In this guide
At a glance
- Vibe
- Georgian terraces and a mile of restaurants, theatres and antique shops
- Time needed
- Half a day, or an evening
- Best day
- Wednesday or Saturday for the Camden Passage antique market
- Travel zone
- 1–2
- Walkability
- 5/5
- Typical spend
- ££
Best for
Nearest stations
- AngelNorthern
- Highbury & IslingtonVictoriaLondon OvergroundNational Rail
- Essex RoadNational Rail
Islington is a mile of Georgian terrace running north from Angel, and it has more restaurants along it than almost any comparable stretch in London. It also has two well-regarded small theatres, a Gothic chapel that doubles as a music venue, and a lane of antique shops that predates almost all of it.
There are no landmarks here. Islington is a place to eat, drink, browse and see something in the evening.
Islington has its own share of the commemorative plaques marking where notable people lived or worked - see them on our interactive map.
Why visit — and who should skip it
Come here if you want dinner and a show without West End prices, or you like antiques and secondhand books. The Almeida punches well above its 325 seats, and the Union Chapel is the most atmospheric small venue in London.
Skip it if you are sightseeing. There is nothing here to photograph and nothing to queue for. Islington rewards an evening far more than an afternoon.
Top sights and activities
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Camden Passage — A narrow pedestrian lane off Upper Street lined with antique dealers, vintage shops and arcades. The market runs Wednesdays and Saturdays; the shops open most days.
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Upper Street — A mile of restaurants and bars from Angel to Highbury Corner, at every price point.
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The Almeida Theatre — 325 seats in a converted Victorian literary institute, with a reputation far larger than its size. Book well ahead. It is one of the off-West End houses where shows that later transfer to Shaftesbury Avenue often begin.
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Union Chapel — A working Congregational church and a music venue, with gigs held in the Gothic octagon and the audience seated in the original pews.
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Sadler’s Wells — Britain’s leading dance house, at the southern end near Angel. Contemporary dance, flamenco, hip hop and ballet.
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Chapel Market — A traditional London street market off Liverpool Road, running most days. Fruit and veg, household goods and no pretensions.
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The Regent’s Canal and Islington Tunnel — The canal vanishes into a 960-metre tunnel at City Road Basin. There is no towpath; a signed street route crosses over the top.
Camden Passage, an alley of antique dealers behind Upper Street. Busiest for the market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Photo: David Hallam-Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Key streets and micro-districts
Angel and the southern end
Around the Tube station. Sadler’s Wells, Chapel Market and the entrance to Camden Passage.
Camden Passage
Off Upper Street behind the Angel. Antique arcades, small shops and a handful of good cafes.
It has nothing to do with Camden Town, beyond sharing a namesake — both were named after Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, whose title was given to streets and land across north London in the 1760s. The passage itself was laid out in 1767 as a back alley behind the houses on what was then Islington High Street, and only took the Camden name during the 1800s.
The antiques trade dates to the 1960s, when the market was founded by John Payton with the borough’s backing and drew over 350 dealers at its peak. That number has shrunk as Islington rents have risen, but Pierrepont Arcade still runs a general antiques market most days plus a dedicated vintage clothing market on Thursdays. One well-known casualty: The Mall Antiques Arcade, a converted Victorian tram shed that once housed 35 dealers, closed in 2008 and is now an Amazon Fresh — a number of older guides still send people to look for it.
The passage doubles as a place to eat as much as to browse — the café tables come out whatever the market is doing.
The Camden Head pub, at the Islington Green end, hosts Angel Comedy Club every night of the week — genuinely free entry, and well enough regarded that Time Out has called it a “comedy institution.” Arrive early; it fills up.
Upper Street
The spine, running north to Highbury Corner. Restaurants, bars, the Almeida and the Little Angel puppet theatre.
Barnsbury and the garden squares
West of Upper Street. Gibson Square, Lonsdale Square and Thornhill Square — quiet Georgian terraces almost nobody walks through.
