LONDON BOROUGH OF ISLINGTON

Introduction

This paper represents the submission of the Islington Conservative Federation, which covers both

constituencies in the London Borough of Islington, to the Local Government Boundary Commission’s

consultation on ward boundaries in the borough. The Conservatives presently have no councillors in

Islington but ran a full slate of candidates at the most recent council election in 2018.

Councillor numbers

The electorate forecast indicates that the borough will have 168,368 electors in 2024. This means

each councillor should represent 3,301 electors (+/- 10%) at that date.

The Commission’s forecast is only broken down to the level of the polling district. Where we have

split a polling district we have had to estimate the number of electors affected.

Warding pattern

On the basis of the submission by Islington Council, the Commission recommend the borough have

51 councillors in future. We note that 51 is divisible by three and therefore the borough could be

divided into 17 three-member wards.

However, the Commission’s practice in other London boroughs which it has reviewed so far is to

move away from a uniform three-member ward model toward a mixture of two- and three-member

wards, and occasionally one-member wards.

We have approached this question with an open mind and find that a mixture of two- and three-

member wards allows us to far better reflect the communities and the ‘natural’ boundaries (i.e.

including man-made boundaries such as major roads) of the borough.

Nature of the borough/natural boundaries

Islington is an inner London borough, founded in 1964 from the amalgamation of the former

metropolitan boroughs of Finsbury (which, apart from the Pentonville area and a short spur around

the City Road Basin, covered the area south of Pentonville Road and City Road – A501) and Islington.

At 14.86 km2, or 5.74 square miles, it is the third-smallest local authority in Britain (ahead of

Kensington and Chelsea, and the City of London). With an estimated 2017 population density of

15,817 people per km2, Islington has the highest population density of any local authority in Britain.

Islington is a growing borough. The 2011 census showed that the borough had over 30,000 people

than it did in 2001 (2001: 175,787; 2011: 206,125); an increase of over 17% in ten years. The mid-

2017 population estimate is 235,000, a further rise of nearly 30,000 and representing a 14% rise in

six years since 2011. The electorate forecast provided by the Commission shows a projected increase

of over 19,000 between 2019 and 2024 and this in an uneven pattern across the borough, with

particularly strong growth in the south of the borough, which requires major change to the existing

warding pattern. In common with most inner London boroughs, the rapid growth of the borough is

driven by migration (both from outside the UK and within the UK).

The housing pattern of Islington is determined by its historical growth. In the Georgian era, City

traders and merchants began to build houses outside the historic city limits in what is now Finsbury.

This was the centre of population growth for a long time; we find from the 1801 census that 55,515

people lived in the five parishes and extra-parochial places that became the metropolitan borough

Finsbury, whereas only 10,212 people lived in the parish of St. Mary, Islington (i.e. what became the

metropolitan borough of Islington). From this era we date the rows of Georgian terraces seen

throughout the south of the borough.

Later, with the coming of the railways and buses, the north of the borough was opened up to

development. Places such as Holloway, Finsbury Park and Highbury became known for the growth of

Victorian suburban villadom (it should be remembered that the clerk Mr. Pooter, from Diary of a

Nobody, lived at The Laurels, Brickfield Terrace, Holloway; a fictional address supposedly based on

Pemberton Gardens in Upper Holloway). It is in this era that the borough reaches its highest

recorded population, 412,944, in 1911.

The twentieth century saw the City commuter move away from Islington and other inner London

areas to rural and suburban areas in Middlesex. Finsbury began to decline in population in the late

nineteenth century while Islington did not begin to decline until the inter-war era. As the borough

became more working-class some of the first blocks of council housing were built.

A large part of the borough was devastated by bombing during the Second World War. In

accordance with the town planning principles that were in place in London, the post-war era saw

large-scale building of council housing estates. The population of the borough reached its post-war

nadir at 157,512 in the 1981 census.

Since then, as discussed above, the population of the borough has increased, principally through

migration from outside the borough1 for people working in the City or in new jobs such as at ‘Silicon

Roundabout’ (Old Street). To accommodate these new workers many new homes have been built,

often of a luxury type and often high density with many storeys.

Thus the housing of the borough is a complete mixture, and all within the space of six square miles.

Consequently all different types of housing – centuries-old four-storey townhouses (often now sub-

divided), blocks of council flats, and high-rise skyscrapers of brand new luxury apartments – can exist

cheek-by-jowl, often in the same street. It can therefore be difficult to distinguish communities in

the borough by reference to homogeneous blocks of one type of housing forming a natural

community in the way it may in more settled areas.

