The much gentrified Islington, spiritual home to New Labour and more recently attractive to wealthy City types, offers fine Georgian and Victorian terraces and upmarket luxury developments of apartments and houses

N1 is a postcode of extremes. Its central parish, Islington, remains a byword for a liberal arriviste armed with a frappuccino; Barnsbury and Canonbury have generally maintained decency throughout their history; Pentonville has long lost the genteel aspect which accompanied its birth; De Beauvoir Town is an uneasy blend of class and deprivation while Hoxton has undergone only a partly successful gentrification. At the heart of N1 Islington has had a good reputation for all but the first half of the twentieth century. Its central shopping streets have changed beyond recognition in the last few decades but once away from the buzzing world of Upper Street, Liverpool Road and Parkfield Street we find some seriously desirable housing.

The flavour east of the shopping district is long rows of quiet Georgian terraces. There are three arms of the Grand Union Canal a little further to the east and new apartment blocks have sprung up to exploit the allure of waterside loft life.

It is to the north and west of the shopping heart of Islington that some truly sumptuous squares can be found - Cloudesley (1820s), Milner (1840s) and the "stucco Tudor" of Lonsdale (1830s) chief among them. An old hospital was converted here to ninety units in the Nineties.

As with Barnsbury next door many roads have been deliberately blocked off and peace reigns where no rat run can go. Some council infilling occurred after 1945 such as Canonbury Court and the Popham Estate either side of Essex Road.

Islington Green, where Essex Road and Upper Street meet, has seen a recent spate of development and various apartment blocks have gone up around this area.

Barnsbury is in the north-west corner of N1 and is a little-known gem, its relative anonymity a surprise given its proximity to Kings Cross and Islington.

The area is a creation of affluent small estates set up in the district between 1820 and 1850. Its homogeneity is fiercely guarded by its residents, who have led succesful campaigns to close some roads off to prevent rat running and to maintain what must surely be the calmest corner of N1.

Take your pick from the quiet architectural delights of Barnsbury. There are the Thomas Cubitt's pattern houses in Manchester Terrace (1827); the tall four-storey terraces of Roumieu & Gough from 1840 in Milner Square; or the cute terraced cottages of 1840s Ripplevale Grove.

A few Edwardian mansion flat creations break the pattern such as Sutton Dwellings from 1914 and the 1910 Samuel Lewis flats further north by Highbury station.

Canonbury forms the northernmost section of N1. It began a sedate life in much the same way and at much the same time as its neighbour Barnsbury but the villas here were a little grander.

Time has brought mixed fortunes to Canonbury. One experiment was the 1973 creation of the sprawling Marquess Estate near the train station, but this aside, the general tenor of Canonbury is a mix of very desirable properties.

Some of these date from the area's early Victorian origins, some grander houses from the late Victorian age and inter-war semis complete the scene.

The Marquess is to be avoided, but more successful post-war estates in Canonbury have popped up in Compton Road, Canonbury Street and Dixon Clark Court.

Hoxton forms the south-eastern corner of N1. The area has had a colourful history and in recent times the word has become synonymous with hip loft conversions, new media types and the relentless pillorying of the area in Private Eye's "It's Grim Up North London".

Gentrification hereabouts has been uneven and has resulted in mixed fortunes. Hoxton was always a poor area and today it presents a wild mishmash of styles, dates and desirability. Fine Victorian houses survives in the likes of Charles Square and Shepherdess Walk.

Later Victorian and Edwardian mansion blocks can be found with the Haberdasher and Provost Estates. More unpopular Sixties estates can be avoided around Chart and Fanshaw Streets.

Hackney Council have long been amenable to live/work leases and this has benefited Hoxton with its myriad warehouse and factory conversions. The Chocolate Factory, Gainsborough Studios and the Canal Building are among the most famous.

New flats have sought to exploit Hoxton's sudden popularity, most of them close to Hoxton Square itself.

Easternmost N1 is De Beauvoir Town, and the area's post-war history is the classic battle between demolition of the old and over-optimism in the new.

De Beauvoir is now a area of two halves showing how far the planned demolition of the Sixties got. Along with Hoxton this part of N1 is the only section not under the tutelage of Islington Council, and in its post-war schemes Hackney Council wanted to flatten De Beauvoir completely.

The district was developed in the 1840s, with its centrepiece then and now the ornate neo-Jacobean villas of De Beauvoir Square. The area remained a desirable one until world wars and multi-occupancy brought the tone down.

Before they could bring the authorities to heel the locals had to watch the southern third of De Beauvoir razed to the ground to see its replacement with nineteen-storey blocks and slabs of maisonettes that become the De Beauvoir Estate.

By 1969 the local association had the rest of the district zoned as a conservation area and De Beauvoir north of the Grand Union Canal remains eminently sought-after. More sensitive apartment blocks have appeared in the area since the Eighties.

Pentonville forms the south-western corner of N1. Its fortunes are in stark contrast to that of Barnsbury. This part of our postcode suffered grievously from bombing in the Second World war and the estates which sprung up in its wake attest to it.

