London Westminster & Middlesex Family History Society

Islington

Last Updated on Sunday, 17 August 2008 09:24 Saturday, 16 August 2008 14:41

Islington Parish church of St Mary (1557)
Referred to in the Doomsday Book both as Isendone and Iseldone, which is conjectured to mean 'the lower town or fort,' to distinguish it from Tolentone, the old name for the district on higher ground to the north, now part of the area known as Highbury. The English Place Name Society, however, gives different derivations: Giseldine =Gisla's Hill; Tollandene =Tolla's Hill. Islington is bounded on the north by Hornsey, on the west by St Pancras, east by Stoke Newington and Hackney and, south by Shoreditch and Finsbury.
Of the well-known inns, the Angel was never in Islington but in the neighbouring parish of Clerkenwell; The White Conduit House nearby has extensive pleasure gardens and a cricket ground where Thomas Lord (of Lord's) was groundsman, and the Rosemary Branch, near the Shoreditch boundary, adjoining the famous archery butts of Islington and Finsbury Common.
In the Essex Road was the Islington Cattle market (1835) which occupied 15 acres. The existing Caledonian or Metropolitan Cattle Market was erected 1855 at a cost of UK ৺?,000, and originally covered 75 acres.
Through Islington flows the New River. This is a statue of Sir Hugh Myddleton on Islington Green (1862), who constructed a 'river' or channel, about 40 miles long which brought water from the springs of Chadwell and Amwell near Ware in Hertfordshire to a reservoir in the Parish of Clerkenwell. The Regent's Canal has a 900 foot tunnel between White Conduit House and Colebrook Row.
The parish church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. The 'old church' was the successor of one on the same site, and was over 300 years old when demolished in 1751; the present church was erected by Launcelot Dowbiggin, and was opened by Jas. Colebrook, lord of the manor in 1754. The parish registered date from 1557. In the 19th century a number of new churches were built in Islington, of which a few are worthy of mention. St Mary, Holloway (1815); St John, Holloway Road (1826); St Paul, Balls Pond Road (1828) and Holy Trinity, Cloudesley Square (1826)