Owing to the massive population change in the borough, it is not the case that many residents of the

borough define the communities they live in with reference to boundaries of long-standing, such as

former parish or metropolitan borough boundaries, where they no longer bear relation to the

situation on the ground. A resident of Pentonville, for example, would be unlikely to say they live in

Finsbury despite the historical association; they would be more likely to suggest Finsbury was the

1 Per the mid-2017 population estimates, the borough’s population grew by 2,945 since mid-2016: the components of this being (a) births 2,979, (b) deaths 1,094, (c) internal migration inflow 22,712, (d) internal migration outflow 24,959, (e) international migration inflow 7,712, (f) international migration outflow 4,385. It can therefore be seen that migration from within or without the UK is by far the major driver of population growth in the borough.

area south of Pentonville Road, because that four-lane highway constitutes a far stronger barrier

between the various areas of the borough than the historical line. We also find a certain tendency

among new residents to define where they live by their nearest railway or underground station, and

to say that they live “at Essex Road”, or “at Caledonian Road”. These modern usages to a great

extent reflect the communities of the borough as they are now and we have sought to have regard

to the 21st Century reality on the ground in suggesting new ward boundaries.

As a result of this the strongest boundaries in the borough are inevitably going to be main roads and

railway lines which from strong barriers between residential areas (we would also suggest parkland,

but the borough has no significant parks whatsoever, the largest being Highbury Fields at only 29

acres).

The three principal roads of the borough are:

1) the A501 (Pentonville Road and City Road) running east to west through the southern part of

the borough, past the Angel;

2) the A1 (Upper Street and Holloway Road) running north to south from the Angel to Archway,

where it passes into Haringey; and

3) the A503, which through most of the borough splits into two one-way roads, eastbound

traffic taking the more northerly Parkhurst Road and Seven Sisters Road, and westbound

traffic taking the more southerly Tollington Road and Camden Road.

Other important roads include

• the A104 (Essex Road) from the Angel to Mildmay;

• the A1200 (New North Road) from Highbury Corner to Hoxton;

• A5203 (Caledonian Road) from King’s Cross to Lower Hollolway where it meets the A1;

• A103 (Hornsey Road) from the Emirates Stadium, running roughly parallel with the A1, to

Crouch End;

• A1201 (Highbury Grove and Highbury Park) from Canonbury to Finsbury Park, via Highbury

Barn;

• A1199 (St Paul’s Road) from Highbury Corner to Dalston.

It is not possible to use all of these roads as boundaries throughout their entire length, nor in some

cases is it desirable. Almost most of these roads are three- or four-lane highways and form

significant barriers, in other areas they are down to two lanes and in some places form shopping

areas that act as focal points for communities rather than dividing lines between them. On the

whole, however, they are the principal barriers between communities in the borough.

The borough is well served by rail transport. Four London Underground lines serve the borough

(Circle line through Farringdon, Northern line through Old Street and Angel, Victoria line between

King’s Cross and Seven Sisters through Finsbury Park, and Piccadilly line between King’s Cross and

Manor House through Caledonian Road and Finsbury Park) but they do so almost entirely through

tunnels.

It is the four National Rail lines running through the borough that add further barriers to the

communities. The North London line through Caledonian Road & Barnsbury and Highbury & Islington

forms an east-west dividing line through the middle of the borough; the Gospel Oak to Barking line

through Upper Holloway and Crouch Hill is a similar line in the north of the borough. The two lines

(Thameslink from King’s Cross and Northern City Line from Moorgate) that run north through

tunnels until they reach the middle of the borough, then emerge above ground, pass the Arsenal

stadium on both east and west sides, and converge on Finsbury Park, form an inverted ‘V’-shape of

multiple lines running through Highbury and Lower Holloway, are the strongest examples of railway

lines forming dividing lines in the borough.

In conducting its boundary review of Islington in 1999, the then-Local Government Commission for

England was able to have some regard to the way communities are defined in Islington, but were

hindered by two principal factors:

1) an insistence on an all three-member ward model, in line with most other London boroughs,

in anticipation of London boroughs electing by thirds (a development which did not come

about); and

2) an insistence on a high (perhaps even artificial) degree of electoral equality. Under the 1999

proposals, no ward had a forecast electorate variance of more than 4% from the borough

average.

These two factors often combine to produce unwieldy wards which do not reflect the communities

of the borough. The opportunity exists to change that at this review.

