Islington - Housing

Housing

Some early development took place to accommodate the popularity of the nearby Sadler's Wells, which became a resort in the 16th century, but the 19th century saw the greatest expansion in housing, soon to cover the whole parish. In 1801, the population was 10,212, but by 1891 this had increased to 319,143. This rapid expansion was partly due to the introduction of horse-drawn omnibuses in 1830. Large well-built houses and fashionable squares drew clerks, artisans and professionals to the district. However, from the middle of the 19th century the poor were being displaced by clearances in inner London to build the new railway stations and goods yards. Many of the displaced settled in Islington, with the houses becoming occupied by many families. This, combined with the railways pushing into outer Middlesex, reduced Islington's attraction for the "better off" as it became "unfashionable". The area fell into a long decline; and by the mid-20th century, it was largely run-down and a byword for urban poverty.. The author K M Warwick was born in 1957 in Islington, and recalls it as a place scarred by bomb damage and that half of Sonderberg Road was a bomb-site that quickly sent his family scurrying away to Essex to a new life, along with many other families.

World War II caused much damage to Islington's housing stock, with 3,200 dwellings destroyed. Before the war a number of 1930s council housing blocks were added to the stock, but it was after the war, partly as result of bomb site redevelopment, that the council housing boom really got into its stride, reaching its peak in the 1960s with the construction of several extensive estates, both by the Metropolitan Borough of Islington and the London County Council. Clearance of the worst terraced housing was still undertaken but Islington continued to be very densely populated with a high level of overcrowding.

From the 1960s, the remaining Georgian terraces were rediscovered by middle-class families and many of the houses were rehabilitated, with the area becoming newly fashionable. This displacement of the poor by the aspirational has become known as gentrification. Among these new residents were a number of the central figures in the New Labour movement, including Tony Blair before his victory in the 1997 general election. "Islington is widely regarded as the spiritual home of Britain's left-wing intelligentsia" (The Guardian). The Granita Pact between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair is said to have been made at a now defunct restaurant on Upper Street. The district still has many council blocks, but the local authority has begun to remove a few of them, such as the Packington Estate, and replace them with more attractive mixed developments.

The completion of the Victoria line and redevelopment of Angel tube station created the conditions for developers to renovate many of the early Victorian and Georgian townhouses, and build developments of luxury apartments, popular with City professionals who could then walk or cycle to the nearby City. The inns of the 17th century have been replaced by busy gastropubs and trendy wine bars. Small shops selling bijou items are increasingly being priced out of the area and replaced by national (and international) chains, although many boutiques remain. Islington remains a district with diverse inhabitants, with its millionaires' houses and apartments not far from social housing in immediately neighbouring Islington districts such as Finsbury and Clerkenwell to the south, Bloomsbury and King's Cross to the west, and Highbury to the north west, and also the Hackney districts of De Beauvoir and Old Street to the north east. Islington has become one of the most desirable places to live in London, reflected by the number of housing developments announced in late 2011 and early 2012 at prices considerably higher than those achieved in comparable west London districts such as Chelsea and Notting Hill, and the highest recorded growth in house prices anywhere in London in 2011, reported as 15% in the Evening Standard.