toilets in White Conduit Street. Wow! This blog has its origins, twenty years ago, in that very terrain when I lived opposite the site of White Conduit House and became obsessed with the pleasure gardens of the area and their associated springs and wells. I had never come across any references to the Walbrook rising at the Angel, despite walking the City of London’s principal lost river twice. I had to explore further.

White Conduit House in 1820 from Old and New London
White Conduit House in 1820 from Old and New London
White Conduit House in 1827
White Conduit House in 1827
Site of White Conduit House Islington
Site of White Conduit House
White Conduit House Islington

Secret Islington Walking Tour around Canonbury

This walk takes into a magical realm just off the hustle and bustle of Upper Street Islington as we take a walking tour around the streets of Canonbury. Ed Glinert described Canonbury as ‘The best preserved and most picturesque suburb in inner London’ (The London Compendium). In The London Nobody Knows, Geoffrey Fletcher wrote that to walk from Upper Street to Canonbury Square is to ‘move into an entirely different world’.

Here are some of the points of interest on the walk:
Highbury Corner
Upper Street
Compton Terrace
Union Chapel
Compton Terrace Gardens
Hope & Anchor
Canonbury Lane
Compton Avenue & Compton Arms
Canonbury Square
Estorick Collection
27b Canonbury Square – George Orwell
17a Canonbury Square – Evelyn Waugh
Canonbury Tower
Canonbury Place
The Canonbury Tavern
Willowbridge Road
New River Path
Marquess Estate
Caldy Walk
The Marquess Pub
Essex Road – Station, Carlton Cinema, South Library, The Old Queens Head, The Winchester
Cross Street
Dagmar Passage, Dagmar Terrace – Little Angel Theatre
St. Marys Church
Kings Head Theatre
St Marys Path
Colebrooke Row – Charles Lamb
Duncan Terrace – Douglas Adams
Regents Canal – Islington Tunnel
Noel Road – Joe Orton

George Orwell plaque, Canonbury Islington
Marquess Tavern Canonbury
Canonbury Tower Islington
Canonbury Tower

Further Reading:
Canonbury Tower and Canonbury House
Books: The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series by Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams, Prick Up Your Ears by John Lahr, The Orton Diaries ed. John Lahr, Orton the Complete Plays by Joe Orton

Filmed June 2021

Is this the Only Road in the City of London?

In a recent video I repeated a statement I’d been told by a Freeman of the City of London, and somebody who’d worked in the Lord Mayor’s office. He’d declared that there are ‘no roads in the City of London’. In the comments of that video several people countered that in fact the lower section of Goswell Road was inside the City and therefore rendered that statement factually incorrect.

So I set off on a stroll down the length of Goswell Road, starting at the Angel Islington, to explore the story of the road itself and find the point at which it crossed the border into the Square Mile. It was a fascinating journey into the past of this storied thoroughfare. As to whether in fact it is the City’s only ‘Road’ is ever so slightly inconclusive as can be seen in the comments, with recent boundary changes bringing the Golden Lane Estate into the City of London, and the question of whether the City of London Police or the Metropolitan Police have jurisdiction over the road itself.

The City of London continues to be a source of endless curiosity.

Visit to the Marx Memorial Library

I was passing the Marx Memorial Library on Clerkenwell Green at lunchtime and realised that I’d never actually been inside. Not even as an eager Politics student in my youth. The papery smell in the reading room instantly transported me back through the years. It was intoxicating for a brief moment.

Reading Room, Marx Memorial Library, Clerkenwell Green
The worker of the future upsetting the economic chaos of the present by Jack Hastings

The Library was established on the 50th anniversary of Marx’s death in 1933, ‘with the aim of advancing education, knowledge and learning in the science of Marxism, the history of socialism and the working class movement’, at a time of book burnings in Nazi Germany. It had previously been the print house for Twentieth Century Press which was linked to William Morris and Eleanor Marx (Karl’s daughter). Morris’ contribution is recounted on information plaques around the walls. The fine 18th century building was constructed in 1737 as the Welsh Charity School.

Lenin Room, Marx Memorial Library, Clerkenwell Green
Lenin Room, Marx Memorial Library, Clerkenwell Green

The Lenin Room commemorates V.I Lenin’s presence working in the building between 1902-03 where he published several issues of the newspaper Iskra, which can still be found on the desk. Although this isn’t the exact room in which he worked. During this period Lenin lived nearby in Percy Circus – a plaque marks the building.

Lenin Room, Marx Memorial Library, Clerkenwell Green

The walls are plastered with various socialist and Soviet posters. The Bakers’ Union were having a meeting, so we unfortunately couldn’t see the hall nor the memorial garden to the British International Brigades who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
The Library holds over 55,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals, including some unique collections.

Picture of Karl Marx at the Marx Memorial Library, Clerkenwell Green

Related post – Clerkenwell Tales

Giorgio Morandi at the Estorick Collection

Estorick Collection, Canonbury, Islington

We managed to catch the last day of the Giorgio Morandi exhibition at the brilliant Estorick Collection in Canonbury, Islington.

Giorgio Morandi: Masterpieces from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation

“For the first time, the entire collection of 50 paintings and works on paper by the artist belonging to Italy’s Magnani-Rocca Foundation will be on show in the UK.
Best known for his enigmatic still lifes, Morandi is today widely recognised as one of the most significant figures of modern Italian art – and certainly one of the most beloved. Often considered to have been something of a recluse, he was in fact at the centre of contemporary artistic debate and actively engaged with many of the most important national trends and movements of his day, from Futurism to Metaphysical Art. His distinctive mature style is renowned for its masterful treatment of light, exquisite tonal subtleties and exploration of the boundary between abstract and figurative imagery.”

Giorgio Morandi at the Estorick Collection
Giorgio Morandi at the Estorick Collection
Estorick Collection - Giorgio Morandi
Estorick Collection, Canonbury, Islington London

We discovered the Estorick when living in Highbury in the late-90s and instantly fell in love with it.

Estorick Collection, Canonbury, Islington London
Giorgio Morandi at the Estorick Collection
Giorgio Morandi at the Estorick Collection

I’d first properly encountered the work of Giorgio Morandi when living in Modena, Italy and visiting an exhibition in an art gallery located in one of the palaces of the Este. Morandi had lived and worked his whole life in nearby Bologna, a city I also came to develop a deep affection for.