Second edition published by popular demand in 2020 with minor additions and illustrations. What makes Islington so special? What is its fascination? In Essential Islington: From Boadicea to Blair, first published to mark the millennium, Pamela Shields goes some way to explain the character and charm of London’s Greenwich Village. This A-Z covers every aspect of the borough from prehistoric times to the year 2000. Essential Islington brings together the facts of Islington’s past, but also recounts local legends and urban myths. The author delves into Islington’s ancient history, when elephants and crocodiles roamed around what is now Kings Cross and Pentonville. She recalls the agricultural Islington of the middle ages, when pilgrims and drovers sheltered at what became the Angel Inn and City dwellers took refuge in Islington village during times of plague and fire. She describes the world of the clerks and professionals who lived in Islington’s Georgian and Victorian terraces, and the rich, eccentric, varied history of the built-up borough in the twentieth century. This is the story of the architecture, streets, shops, theatres, cinemas, churches, chapels and parks that contribute to Islington’s character and history. Also featured are world famous people, household names who lived in Islington such as George Orwell and Joe Orton who have commemorative plaques and John Lydon and Douglas Adams who, strangely, at the time of writing do not. The mass of facts and figures Pamela Shields has collected, the rumour and speculation, scandal and gossip, as well as the wealth of human detail, makes her book illuminating reading for everyone who enjoys London’s history. Pamela, who many years ago tutored the Guiding for Tourists course at City University, still has a passion for Islington where she lived for ten years. She left its seductive distractions to write this, her first book. Twenty-one years later, she is delighted and flattered by requests to re-issue Essential Islington.