UNITED

North London Together

A gathering on a Tuesday evening of 100,000 people on the streets of Islington celebrating Arsenal’s title win into the early hours was a sharp contrast to Tommy Robinson’s Unite The Kingdom March of a few days earlier.

A literal sea of diversity and genders gathered together in unity, real unity. The mood, buoyant, the atmosphere electric and the harmony obvious. This said more about modern Britain than the gathering in Whitehall where hate, fear and loathing held sway. Where animosity and suspicion were the default.

The unity seen outside the Emirates stadium was genuine in its shared passion. These people did not come together to show that they hated someone else but that they loved the same thing.

People decided to leave their houses, bars, pubs and restaurants to take part in a shared experience. This was not prearranged, this was a spontaneous moment that showed that a shared cause brings out the best in people when that shared cause has values and is inclusive.

There was no in fighting, no arrests, no one was made to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable.There was no ego, this was purely a show of pride and celebration.

The red and white Flag of Saint George was weaponised at the UTK march whereas the red and white Arsenal colours were on display as a shared positive experience.

The only way is Upper street

on their way to upper street

Upper Street was my manor (as they say in Guy Richie movies) as I grew up. For me it started at Compton Terrace, with its beautiful topiary and flower beds situated just after Highbury Roundabout, and ended at The Angel.
Many of the shops have gone, replaced by trend and nicety. Once the only effete part of Upper Street was Camden Passage with its Antiques and object d’art, now Upper Street is awash with pleasant eateries and boutiques. Not a bad thing at all as the poverty I was surrounded by in my youth was not at all glamorous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpmizWuceTs
walking the walk modern style

I remember the variety and character of a walk down Upper Street; Maggie May’s Music shop, a record shop cum Ice cream emporium. Clarkes shoes where I would do my Harry worth impression in the large glass window. Bellers the shop with numerous wooden draws that housed everything from thermal pants to string vests. The Hare & Hounds, now a  trendy pub slash bar that, rumour has it, was once the sight of a decapitation. Next to it Sutton Dwellings, where I stood in the throng to see Arsenal’s victorious 1971 double winners hold aloft their trophies at the town hall. St Marys Church where my school friends and  I would fight to sit on the pew donated by Arsenal.

Marsden’s Wine lodge where I spent many a Saturday afternoon as a child with a bottle of coke and a straw getting tipsy on the fumes. Canonbury Book Shop a small space with books, paints pencils and all manner of creative items.The Screen on The Green when it was the old fleapit and home to the most famous gig of the Punk era..

The Co-op next to the funeral parlour. John Dory’s Fish and chip shop and The Hope and Anchor, with its regular bands in the basement; I recall Be-Bop Deluxe;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBCU7GCprWk
bbd
 Kilburn & the High Roads and Doctor Feelgood appearing there on a regular basis along with the more mainstream Blue Mink (names to conjure with).

The pubs on Upper Street were always busy and seemed rather glamorous. The Fox which became the generic Slug and lettuce, the Wheatsheafs which became the generic Walkabout bar The Champion which now changes from year to year. The Kings Head where the customer was bamboozled post decimalisation with the charging policy being pedantically Old money.Next door the Old Post office; another example of great architecture.

Running parallel to Upper Street where the bland Essex Road to the East and the dull Liverpool Road to the West. Further west was the no mans land of The Callie.The only reason for venturing into Essex Road were, as a kid, Saturday Morning pictures at the beautiful Art Deco Carlton; now inevitably a Bingo Hall. And as a teenager The Tiberton Arms, The Tib as it was known for a late night drink in the small Pub filled with Islington’s beautiful people; the chaps and birds from the manor.

The Angel ended just before Angel Tube and spread sideways to Chapel Market. Going “Up Chap” meant shopping, Ice Cream by the lost children’s post, Pie & Mash and the man with the stall selling canteens of cutlery and dubious canned goods. It also meant Apple and Spam fritters and being subjected to casual racism on occasion.

Overall I have fond recollections of the place and when I venture down that way I see memories everywhere. Being an Islington boy was good, very good indeed.

Over at http://yesterdayswine-weaverman.blogspot.com/ you will find a video showing the Upper street experience courtesy of Weaverman.

where angels fear to tread

Saturday night was spent in my old stomping ground Islington. It’s been a while since I have been there, particularly on a Saturday. It was a night where I experienced both sides of the Borough I grew up in and has left me rather melancholic.

The first stop was meeting friends in a pub with a Saturday night buzz just off Chapel street,where I went as a child shopping with my mother who used the promise of pie and mash to get me to go with her. Now normally I don’t really like a place that could be described as having a buzz but this was nice. I guess you would describe the clientele as upwardly mobile (to cut and paste a phrase from days gone by) what was so pleasant was that the people in there seemed to be having a nice evening and there was no undertow of aggression that can sometimes rear it’s ugly head at the weekend.

We then moved on to a pub on Caledonian Road,always a strangely isolated part of Islington, to celebrate a friend’s birthday. As with these get togethers there was a mixture of people I knew and those I had not previously met. Those that I knew, I had got to know through work, even so I felt more comfertable half an hour before surrounded by strangers.The place was almost the opposite of the previous pub in as much as it felt old fashioned and reminded me very much of old Islington.I have clearly changed over the years as I felt more at ease in the first venue than the latter.It reminded me of the many nights spent out and about in The Angel and it's environs.It made me realsie that I had changed(a lot)not in to a snob i don't think but into someone who has self educated themself and seen that your upbringing need not hold you back. A night on the 'Cally' had given me a chance to dip my toe back into an earlier period in my life.

As i departed, like Cinderella, on the stroke of midnight I felt that I was leaving an old forgotten part of me behind.I felt quite sad but also glad that I had outgrown the past and moved forward to better things.

A Movie set in Islington for reference;


In one of her first roles, Australian actress Diane Cilento plays an angel sent on a goodwill mission to Earth. Landing in the Angel, Islington — ho, ho — she pawns her harp, wins some dosh on the greyhounds and sets about sorting out the romantic, economic and housing problems of the ordinary folk she encounters. What this movie relies on is the charm and attractiveness of Miss Cilento, who later became Mrs Sean Connery