The area had far more salubrious origins as it began its life as one of London's earliest planned estates in 1773 by the Winchester MP Henry Penton, but in time the arrival of the termini of Kings Cross and St. Pancras brought a reversal in fortune.

Overcrowding in Pentonville had forced the hand of authority before the war and in 1936 the Barnsbury Estate was begun. This would be extended after hostilities ceased and would be accompanied by the Bemerton Estate and the flavour of the area became resolutely public sector housing.

Some mid-Victorian terraces survive in the area closest to Kings Cross station, an area now also boasting the 1990s creation of Regent Quarter, a 138-home site built with a blend of new building and reused industrial units.

First, the bad news: this is London's least green area and N1 is no place to indulge your love of parks or gardens. Much of the tended open areas in the postcode have been the recent work of the natives:

- Culpeper Community Garden on Cloudesley Road has a wide variety of both plants and events each year.

- Others include Barnsbury Wood, a selection of trees and shrubs by Thornhill Crescent and Hoxton Community Garden on Hoxton Street.

- New River Walk, a "miniature linear park" opened in 1954 shadowing the New River in Canonbury. More conventional open areas include Edward Square on Copenhagen Street, Islington Green and Shoreditch Park on New North Road.

- N1's biggest open tract is the 9 acre Barnard Park on Copenhagen Street. The park has a children's adventure playground and hosts a One O'clock Club for the under-4s.

Further facilities for the youngest residents of N1 include:

- 'Crumbles Castle' playground on Bingfield Road, the after-school Canonbury Playcentre on Canonbury Road and Islington Play Association on Bridgeman Road.

For the well-being of the older among us there are complementary medicines to be found in:

- The Healthy Living Centre on St. Paul's Road, a Pilates Institute on New North Road, Cally Swimming Pool on Caledonian Road and an Osteopathy Clinic on Upper Street.

- St. Leonard's Hospital can be found on Nuttall Street and GPs and health centres can be found on Carnegie Street, Mitchison Road, Copenhagen Street, Ritchie Street, Elizabeth Avenue, Southgate Road and St. Paul's Road. For the family cat there is a vet on Essex Road.

The area has a name for fringe theatres:

- The King's Head on Upper Street has been going since 1970 and the Rosemary Branch Theatre on Shepperton Road deals with opera, cabaret and plays.

- The Little Angel Theatre on Dagmar Passage is unique, dedicated since 1961 to the art of puppetry, while the Courtyard Theatre on York Way is home to the Court Theatre Training Company.

Live music outlets hereabouts are:

- The Carling Academy in Parkfield Street and the highly regarded Union Chapel in Compton Terrace, which also deals in plays and stand up comedy.

Other facilities in N1 include:

- The very popular Crafts Council, promoting contemporary crafts in the form of exhibitions, education and a library. On Upper Street is the Screen on the Green, one of the 'Screens' group intelligent enough to offer more than just the latest Hollywood heavyweight.

- One of N1's more specialized delights is the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in Canonbury Square, known around the art world for its core of Italian Futurist work. Other galleries can be found in Cross Street, Angel Mews and Hoxton Square.

But none of the above is what drags the world to N1, and Islington and the Angel in particular. It would be hard to imagine boarded-up shops on Upper Street now but not too long ago that was the case.

This part of the world has become a shopping leviathan, though nothing comes bigger in these parts than the Business Design Centre on Upper Street:

- A new shopping mall at the Angel has been complemented by another on Liverpool Street replete with a multiscreen cinema.

- Upper Street has become a retail melee between the two. It takes the weight off the parallel Islington High Street/Camden Passage, famed for its antiques market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Next door, a converted tramshed called the Mall allows antique hunters to indulge their passion the rest of the week.

- A more down to earth fruit & veg market can be found on Chapel Street. A Farmers' Market has now appeared as well, to be found on Essex Road.

The stereotype of Upper Street now is that of coffee bars. This is a useful historical accident - the raised pavements which allow people some respite from the traffic came into being because this was an area for horse stabling and pavements were raised so as to prevent pedestrians from being splattered with something worse than rainwater.

It pays to live close to the borders of N1 if trains and tubes are particularly desirable. The Northern Line (Bank branch) runs alongside the southern edge of N1 with the adjacent stations, east to west, of Old Street, Angel and King's Cross.

King's Cross intersects with other tube lines, namely Victoria, Piccadilly, Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City. It is, of course, one of Britain's most famous rail termini and with its sister stations Euston and St. Pancras close by can cover most railway destinations on the island.

Paralleling this is the northern border of N1 along which the old Richmond to North Woolwich North London Line runs. Stations here, from east to west, are Dalston Kingsland, Canonbury, Highbury & Islington and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury.

The only tracks that actually cross through the postcode leave the centre of London at Moorgate and call at Old Street, Essex Road at the junction of Canonbury Road and Essex Road, and Highbury & Islington.

In time the eastern border of N1 should be catered for with the East London Line extension. This will create new stations at Hoxton and Haggerston along Kingsland Road before joining up with Dalston Kingsland station. This will bring N1 into contact with London south of the river.

Steve Roberts

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