Islington does a very good impression of being all Georgian terraces and antique shops, then quietly turns out to have one of London’s best small theatres and a tapas bar we’d cross town for.
Islington sits just north of Angel and King’s Cross, and Upper Street has been quietly outperforming flashier parts of London for good food and a good night out for years, we just don’t think it gets talked about enough. There’s a gallery devoted entirely to Italian Futurism a few streets from a market that’s sold fruit and veg since long before anyone thought to make markets fashionable again.
Here’s what we’d build a day, or an evening, around.
The best things to do in Islington
Catch a show at the Almeida Theatre
Open since 1980, the Almeida is a proper neighbourhood theatre with ambitions well beyond its size, staging everything from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Orwell’s 1984 to new work from up-and-coming playwrights. It sits close to plenty of good restaurants and bars, making it easy to build a full evening around a show.
See the Futurists at the Estorick Collection
The Estorick Collection is the only gallery in London devoted entirely to 20th-century Italian art, with a particular strength in Futurism. Expect works by Gino Severini and Giacomo Balla, alongside wax and sculpture pieces from Medardo Rosso, once described as the greatest living sculptor of his era.
Hint: it’s an easy add-on to a walk round Highbury Fields, the two sit close enough together to make a proper afternoon of it.
Take up a pitch at Highbury Fields
Highbury Fields is the borough’s largest park, a solid option for a weekend picnic or a catch-up with friends. It also has genuinely useful facilities, including tennis courts, football pitches, netball courts and a basketball court for anyone wanting to make the most of the summer months.
Laugh for free at The Bill Murray
The Bill Murray is one of the best places in the area to catch established comedy names trying out new material in front of a small crowd, with past line-ups at this run-by-comedians-for-comedians club including Ellie Taylor, Bridget Christie and Tim Key, alongside the likes of Nish Kumar and Joe Lycett over the years, as we’ve noted in our wider round-up of London’s best comedy clubs. Its sister venue upstairs, the Camden Head, hosts Angel Comedy Raw, a nightly free show mixing new and established acts where nobody knows the line-up in advance.
Worth knowing: both venues are run under the Angel Comedy banner, so check both listings if you’re trying to build an evening around a specific act.
Find some quiet at Culpeper Community Garden
Tucked among Islington’s busy streets, Culpeper Community Garden is a small, quietly kept green space maintained by local volunteers. It sits just five minutes’ walk from Chapel Market, making it a good spot to decompress after a browse around the stalls.
Browse the stalls at Chapel Market
Open Tuesday to Saturday, Chapel Market is a down-to-earth, no-frills market for fruit and veg, household goods and clothing, with a handful of street food stalls mixed in among the long-standing traders. It sits on the road of the same name, a two-minute walk from Angel station.
Catch a film at Islington Square
Islington Square brings together high-end shops, restaurants, hairdressers and beauty spots in one spot, and it is also home to an ODEON Luxe, where six screens with recliner seats and table service turn a film into a proper dinner-and-a-movie evening.
Splurge on a glass at Bar Liber
Bar Liber sets out to make wine approachable again, with an ever-changing list available by the glass as well as the bottle. For a splurge, the Empire Punch cocktail, built from five different spirits, comes in at around £100. The food menu keeps things simple, with grilled cheese and charcuterie boards among the highlights.
Order a Guinness at Homeboy Bar
This Irish-run bar is a reliably warm spot for a drink any time of day. Guinness on tap at Homeboy is the obvious order, but the Whiskey Smash, made with Irish whiskey, mint and a spinach syrup, is worth trying, and the food menu and Irish hospitality both hold up their end.
Eat vegetables like they’re the main event at Ottolenghi
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Islington restaurant is a good introduction to why his name carries so much weight in London food circles, one we’ve also seen at work in Ottolenghi’s Soho restaurant Nopi, which we cover in our round-up of the best restaurants in London. The kitchen has a rare knack for making vegetables and salads feel like the main event, built on bold flavours and colour rather than restraint.
Share plates at Llerena
This small Spanish tapas bar on Upper Street is an easy, unpretentious spot for sharing plates and a glass of wine, whether that is a catch-up with friends or a date night. The menu at Llerena runs to cold meats and cheeses, tomato bread and tuna carpaccio, plus a solid vegetarian selection, with acorn-fed ham sourced from family farms in Extremadura among the standouts.