Highbury and the northern end
Beyond Highbury Corner. Highbury Fields, the Union Chapel and the residential streets around the old Arsenal stadium site.
The Almeida. Three hundred and twenty-five seats, and a habit of sending its productions to the West End. Photo: Photo: Andreas Praefcke, CC BY 3.0.
Where to eat and drink
| Spot | Style | Price | Why go |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ottolenghi Islington | Middle Eastern deli | ££ | The original branch on Upper Street; the counter salads are the point |
| Trullo | Italian | £££ | Highbury Corner; charcoal-grilled and hand-rolled pasta |
| Afghan Kitchen | Afghan | £ | Tiny, cash-friendly, long-running Camden Passage institution |
| The Castle | Pub | ££ | Corner pub off Upper Street with a roof terrace |
| Gallipoli | Turkish | ££ | Upper Street mainstay; loud, cheap and busy |
| Chapel Market stalls | Street market | £ | Everyday food and produce, no tourists |
Chapel Market, a working street market rather than a curated one. Fruit and veg, and cheaper than anywhere on Upper Street. Photo: David Hallam-Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0.
See all 23 places to eat and drink in Islington
Getting there
By Tube. Angel (Northern) serves the southern end and has the longest escalator on the network at 60 metres. Highbury & Islington (Victoria, Overground) serves the north.
By Overground. Highbury & Islington connects east to Hackney and Stratford, and south to Shoreditch and Whitechapel — often faster than going via central London.
Best exit. From Angel, turn right out of the station and Camden Passage is two minutes north, opposite the old Angel building.
On foot. Twenty minutes west to King’s Cross, twenty-five south-east to Shoreditch.
How long to spend, and when to go
| If you have | Do this |
|---|---|
| Two hours | Camden Passage and the southern end of Upper Street |
| Half a day | Add Chapel Market and the Barnsbury garden squares |
| An evening | Dinner on Upper Street and a show at the Almeida or Union Chapel |
Best time: Wednesday or Saturday for the Camden Passage antique market, then stay for the evening.
Book ahead: The Almeida, Sadler’s Wells and Union Chapel gigs all sell out regularly.
Map of Islington
Open the map31 places: 21 places to eat · 5 things to do · 3 hidden spots · 2 places to stay
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Eat & drinkThings to doHidden LondonStay
What's on in Islington
Limited runs and the annual fixtures. Anything already finished is removed automatically.Links marked ad are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects what goes on this list.
The Waldorf Project: Chapter Five / KAIHOGYO
Not open yet18+A sustained sensory work rather than a show with a running time - the Waldorf Project's chapters are closer to endurance art than theatre.
Runs 19 November to 20 December 2026. Over-18, and demanding by design - not a casual evening out.
London Art Fair
Not open yetMore than a hundred galleries fill the Business Design Centre in the dead week after New Year - a rare chance to buy directly from small dealers rather than watch an auction. January's most reliable indoor fixture.
Tickets cheaper online than on the door. Quietest on the weekday afternoons.
Things to do in Islington
Beyond eating and drinking. Free things are listed first.Links marked ad are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects what goes on this list.
Freightliners Farm
FreeA 2.5-acre farm squeezed into Islington - goats, chickens and a market garden, saved from closure by local campaigning more than once.
NEEDS VERIFYING - reported open Mon and Wed-Sun, 10:30am-4:30pm, closed Tuesdays; confirm current days before publishing in detail, opening patterns for this one have changed before.
Regent's Canal at Islington
FreeThe towpath from City Road Basin west towards King's Cross, past narrowboats and the mouth of the 878-metre Islington Tunnel, which has no towpath through it at all.
Free. The tunnel forces you up onto the street for about ten minutes - follow the marked diversion signs rather than assuming the towpath continues.
Emirates Stadium Tour
A self-guided audio tour narrated by Arsenal players, taking in the home dressing room, the tunnel and the directors' box, plus the museum with the 1971 and 2004 trophies.
Self-guided means no fixed departure time, so it suits an awkward gap in a day better than most stadium tours. Closed on match days.
