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Islington history

Roberta Wedge: champion for Mary on the Green statue

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Everybody has a story. This is the 200th interview on Islington Faces. Newington Green is sometimes called the “village that changed the world. One of its famous residents was so-called Mother of Feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) who moved here in 1784 to run a girls’ school. During this time she…

Mavis Ring: the day the V1 bomb fell on Highbury Corner

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Everyone has a story. Mavis Ring (nee Devine) who was at home having lunch before afternoon classes at Laycock Primary School when the V1 bomb fell on Highbury Corner (27 June 1944) killing 26 people and injuring 150. Here Mavis, now 80 and living in Essex, shares many other memories about growing…

John Hegley: poet performer

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Everyone has a story. Carrots, dogs, guillemots, glasses … anything can inspire comic poet John Hegley who spent his babyhood in Newington Green. Here he reveals the bits of Islington that have played a part in his life’s work. Interview by Nicola Baird John Hegley is renowned for deadpan delivery and…

Malcolm Marjoram, historian & family history expert

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Everyone has a story. For the next few years many people are uncovering stories of the people caught up in World War One (1914-18) – including the 9,400 men and three women from Finsbury & Islington who died. Meet Malcolm Marjoram who has been researching the 90+ men who worshipped at his local…

Oonagh Gay: inspiring London walks

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Everyone has a story. Oonagh Gay may have retired in June 2015 from running the Parliament & Constitution Centre, which she set up at the House of Commons Library 15 years ago, but she’s now able to focus on her passion for local history and run some great weekend walks –…

Charles Baron: born 1920 in Islington & still visiting the borough

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Everyone has a story. Charles Baron is having lunch at the Highbury Barn pub – nothing remarkable about that, except he was born on 6 May 1920 to Jewish refugees from the Russian pogroms – 95 years ago. So what are his memories of pre-World War Two Islington and life in…

Jackie Badger: saw the Beatles play Finsbury Park

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Everyone has a story. Jackie Badger saw the Beatles and the Rolling Stones play live in Finsbury Park! The Astoria Finsbury Park (now UKCG church on Seven Sisters Road, just opposite Fontwell Road) used to be London’s hottest venue – and never more so than when the Fab Four came to…
Jerry White: author of Campbell Bunk the worst street in London

Jerry White: author of Campbell Bunk the worst street in London

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Everyone has a story. Professor Jerry White is one of London’s leading social historians. He started his career inspecting homes in Islington after taking a job as a Public Health Inspector for Islington Council back in the 1970s. Jerry has written many history books about London including Islington’s most notorious…
Joseph Chamberlain, George Orwell & Horace Warner: grave voices

Joseph Chamberlain, George Orwell & Horace Warner: grave voices

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Everyone has a story, but in this EXCLUSIVE SUMMER HOLIDAY discovery, Islington Faces blog can reveal the secrets and sentimentality of famous Islington residents – politician Joseph Chamberlain, critic/writer George Orwell and photographer Horace Warner. Prepare to be amazed by these men’s frank revelations about their time in Islington – and…

Ivy Allan Freeman: Islington memories from 1933

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Everyone has a story. Perhaps it is because Ivy Allan Freeman has been living in the US for nearly 50 years that her memories of growing up near King’s Cross – with the sound of horses’ hooves on the cobbles and later the terrifying air raids – are so astonishingly vivid. Here…