Islington, London: the Charterhouse, St John's Gate, Sadler's Wells and Highbury Fields

The Charterhouse stands on Charterhouse Square, EC1M 6AN. In 1348 Sir Walter Manny leased the land of the square as a Black Death burial ground, and a Carthusian monastery was founded next to it in 1371. Prior John Houghton and his monks were executed during the dissolution of 1535-1540 and the house was taken by the Crown; Sir Edward North bought it in 1545 and turned it into a Tudor mansion. Thomas Sutton acquired Howard House in 1611, the first assembly of sixteen Governors met in 1613 and set rules for 80 pensioners, 40 scholars and 32 officials, and the Charterhouse Act confirmed the foundation in 1627. Charterhouse School moved out to Godalming in Surrey in 1872 and the almshouse remained. An incendiary bomb hit the buildings in 1941 and the Chapel survived because its heavy wooden door was closed; John Seely and Paul Paget led the 1945-1959 restoration, which recovered the monastic foundations and Sir Walter Manny's remains. The museum display, chapel and shop open Tuesday to Saturday 10.30am to 4.30pm, free and without booking, and guided tours run Tuesday to Saturday at 11am and 2.15pm. Charterhouse Square opens Tuesday to Sunday from early morning until dusk. The buildings are Grade I listed, NHLE 1298101, the Master's Lodge and attached railings separately Grade I, NHLE 1280100, and Pensioners' Court and Stable Court Grade II, NHLE 1195528.

St John's Gate on St John's Lane, EC1M 4DA, is dated to 1504 and is Grade I listed, NHLE 1208827. The Museum of the Order of St John holds the ground floor, with galleries and shop open Wednesday to Saturday, 9.30am to 5pm; the museum states that 'Visits to the Museum galleries and shop are free of charge to all. Donations are welcomed.' Three guided tours are offered: 'The Lost Priory of the Medieval Order of St John' and 'St John Ambulance: A Victorian Masterpiece', both 45 minutes, and 'Knights, Revellers & Saviours: The Many Lives of St John's Gate', 60 minutes. Tours are £15 per person, £11.25 with an Art Pass or Blue Light Card, free for St John Ambulance staff and volunteers, and £1 for Islington residents. The museum has been awarded £413,015 from Arts Council England's Museum Estate and Development Fund to repair and renew the roofs of the gate, and states it will remain open throughout the work.

The Priory Church of the Order of St John stands on the north side of St John's Square, EC1V 4JJ, about 120 m from the gate. Its Grade I entry is NHLE 1208840, which the National Heritage List names 'PRIORY CHURCH OF ST JOHN OF JERUSALEM'. The twelfth-century crypt survives beneath the church and is reached on the museum's 'Lost Priory' and 'Knights, Revellers & Saviours' tours. No source states opening hours for the church itself, so none are given here. About 200 m to the north-west lies the scheduled monument recorded as the Benedictine nunnery of St Mary, Clerkenwell, NHLE 1002003; a scheduled monument carries no grade.

The Marx Memorial Library is at 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1R 0DU, Grade II listed, NHLE 1279541, in the Clerkenwell Green Conservation Area. The Reading Room opens Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 11am to 4pm by appointment only, and the library is normally closed on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tours normally run on Mondays at midday and Thursdays at 4pm, at £10 full and £5 concession. The library publishes a summer closure: no tours from Monday 27 July to Thursday 3 September, no tour on Thursday 17 September, and the Reading Room closed from Tuesday 28 July to Thursday 3 September. It describes its home as a 'Grade-II listed, 18th century building' which 'currently has no lift and has various other issues with accessibility, including no step-free toilets'. The Grade I Clerk's Well survives in the basement of number 16, Farringdon Lane, NHLE 1298055, about 60 m away.

Exmouth Market is a pedestrianised street in Clerkenwell, EC1R. Islington Council gives street-market trading hours of Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm, and states that the market 'has over 20 designated pitches, serving great hot food, snacks and drinks'. The south-west end of the street is the junction of Rosebery Avenue and Farringdon Road; the north-east end runs into Rosoman Street and Tysoe Street. No operator publishes a single postcode for the street, so none is given here. Number 56 is Grade II listed, NHLE 1195589.

Roughly midway along the street stands the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, EC1R 4QE, about 110 m from the Rosebery Avenue and Farringdon Road end and about 140 m from the Rosoman Street end. It is Grade II* listed, NHLE 1209007, and the entry covers the church, clergy house, campanile and parish hall together, so the campanile is not a designation of its own. J. D. Sedding was the architect and the date of inception is 1888. The parish is an active Church of England parish and publishes Sunday worship at '11 am and 5 pm (5 pm only in term time)'. No source states general opening hours, so none are given here.

