It’s all very well living in an area but how much do you really know about it? Here are 10 things you didn’t know about Islington
1. Islington means ‘Gisla’s hill’. It comes from the Old English personal name Gisla and dun which means ‘hill’ or ‘down’.
2. Douglas Adams, author of A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, lived in Islington until his death,
3. The Rolling Stone’s drummer, Charlie Watts, was born and raised in Islington.
4. Edmund Halley, who discovered Halley’s Comet lived in Islington from 1665.
5. George Orwell lived in Canonbury Square between the wars, and based the depressing settings of 1984 on the run-down surroundings.
6. Current chart-topping songstress Lily Allen also lives in Islington.
7. The licensees of board game Monopoly debated the value of property for the game over tea in Lyon’s Corner house built on the site of the original Angel Inn, just near Angel tube,
8. Islington has two universities: City University at Northampton Square and London Metropolitan University on Holloway Road.
9. The site of the Almeida theatre was originally home to the ‘Islington Literary and Scientific Institution’ opened in 1837, followed by a music hall and Salvation Army hall.
10. The Islington Business Design centre was originally known as the Royal Agricultural Hall, opened in 1861 (though the date on the clock is 1862. It was one of the largest exhibition halls in the world. It hosted the first Crufts dog show in 1891.