Areas of the borough

We started by dividing the borough into five areas defined by main roads and railway lines as

follows:

1) Finsbury

2) Central-South (Islington/Canonbury)

3) Lower Holloway

4) Highbury

5) North (Upper Holloway/Tufnell Park/Finsbury Park)

We find that the wards that existed from 1978 to 2002 followed these boundaries:

The dividing lines that we have used are almost exclusively A-roads, with the exception of the North

London line running east-west through the middle of the borough. We will also make further use of

the A1 (Holloway Road) in the northern-most area.

Town centres

Islington Council, in its 2013 local plan, has designated four town centres within the borough2: Angel

and Nag’s Head (which are designated major town centres) and Archway and Finsbury Park (which

are designated district town centres).

A shopping area, such as a town centre, can either be a uniting factor, as residents from the

surrounding area come to the town centre to shop, or it can be a barrier between communities as

housing areas are set away from the town centre.

We are of the general view that the town centres as defined by Islington Council are more in the

nature of barriers between communities. As can be seen from the below maps, the town centres are

not compact areas as town centres usually are, but are instead linear developments focussed on a

single main road. The Angel town centre runs approximately three-quarters of a mile along Upper

Street and Essex Road; the Nag’s Head town centre runs about the same distance along Holloway

Road, with a shorter stretch along Seven Sisters Road; the Archway town centre runs a slightly

shorter distance along Junction Road and Holloway Road, either side of Archway; and the Finsbury

Park town centre runs for more than a mile along Stroud Green Road and Blackstock Road which

form the borough boundary here. Between the Finsbury Park and Nag’s Head town centres, almost

the whole length of Seven Sisters Road east of Nag’s Head falls into a town centre.

These are not town centres in the traditional sense but instead reflect that certain main roads in the

borough are linear shopping districts.

2 https://www.islington.gov.uk///~/media/sharepoint-lists/public-

records/planningandbuildingcontrol/publicity/publicconsultation/20132014/20130621development

managementpoliciesadoptiondraftjune2013

Conservation areas

The borough has 41 conservation areas, and the borough has stated that between them they cover

over 50% of the borough34. We have sought to respect the boundaries of conservation areas and

include them, where possible, entirely in one ward.

3 https://mapapp.islington.gov.uk/mapthatv3/Default.aspx?treeid=23 4 https://www.islington.gov.uk/~/media/sharepoint-lists/public-

records/planningandbuildingcontrol/information/guidance/20162017/20160913conservationareasc

adesignationdates.pdf

Bus routes

As an inner London borough, Islington is very well served with buses. However, due to the compact

nature of the borough, it is possible for buses to serve all the communities by running buses along

the main roads of the borough and not along any of the side streets or estate roads. Therefore it is

not possible to make the argument that a community, lying back from main roads, is connected by a

bus route. We therefore include a bus map for reference but bus links are not indicative of

community ties in the borough.

Social housing estates

Like all inner London boroughs, Islington contains a large number of social housing estates. Because

the borough was highly developed earlier on in London’s history, and because the borough did not

suffer the extensive damage during the Second World War that some other boroughs did, council

housing estates in Islington have tended to be of a smaller scale, with very few mass estates.

We understand the six largest estates in the borough are the Andover, Barnsbury, Douglas, Elthorne,

Harvist and York Way estates. Other large estates in the borough include the Hilldrop, Holly Park,

Market, Packington, Quadrant and Westbourne estates. Other estates in the borough are of smaller

size and often consist of ‘in-filling’. We have sought not to divide the estates of the borough

between wards because an estate is a community of itself, often with its own community centre and

other facilities.

A map of the estates of the borough is attached below5. (NB. the boundaries of the housing office

areas in this map are out of date)

5 https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/40464/response/107779/attach/2/FOI%20340742.

pdf?cookie_passthrough=1

Residents associations

There does not appear to be any central list of residents associations in the borough, although we

have noted a Freedom of Information request made to the ALMO Homes for Islington, listing the

tenants and residents associations they recognise6. This list is enclosed below and comprises a

reasonably complete list of residents associations in areas of social housing. This however is clearly

not a complete list for the whole borough.

6 https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/25428/response/68241/attach/html/3/FOI%20TRA.doc.html

Controlled parking zones

The council has divided the borough into a number of controlled parking zones. We note that the

boundaries of these generally follow the principal roads of the borough and in a number of areas

follow the boundaries of our wards or our five principal areas.7

7 https://www.islington.gov.uk/-/media/sharepoint-lists/public-

records/transportandinfrastructure/information/maps/20192020/20190501cpzmap.pdf?la=en&has

h=279CB44454DF2CEC4601EBC639FF998C06463A97