New River Head, 173 Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4UN, is the London terminus of the New River, the artificial watercourse opened in 1613 to bring water into the city. The former Metropolitan Water Board offices of 1915 are Grade II* listed, NHLE 1195722. Four further entries stand inside the enclosure, all Grade II: the former engine house with its attached boiler houses and coal store, NHLE 1195724; the windmill base, NHLE 1208526; the chimney conduit known as the Devil's Conduit in the Round Reservoir, NHLE 1208516; and the revetment of the old inner or round reservoir pound, NHLE 1298001. All five points lie within 130 m of the offices. The site sits in the New River Conservation Area, a borough designation that carries no list entry number. Most of the enclosure is private and part of it is under conversion, so the structures are seen from Rosebery Avenue and Amwell Street. A statue of Sir Hugh Myddelton, who drove the New River scheme, stands on Islington Green about 870 m north; it is Grade II, NHLE 1298044, and dates from 1862.

Sadler's Wells Theatre is on Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TN, Grade II listed, NHLE 1195725. The mineral spring was 'discovered in 1683 by Richard Sadler in the grounds of his music house'. Lilian Baylis took charge in 1925 and dance became the house's focus; the Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera all originated here. The 1990s rebuild produced a purpose-built dance theatre with 'a bigger stage and more seats as well as three rehearsal studios', plus the Lilian Baylis Studio. The main house seats 1,500 and the studio seats 180. The box office opens Monday to Saturday from 12pm to 6pm, on 020 7863 8000. Two K2 telephone kiosks beside the theatre are their own Grade II entries, NHLE 1208534 and NHLE 1293103, and Sadler House with its attached porter's lodge, immediately north, is Grade II*, NHLE 1246833.

Chapel Market runs west from Liverpool Road to Penton Street, N1 9EZ. Islington Council calls it 'the heart of the Angel' and states that it 'has been serving the local community for over 150 years'. It trades Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 6pm and Sunday 8.30am to 4pm, and Islington Farmers Market runs on the same street on Sundays from 10am to 2pm. Number 99 is Grade II listed, NHLE 1359561, added to the list on 7 March 2002. The street lies in the Chapel Market/Penton Street Conservation Area, a borough designation that carries no list entry number. Angel station is about 125 m from the Liverpool Road end, 356 m from the midpoint and about 390 m from the Penton Street end.

Camden Passage, N1 8EA, is a pedestrian lane running behind the east side of Upper Street, with the antiques trade in fixed shops and stalls rather than a covered market hall. Islington Council gives the hours as 'Main market days are Wednesday and Saturday from 8am to around 5pm'; the market's own site gives Wednesday and Saturday, 9am to 6pm, for 'Antique & vintage jewellery, vintage clothing, interesting one off items and collectables'. Both add that stalls may also operate on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, subject to change at short notice. Three groups of buildings in the passage are Grade II listed in their own right: numbers 39, 41 and 43, NHLE 1195492; numbers 31, 33 and 35, NHLE 1205427; and number 45, NHLE 1298084. The southern end of the passage is about 210 m from Angel station, the three listed groups 350 to 360 m, and the far end about 470 m.

The Business Design Centre occupies the former Royal Agricultural Hall at 52 Upper Street, N1 0QH, on the west side of the street about 340 m north of Angel station. It is Grade II listed, NHLE 1297949. The venue states it has 'roots dating back to 1861', gives an inception date of 1862 and a capacity of 5,330, and says that 'Over the past 40 years, the BDC has transformed from the Royal Agricultural Hall into' an events venue. It opens for ticketed events and exhibitions rather than as a walk-in attraction, and no source states general opening hours, so none are given here. Numbers 38, 90-92 and 140a/141-143 Upper Street are separately Grade II listed, NHLE 1195771, 1195772 and 1195773.

The Almeida Theatre is on Almeida Street, N1 1TA, a studio theatre in a former literary institute dated 1833, Grade II listed, NHLE 1195445. The auditorium holds 321 seats: 209 in the stalls and 112 in the circle. There is no lift, the circle is reached by one of two stairways of 27 steps each, and the stalls by six steps or a ramp. The box office number is 020 7359 4404. No source states building opening hours, so none are given here. Essex Road station is 503 m east of the theatre, Angel 737 m and Highbury & Islington 800 m by rail and 818 m to the Underground station.

The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art occupies Northampton Lodge, 39a Canonbury Square, N1 2AN. The building is Grade II listed as 'NORTHAMPTON LODGE AND ATTACHED RAILINGS', NHLE 1298096, added to the list on 20 September 1954, and stands in the Canonbury Conservation Area. It was 'constructed between 1807 and 1810 by the entrepreneur Henry Leroux of Stoke Newington', changed hands several times 'remaining a private home until 1916', and 'in the post-war period it was turned into an artificial flower factory, which continued to trade on the site until 1968'. The gallery opened in London in 1998 and 'comprises six galleries over three floors'. Eric Estorick (1913-93) was an American sociologist and writer who began collecting seriously after settling in England after the Second World War; the collection holds Boccioni, Carrà, Russolo, Modigliani, de Chirico, Sironi, Morandi, Rosso, Manzù and Marini. It opens Wednesday to Saturday 11.00 to 18.00 and Sunday 12.00 to 17.00, and closes Monday and Tuesday; on the final Thursday of each month it stays open until 21.00, with free entry for full-time students after 17.00. Admission is £9.50 adult, £7.50 concessions, £4.75 with a National Art Pass, £4.00 full-time students and £1.00 on Universal Credit, and free for members, under-18s and carers. Essex Road station is about 360 m away and Highbury & Islington about 440 m.

