Frances Costelloe on Highbury and Islington

I grew up in Highbury for the second half of my childhood. I moved from more central Camden to the greener and cleaner Islington. The Victoria Line was my pale blue river, whizzing me from Highbury tube station to Central London for shopping trips with friends or to Victoria for weekends in Brighton. The name of my station never made sense to me - Highbury & Islington, why not Highbury in Islington or just Highbury Islington. London is divided into boroughs and within these there are smaller local pockets, such as the borough of Islington which is home to the neighbourhood of Highbury.  

"For many Highbury is synonymous with Arsenal, the football club, which resides in Drayton Park. For me, not so much. My Dad is from New Zealand and was more into Formula One than the premier league. My Mum who has lived in the area most of her life is also not a fan of the game although it does bring a particular energy to the area. Thousands of fans travelling from further East used to walk past our house and garden and this did bring trade and less of a village feel to this quiet place. My first job was in the local pub called ‘The Barn’. The pub served the pre and post-match crowd and is where I discovered I am extremely slow at pouring pints. The Barn is the name of the pub and the shops that it sits within. As I have got older the selection of vendors has got fancier and fancier. The chicken shop was replaced with a high-end restaurant called Saltine, the grocers gone and the prestigious cheese shop La Fromagerie does a cracking trade with the customers in the category of ‘those that have’. As a student and more of a ‘have not’ I resented this change. Now as a mother, and mature student, I do relish the fact that I can get an essential coffee of high quality and something sweet to fuel a trip to the park. In the Barn there is also a shop stuck in time which I can’t help but recommend named Five Boys. It is essentially a health food general store but it is so unfussy and unpretentious that I try and spend a bit of money each time I visit. Turtle saving string bags, Waleda baby products, organic rye bread and faux health crisps are all things I convince myself I need when I visit the shop. 

"Highbury has a place in my heart. During the Covid pandemic we used to visit my Mum on Saturdays. This gave a routine in our Highbury holiday, a break from the monotony of the same park, same shop, same everything. We got in the habit of walking to the Angel and back, my newborn daughter in her pram or a sling and me and my Mum just talking and stealing back an element of normalcy. My mum had worked on a stall in the antiques market when I was a child and this area, Camden Passage, will always have fond memories. There is a tiny fraction of the sellers that used to be there – but some remain. London planners, unlike their French counterparts, don’t care about markets or trading culture; it's all about profit. One such a trader, and a favourite of ours is a man called Owen who sells gold by weight. He has incredible antique pieces, supplies most family birthday presents and can be found on Saturdays with his set up. 

The walk would take us through the park Highbury Fields which is a collection of green spaces and two crescents surrounded by Georgian town houses. It is hard for me not to remember the hours and days spent rollerblading around the park with my best friend, singing along and trying to get into a music video at the local cafe. Muscle memories, almost, of the same park as a teenager on my way to catch the bus up to school, the plane trees towering above and providing vital shade in summer and crispy steps in Autumn. The playground with its seemingly mountainous hill and slide which as a child was an Everest and now still rises high, but as I quickly run up the numerous steps to support my daughter as she gets the courage to go down, the time taken has quickened and it doesn’t seem so high up anymore."