The Oliver & Hare

Welcome to Our Corner of North London

The Oliver & Hare started as a quiet project between neighbours who wanted to document the everyday magic of living in Islington. We are not estate agents, not tour guides, just residents who have spent years walking these streets and thought it worth sharing what we notice. The name comes from two old pub signs we used to pass on our morning walks, both long gone now, but the memory stuck.

Islington has changed a great deal over the past couple of decades. The high street is busier, the canal paths are better kept, and you can get a decent flat white on almost every corner. But some things remain remarkably constant: the Saturday crowds at Chapel Market, the number 38 bus grinding up Pentonville Road, the heron that fishes by the lock near City Road Basin. This site is about those details, the ones that make a place feel like home rather than just a postcode.

We write when something strikes us as worth noting. Sometimes it is a new bakery that has got the sourdough right, sometimes it is the way the light falls through the plane trees on a winter afternoon. We do not publish to a schedule, and we are not trying to be comprehensive. Think of this as a scrapbook rather than a guidebook.

The Character of the Neighbourhood

Islington sits just north of the City, bordered by King's Cross to the east and Holloway to the north. It is a borough of contrasts: grand Georgian squares alongside post-war estates, independent bookshops next to chain coffee shops, quiet residential streets that open suddenly onto roaring main roads. Upper Street runs like a spine through the area, lined with restaurants, pubs and small theatres. Off the main drag, the streets narrow and curve, revealing unexpected courtyards and mews houses tucked behind Victorian terraces.

The Regent's Canal cuts through the southern edge, a ribbon of relative calm where narrowboats moor and joggers lap the towpath. On summer evenings the canal-side pubs fill with people clutching pints and perching on any available wall. In winter the path is muddier and quieter, but there is something satisfying about having it almost to yourself, watching the moorhens paddle under the bridges.

Places We Keep Coming Back To

Every neighbourhood has its anchors, the places that shape your routines and mark the passage of seasons. Here are a few that matter to us, though this is by no means an exhaustive list.

• Chapel Market on a Saturday morning, especially the vegetable stalls at the north end where the prices are chalked on boards and the stallholders remember your face.
• The second-hand bookshop on Essex Road that smells faintly of damp paper and always seems to have exactly the obscure paperback you were half-looking for.
• The stretch of Regent's Canal between Islington Tunnel and the Narrowboat pub, particularly in early autumn when the leaves start turning but have not yet fallen.
• The small Italian deli near the Angel that makes sandwiches to order and where the queue at lunchtime snakes out onto the pavement.
• Highbury Fields on a clear Sunday afternoon when families bring picnic blankets and dogs chase tennis balls across the grass.

Seasonal Observations

London is not known for dramatic seasons, but if you pay attention the shifts are there. Spring arrives slowly, first as crocuses in the squares, then as a gradual greening of the plane trees along Upper Street. By late April the canal towpath is noisy with nesting coots and the market stalls begin selling strawberries that actually taste of something.

Summer can be glorious or sweltering depending on your tolerance for crowded Tube carriages. The outdoor tables fill up, the parks become essential, and every third person seems to be carrying an ice lolly from the corner shop. Evening light lasts until half past nine, which makes everything feel more forgiving.

Autumn is perhaps the finest season here. The tourists thin out, the pavements are covered in conkers and plane leaves, and the light turns golden in that particular way that makes you want to walk just a bit further. The pubs light their fires and the market stalls start selling pumpkins and root vegetables.

Winter is harder but has its own rewards. Frost on the railings of the squares, the Christmas lights along Upper Street that go up in mid-November and stay until January, the way a warm pub feels when you step in from the cold. The canal can look bleak on a grey afternoon, but there is something honest about it, stripped of the summer gloss.

Getting About

Angel station is the main Tube hub, on the Northern Line. It is deep and the escalators are long, which you remember every time you are running late. Highbury & Islington has both Overground and Victoria Line connections, useful if you are heading east or north. King's Cross is a short bus ride or a twenty-minute walk if you cut through the estates.

Buses are often quicker than the Tube for short hops. The 38 runs along Upper Street and down to Victoria. The 73 connects you to King's Cross and then loops round to Stoke Newington. The 4 goes west towards Archway. Most locals have a bus route or two memorised and rarely think about it.

Walking is the best way to understand the area. Islington is dense enough that you can cover a lot of ground in half an hour, and the street layout rewards wandering. The canal towpath offers a traffic-free route if you are heading towards King's Cross or further east. Cycling is common though the main roads are not always kind to bikes. Side streets are calmer but often narrow.

A Few Practical Notes

Rent and house prices here are not cheap, reflecting the central location and good transport links. Expect a one-bedroom flat to start around £1,400 per month, more if you are near Upper Street or the canal. Buying is out of reach for most without significant savings or help. The housing stock is a mix: Victorian conversions, modern purpose-built blocks, some lovely Georgian terraces if you are very lucky or very wealthy.

For groceries, there is a Waitrose near the Angel, a Sainsbury's on Liverpool Road, and the usual corner shops scattered throughout. Chapel Market is worth visiting for fruit, vegetables and bits of everything else, though it is not as cheap as it used to be. The independent shops are holding on but face the same pressures as everywhere: rising rents, online competition, changing habits.

Crime is relatively low compared to some parts of London, though bike theft is common and you should always lock up properly. The usual urban caution applies: keep an eye on your belongings, avoid poorly lit shortcuts late at night, trust your instincts. Most of the time it feels perfectly safe, just busy.

Why We Keep Writing

There are plenty of blogs about London, many more polished and comprehensive than this one. We are not trying to compete with them. This is simply a record of what it is like to live here, in this particular part of the city, during these particular years. When we moved to Islington we wished someone had told us about the good bakery on the corner, or which bus to take to avoid the worst of the traffic, or where the quietest bit of the canal was. We are trying to be that person for someone else, or at least to document these details before they fade.

The city changes constantly. Shops close, new ones open, buildings are renovated or demolished, the population shifts. In ten years this account will be partially out of date, a snapshot of a moment. That is fine. It will still capture something true about the rhythms and textures of this place, even if the specific details have moved on. If you are new to the area, or thinking about moving here, or just curious about this corner of North London, we hope you find something useful or interesting in these pages.