The Knowhere Guide

Best and Worst in Highbury and Islington, Greater London*

Highbury and Islington, Greater London Triumphs and Tragedies

Favourite Building

• Bemerton estate well why wouldnt it be
• The new angel cum tube station - beta builda lives!
• St Pauls Church on St Pauls Road, Islington. Fab old tumbledown gothic-type church which now does workshops in metal and stained glass and stuff, and has a great organic caff.
• The Union Chapel in Compton Terrace just off Upper Street is quite striking.
• Too many to mention: The Green, The Kings Head, The houses.
• Crafts Council, Pentonville Road, also has nice uncrowded cafe with gaggia machine coffee and quiche type grub

Demolish It Now Building

• All of priory estate...mostly because i got mugged at gunpoint there but to be fair it is a mess of a place
• The Crafts Council - they pinched my idea for door knobs - I lie.
• The Latino Club on Upper Street - preferably with the patrons still inside.
• Arsenal football stadium - then their supporters won't be able to use my parking space when they have home matches.
• The council office opposite Florence Street.
• Chapel Market!Its full of plebs and needs gentryfying. Use bulldozers and dynamite. But beware of the riot afterwards!
• the blue note/ complex or whatever they re calling it this week. or alternatively the bloody business design centre.
• Islington Town Hall
• Lincoln Place - corporate lump on the east side of Farringdon Road past clerkenwell road. not only hideous but pedestrian unfriendly - creates a blind corner round to Farringdon tube and bristles with CCTV. Tear it down!

The Best Things

• Going out with a few non trendy mates is allways a good time
• That funny little iron clock tower just down from the crossroads.
• Everyone sitting outside on the pavements outside when it's sunny, and the variety of eateries.
• Its close to everywhere, fun to live in, brilliant shops and lots of places to eat.
• the absinth sold at the purple turtle (cheapest in london)
• Good mix of poncey (which can be fun sometimes) and down-to-earth
• food, pubs, people (in general - there are arseholes everywhere)
• The architecture
• great squares with nice georgian houses without net curtains so you can look inside at fabby middle-class families and feel jealous
• Gotta be the Narrow Boat pub: hot day... cold pint... canal... what more can I say? Itss a pace of life thing.
• Best thing: The Embassy.
• Probably the finest feature of Islington during the 1977-79 and 1991-5 period has been its abilty to foster young musical talent. The seventies saw bands such as Eddie & the Hot Rods, the Stranglers, Ace and the Sex Pistols playing at the Hope & Anchor (Upper Street), whilst the nineties have been witness to the resurgence of the London sound (eg Blur & Stone Country) in the Trolley Stop.

The Worst Things

• Calidonian road because of the little boys in gangs that throw things at you
• Beggars on the streets.
• Lack of parking - how can we crouchenders come shopping if we can't bring our Peugeots?
• Pitcher and Piano and All Bar One type establishments creeping in. No, no, no. Also 'The Green' on Upper street. Name should be changed to either The Brown, The Bin, on the 'Meeting point for piss-heads with dogs on bits of string'.
• The crime rate.
• THis place is the pits>Ive lived there 2 years. Its reckons its posh and rich but hvaing seen real educated and posh people this place is a joke, Its an absolute dump in the middle of the most ignorant and slum ridden area of London. The place is filled with dirty minded morons. Violence and stupidity ae endemic.Eg Holloway area dumps. The Council is an arrogant scornful misguided mess. Do not buy a house here prices will fall with the riots. Islington people are the most arrogant stuck up little idiots I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.They are living 20 years in the past or more.
• the gangs of pre teen kids beating the shit out of each other
• prices - keep going up and up as the area becomes increasingly known to the City boys who have suddenly realised they can get to work in ten minutes. Why live in Fulham (quite)?. This has resulted in the opening of a number of bars which indicate the arrival of Sloane types - Pitcher & Piano and all its clones. However this is great if you want to pick up shallow people who just want to look at your wallet. The other main thing is the rent or cost of housing. A reasonable one bedroom flat will cost more than £1,000 per month. Then just scale up.
• No parks!
• i've never managed to enjoy the screen on the green cinema. Up its arse vibe, uncomfortable, half-pissed middle of the road Islington pleased-with-themselves types fresh from pub (wanring: don't get stuck in middle of row if you'd had a drink)
• Some of the people. This should not be taken the wrong way as there are lots of extremely chilled out, excellent folk around there and they can be really friendly. Then you come across a couple of geezas with their heads up their arses... you know what I mean.
• The dog shit.

The Knowhere Guide started out as a list of places to skateboard in the UK. It is a compilation of (unedited) information and views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional tourist guide!

In most cases, the information in each section has been submitted by more than one contributor (the credits at the bottom of the page list some, but not all, of the contributors) and some of it dates back to the 1970s.

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Credits

Last updated: 2007-12-06