What is Islington known for?

Islington is known for: North London's most liveable borough - beautiful Georgian streets, strong independent culture, and a rare sense of neighbourhood It is best for Food, Culture, Shopping.

What are the best things to do in Islington?

Islington is especially popular for Food, Culture, Shopping. Browse our curated directory for top-rated attractions, restaurants, and experiences in the neighbourhood.

Is Islington worth visiting as a tourist?

Yes — Islington is one of London's most characterful neighbourhoods, known for north london's most liveable borough - beautiful georgian streets, strong independent culture, and a rare sense of neighbourhood. It offers an authentic side of London beyond the main tourist trail.

Islington Neighbourhood Guide - London Vacation Guide

Islington is the borough that gave political rhetoric its most useful shorthand but the place itself is more interesting than the caricature. The Georgian streets in Barnsbury and Canonbury are among the most beautiful residential architecture in London. The pubs are genuinely excellent. The Almeida Theatre punches far above its size. And Upper Street's two kilometres of restaurants remain one of the best places in the city to eat well across any budget.

Our Picks in Islington

Curated by our editorial team. Not paid. Not sponsored. Just places we think are worth your time.

Almeida Theatre

Theatre

One of London's most consistently excellent mid-scale theatres — 325 seats, almost always fully committed productions, and a programming record that puts most West End venues to shame. Day seats at £12-18 are available on performance days.

💡 Day seats are released at 10am online. Check the Almeida website the morning of. You can see productions that will transfer to Broadway for the price of a cinema ticket.

Sadler's Wells

Dance Theatre

Britain's national dance house — the building where Margot Fonteyn trained and Akram Khan has made his home. The programme ranges from Flamenco to contemporary dance to hip-hop. The building has been on this Rosebery Avenue site since 1683.

💡 The Lilian Baylis Studio (the smaller of Sadler's Wells' two auditoria) has the most interesting programming and the most affordable tickets — new choreographers, experimental work, and occasional free events.

Canonbury Square

Architecture / Walk

The finest surviving Georgian square in Islington — intact 1800s terraces on all four sides, communal garden in the centre. George Orwell lived at number 27B. A ten-minute walk east of Upper Street through quiet Victorian streets.

💡 Walk east from Canonbury Square through the back streets to Highbury Fields — the route passes through some of the quietest and most architecturally consistent Georgian streets in north London. Newington Green at the far end is where Mary Wollstonecraft lived.

King's Head Theatre

Pub Theatre

London's first pub theatre, operating since 1970 in the back room of a Victorian pub on Upper Street. Hugely influential — Joanna Lumley, Hugh Grant, and Anthony Sher all played here early in their careers. The combination of a Victorian pub and an intimate 120-seat theatre is uniquely London.

💡 The pub is excellent independently of the theatre — a genuine Victorian boozer with a good range of real ales. Check the Upstairs at the King's Head listings for new writing nights and comedy evenings that cost under £15.

Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art

Gallery

A small private gallery in a Georgian townhouse on Canonbury Square — the finest collection of Italian Futurist art outside Italy, including major Boccioni, Severini, and Balla works. Free on Saturdays, £7.50 otherwise.

💡 Often completely empty midweek. You can stand in front of major 20th-century Italian masterpieces in complete solitude for as long as you like. The building itself is a very fine late-Georgian townhouse.

Upper Street Independent Restaurants

Restaurant Street

The one-mile strip from Angel to Highbury Corner contains an extraordinary density of independent restaurants. Ottolenghi, Moro, The Pig and Butcher, La Fromagerie — and fifty other places that would be landmarks in any other neighbourhood.

💡 Walk the full length of Upper Street before choosing where to eat — make a mental note of three or four places that look interesting and choose based on the queue situation at 7pm.

🕵 What Locals Know

Chapel Market runs parallel to Upper Street. One block east, Chapel Market is a traditional street market that has operated since 1880 — six days a week, selling produce, flowers, and street food. Lower prices than anything in the market halls and a completely different atmosphere from Upper Street.
Canonbury Tower is Islington's hidden Tudor landmark. A surviving Tudor tower on Canonbury Place, built around 1520 — one of the oldest standing buildings in the borough. Not publicly accessible inside but the exterior and the surrounding buildings are remarkable. Worth finding on the walk through to Highbury.
The Islington Museum is genuinely good and free. In the Town Hall on Upper Street, the local history collection documents the borough's radical past in detail — Chartist agitation, suffragette campaigns, the New River water supply. Small but thoughtfully curated.
Take the bus back rather than the tube. The 19 and 38 buses run directly from Islington Green to Holborn and the West End, and the route through Pentonville Road and along the Gray's Inn Road is a good ground-level view of north-central London at ground level.