Flight Club Islington
18+ in the eveningAutomated social darts on Upper Street, which puts it inside a mile of more restaurants per yard than anywhere else in Britain.
Booked by the oche. Upper Street means you can eat anywhere afterwards without moving the group far.
Little Angel Theatre
A hundred-seat marionette theatre in a converted temperance hall down a passage, making its own puppets on site since 1961.
Meets the theatre rule on this tab - a purpose-built puppet house rather than a playhouse. Shows are age-banded quite precisely; check before booking for a specific child.
Union Chapel
A working Victorian Gothic chapel that puts on gigs from the pews, with an organ behind the stage and acoustics no purpose-built venue in London can match.
Still an active church and a homeless drop-in centre, and ticket money funds both. Pews, so seated and not especially comfortable - that is part of it.
Book Emirates Stadium Tourad
Hidden Islington
Free, self-guided and easy to walk past without knowing it's there.
Claremont Square
Filming locationHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) - the model for 12 Grimmauld Place
The Grimmauld Place exterior was a set built at Leavesden, but it was modelled on this Georgian terrace above the Angel - which is why the square looks so familiar and so slightly wrong at the same time.
A private residential square with a covered reservoir behind railings at its centre. Viewable from the pavement only; people live here.
Clerkenwell House of Detention
Filming locationSuffragette (2015) - the Holloway prison cells
The surviving underground cells of a Victorian prison, used as Holloway. Almost everything above ground was demolished; what is left is the basement, and it is genuinely grim.
Not open to the public - it operates as a private film and event location, and has been closed as a visitor attraction for years. Do not plan a visit around it. Farringdon is five minutes away.
Four Weddings and a Funeral's Flat
Filming locationFour Weddings and a Funeral (1994) - Charles's flat
Hugh Grant's character lives here in the film that made Richard Curtis's name before he wrote Notting Hill and Love Actually - a handsome terrace on the northwest corner of Highbury Fields.
A private residential building - viewable from the street only.
Gracie Fields's Islington Home
Blue plaqueDame Gracie Fields (1898–1979), singer and entertainer
One of the biggest British entertainers of the 1930s, on Islington's main shopping street - a plaque worth combining with an Upper Street stop anyway.
A private/commercial building on a busy shopping street.
Hatton Garden
Filming locationEyes Wide Shut (1999) - the Greenwich Village street where Bill is followed
Kubrick would not fly to New York, so American shopfronts and a payphone were added to this stretch of London's jewellery quarter to turn it into Greenwich Village. It is the clearest example in the city of London playing somewhere else entirely.
A working street of jewellers, open in shop hours and busy on weekdays. Nothing marks the location.
Joseph Grimaldi's Islington Home
Blue plaqueJoseph Grimaldi (1778–1837), the original "Joey" clown
Grimaldi essentially invented the modern circus/pantomime clown - British clowns are still nicknamed "Joey" after him, and his grave nearby is a small park named for him.
A private/commercial building - viewable from the street only.
St Bartholomew the Great
Filming locationSherlock Holmes (2009) - the interior standing in for St Paul's
London's oldest surviving parish church, founded in 1123, its Norman interior standing in for St Paul's during the human-sacrifice scene. Four Weddings and Shakespeare in Love were shot here too - it is the most filmed church in the city.
A working church with a small admission charge for visitors and free entry for worship. Closed to sightseers during services. Barbican or Farringdon, five minutes.
St John's Square
Filming locationPaddington 2 (2017) - the theatrical agent's office
The Clerkenwell square used for the office where Buchanan's agent delivers bad news. St John's Gate, the Tudor arch across the square, is the surviving gatehouse of a twelfth-century priory.
Free, a public square, always open. The Museum of the Order of St John in the gatehouse is free and open Monday to Saturday. Farringdon, three minutes.
The Jerusalem Tavern
Filming locationJudy (2019) - Judy and Mickey stop for a drink
A single-room eighteenth-century shopfront pub, the London tap for St Peter's Brewery, used for a quiet scene between Garland and her last husband. It seats about thirty people and looks two hundred years older than it is licensed to be.