Union Chapel, 19b Compton Terrace, N1 2UN, is a working church, a music venue and the base of the Margins Project. James Cubitt was the architect and the date of inception is 1876. It is Grade I listed, NHLE 1208365, one of twelve Grade I entries inside the borough, which also holds 34 Grade II and 1,002 Grade II entries. The former Sunday school, lecture hall and vestry block behind it is separately Grade II, NHLE 1404206; numbers 1-16 Compton Terrace and attached railings are Grade II, NHLE 1293221, and a K2 telephone kiosk in front of the terrace is Grade II, NHLE 1195777, neither of them the chapel's own designation. The chapel runs Organ Reframed, a festival 'commissioning innovative music, introducing new artists and attracting new audiences to this versatile instrument since 2016', alongside the Anthony Richardson Organ Scholarship and free organ lessons to local schools. The Margins Project is 'a frontline charity offering a range of services supporting people facing homelessness and other critical living crisis'. The church side describes itself as an 'INCLUSIVE CHURCH' and holds services 'on site and in person every Sunday at 11am'. Highbury & Islington station is 271 m away.

Highbury Fields, N5, covers '11.75 hectares or 29.0 acres'. Islington Council lists a children's playground with sand pit and water play, a bandstand, a One O'Clock Club, the Oasis Café, one 50m x 26m floodlit artificial-turf football pitch, four netball courts, eleven floodlit tarmac tennis courts and a table tennis table. Georgian and early-Victorian terraces fringe the park and are Grade II listed: 1-4 Highbury Place, NHLE 1195631, 13-15A Highbury Place, NHLE 1298036, and 16-24 Highbury Place, NHLE 1207440. The park lies in the Highbury Fields Conservation Area, a borough designation that carries no list entry number. All Islington parks with gates open by 8am daily, 365 days a year; closing times vary seasonally in the council's published table, from 5pm in November to February to 9pm in May to July, and the table publishes no closing time for August or September. Highbury & Islington station sits at the park's southern tip, 100 m to the Underground station and 124 m to the rail station.

The Emirates Stadium is at 75 Drayton Park, N5 1BU, the ground of Arsenal Football Club, with a capacity of 60,361 and a start date of 2006. Arsenal publishes its own address as 'Highbury House, 75 Drayton Park, London, N5 1BU'. Stadium tours run Monday to Saturday 09:30 to 18:00 with last entry at 17:00, and Sunday 10:00 to 16:00 with last entry at 15:00; adult tickets start from £34. The self-guided route covers the Directors Box, Diamond Club, Players Entrance, both dressing rooms, Players Tunnel, pitchside, the home dugout, the Flash Interview Rooms, the Press Conference Room and the Media Lounge, with audio in 7 languages including BSL, and Arsenal Museum entry is included. The East Stand of the club's former ground, Highbury Stadium, survives about 540 m north-east as flats and is Grade II listed, NHLE 1119692, added to the list on 16 July 1997.

Islington has no single gateway station. Angel, Highbury & Islington, Farringdon, Old Street and Finsbury Park all sit inside the borough, and so do Essex Road, Drayton Park, Holloway Road, Arsenal and Canonbury. Catch the Northern line to Angel or to Old Street, which also takes Great Northern trains; the Victoria line to Highbury & Islington; the Circle, Hammersmith & City or Metropolitan lines to Farringdon, which also takes Thameslink and the Elizabeth line; and the Piccadilly or Victoria line to Finsbury Park, which also takes Great Northern and Thameslink trains. Highbury & Islington's rail station takes Great Northern trains and the Mildmay and Windrush Overground lines.

For Clerkenwell and Farringdon, Farringdon is the station, and its three parts stand close together: TfL measures the Elizabeth line at 22 m, Thameslink at 23 m and the Underground at 29 m from the same point in the area. For Charterhouse Square the nearest stop is Barbican, 161 m away on the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, and Barbican station stands in the City of London. Chancery Lane, 496 m away on the Central line, and King's Cross St. Pancras, which takes the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines, are both in Camden; King's Cross St. Pancras is the main national-rail arrival for the borough's west side.

For Exmouth Market and Finsbury, take the Northern line to Angel, which is 520 m from New River Head and the nearest station to Sadler's Wells. Farringdon is 674 m from Exmouth Market by Underground, 677 m by Thameslink and 681 m by Elizabeth line.

For Angel and Upper Street, Angel station is 93 m from the southern end of the area, 356 m from the middle of Chapel Market and 340 m from the Business Design Centre. For the Almeida Theatre take a Great Northern train to Essex Road, 503 m away.

For Canonbury, Highbury and Holloway, Highbury & Islington is 100 m from Highbury Fields by Underground and 124 m by rail. Essex Road is 363 m from Canonbury Square and the Estorick Collection. Canonbury station, on the Mildmay and Windrush lines, is 429 m from Newington Green at the borough's north-east corner. For the Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park is 220 m away on Great Northern, Holloway Road 391 m on the Piccadilly line and Arsenal 519 m on the same line.