Welcome to London x London’s Highbury Guide: your guide to the best bars, restaurants and things to do in this North London neighbourhood.
Highbury sits in the London Borough of Islington, centred on Highbury Fields, with Canonbury just to the south and Finsbury Park to the north.
Highbury has a history stretching back thousands of years, from a Roman summer camp to the estate of a militant order of crusading knights.
These days the only mobs are on match day, when Arsenal fans descend on the Emirates Stadium nearby.
The first record of activity in the area comes from the Romans, who used the land as a military camp. A thousand years later it was the estate of the crusading Knights Hospitallers, eventually chased off by an enraged mob some 20,000 strong. Their manor house gave the district its name.
Today Highbury is a genuine mix of long-established locals and newer arrivals, humming with the kind of everyday London life that doesn’t always make the guidebooks.
Historic North London, residential, football heartland
