Islington

No plumbing today! Work took me back to Angel Islington. It was a lovely sunny day so I took a moment to look up. It always amazes me. London has some world class architecture, as good as any other major European city, and lots of it. The thing is, at street level it is all plain flat glass frontages with Next, Boots, Tesco Express, K Shoes, McDonalds etc. etc. same same same.

Looking up however is a different world. This building "The Angel" was originally an inn near a toll gate on the Great North Road, now the corner of Islington High Street and Pentonville Road.

Originally dating back to before 1665 it was rebuilt in 1819 and became a coaching inn; the first staging post outside the City of London. It became a local landmark and was mentioned in Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens "The coach rattled away and, turning when it reached the Angel at Islington...........".

Rebuilt again 1899 in pale terracotta stone with this corner cupola, it was a Lyons Coffee House. So there we go. I will look up more Dickensian stuff when I get down to Borough High Street and London Bridge.