A working pub, normal hours, and often full by six on a weekday. Free to walk into. Farringdon, four minutes.
Where to stay
Well connected, genuinely residential, and good value for somewhere this close to the centre.
- Angel — Mid-range hotels near the Tube, walkable to King’s Cross and the City.
- Highbury — Quieter and cheaper, on the Victoria line and Overground.
- King’s Cross — Twenty minutes west, with far better rail connections.
Cheapest first. Prices are a typical starting rate per night, not a quote.Links marked ad are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects what goes on this list.
Hilton London Angel Islington
£££HotelAccessible roomsOn Upper Street itself, five minutes from Angel station, in an area with more restaurants and bars per yard than almost anywhere else in London.
The best-placed dependable chain hotel for Upper Street. Rooms on the upper floors have City skyline views worth requesting.
The Rosebery by Supercity Aparthotels
£££AparthotelAccessible roomsOn the Clerkenwell edge of Islington, ten minutes from Farringdon and its Elizabeth line platforms, with Exmouth Market's restaurants at the end of the road.
One of the better-placed aparthotels for eating out, which is the usual weakness of the format. NOT PRICED YET - no rate has been sampled for this row.
Make a day of it
Combine Islington with
Walking times are from the centre of Islington. Each of these works as an afternoon once you have finished here.
King's Cross
20 min walkWest for Coal Drops Yard, the British Library and the canal towpath.
Shoreditch
25 min walkSouth-east down City Road for markets, street art and late bars.
Camden
25 min walkWest along the canal, or one stop on the Northern line.
Hackney
20 min walkEast on the Overground from Highbury & Islington for Broadway Market and London Fields.
Suggested route
- Start: Angel station. North to Camden Passage for the antique arcades.
- Chapel Market: West across Liverpool Road for the street market.
- Upper Street: North past the Almeida Theatre.
- Barnsbury: West into Gibson Square and the quiet Georgian terraces.
- Highbury Corner: North to Highbury Fields and the Union Chapel.
- Finish: Dinner on Upper Street, or the Overground east to Hackney.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Confusing Camden Passage with Camden Market. Different places, two miles apart.
- Coming for the antique market on the wrong day. Wednesdays and Saturdays.
- Trying to follow the canal towpath through Islington. It goes into a tunnel with no path. Follow the signed street route.
- Treating Islington as a daytime sightseeing stop. There is nothing to see. Come for the evening.
- Not booking the Almeida. 325 seats and a national reputation — it sells out.
- Walking the whole of Upper Street. It is a mile. The interesting half is the southern end.
Common questions
What is Camden Passage and is it the same as Camden Market?
No, and they are not near each other. Camden Passage is a narrow pedestrian lane off Upper Street in Islington, lined with antique shops and arcades. Camden Market is two miles north-west in Camden Town. The antique market in Camden Passage runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with the shops open most days.
Is Upper Street worth visiting?
Yes, if you are eating. Upper Street has one of the highest concentrations of restaurants in London along a single mile, at every price point, plus the Almeida and Little Angel theatres and the Union Chapel. It is a street for an evening rather than a sightseeing stop — there are no landmarks.
Does the Regent's Canal go through Islington?
Yes, but it disappears. The canal enters the 878-metre Islington Tunnel at City Road Basin and does not resurface until Muriel Street near Caledonian Road. There is no towpath through it — walkers follow a signed street-level route over the top, which takes about fifteen minutes.
What is on at Sadler's Wells?
It is Britain's leading dance venue, programming contemporary dance, flamenco, hip hop and ballet year-round. It sits at the southern end of Islington near Angel. Book ahead — popular runs sell out, and the theatre has a second stage at the Peacock Theatre in Holborn.
Is the Union Chapel still a working church?
Yes, both. It is an active Congregational church and one of London's most atmospheric music venues, with concerts held in the Gothic octagonal chapel itself. It also runs a night shelter. Gigs there are seated in the original pews.
