The Islington Museum

Stepping around mud and stones strewn along St John St at the Angel earlier today (one of the large watermains had burst late last night) I made my way down to the Islington Museum, which sits in an unassuming spot in the basement of Finsbury Library.

The museum is quite small, and as a consequence has a very tight focus on local history - don't expect long galleries full of bucolic country scenes executed in oils because you'll be sorely disappointed. What it does serve to do, however, is to act as a useful jumping off point for further exploration of the area. Several exhibits centre around the area's interesting architecture such as the Finsbury Health Centre in Pine St - a building which brought together doctors, dentists and optometrists for the first time to act as a one-stop shop for the local community all the way back in the 1930s. The church of Our Lady of Czestochowa and St Casmir also features - England's first Polish church, established by Polish immigrants at the end of the second world war. It also has a couple of quirky exhibits - were you aware for example that a controversial monument to Vladimir Lenin was erected in the borough in 1942? The bust of Lenin that formed the centrepiece can now be found in the museum...

A look around the wider area can also be quite rewarding - much like neighbouring Kings Cross there are small squares to be found all around the Angel, some featuring dramatic sculptures and monuments while others, like Myddleton Square I wandered through earlier today, play host to the area's more colourful population - a group of drunken and dishevelled older people were singing and dancing in the sunshine this afternoon... You can also take in the architecture of the City of London University (the 1930s Laboratory Building being the most dramatic I think) or the Saddlers Wells, or if you're feeling a bit peckish take a walk through Exmouth Market, with its cafes, restaurants and while you're there take in the grand edifice of the Holy Redeemer Church. You can see images of all of these, and the rest of the photographs that I took today, here.