Six local Historical Treasures Of Islington Museum

Islington Museum can be found in a fairly uninspiring looking building on St John Street. Do not be put off by the austere exterior however, it is absolutely worth popping in if you are at all interested in London’s history.

Walking in you are met with a few information boards giving you a bit of background about how Islington has developed over the centuries. The exhibits however are generally much more specific, focussing in on individuals or singular addresses. There is a display case, for example, of objects found around, below the floorboards and in the garden of just one house (53 Cross Street) from the Victorian period until the modern day. It shows you the layers of history that can build up in a single home over the centuries.

The exhibits are split into eight themes: Childhood, Food and Drink, Fashion, Leisure, Healthcare, Radicals, Caring, Home and War. It might not have the big hitters of other museums, it does not have the Rosetta Stone or Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, but it is a treasure trove of charming, endearing, fascinating local items that give a great sense of the rich tapestry of lives that have made Islington what it is today.

Below, I have picked out six of my favourites.

1. Postcards from The Front

These embroidered silk postcards, located in a pull out drawer, are a must-see. These were sent by Leonard Mansfield from the trenches in World War One back to his girlfriend and mother.

They were made at home by French and Belgian women and depict designs specifically chosen to appeal to different groups of soldiers.

Leonard was only 18 when he left for the front in 1916. He was badly injured in a gas attack but survived the war and married his girlfriend, Margaret in 1925. They lived happily in Islington for the rest of their lives. 

2. The School Punishment Book

This is something quite simple really, a school punishment book, but it is, I think, a little insight into the lives of school children in the 1950s. It is from Penton Junior Mixed School which was on Ritchie Street, just off Liverpool Road. 

You can see the date of the punishment, name of child, the ‘offence’ and then ‘amount’ of punishment. The amount in all cases is the number of lashings of the cane to either the hands or seat.

One punishment you can see is ‘4 on hands’ for ‘Dangerous conduct’. You can see five children getting ‘2 on hand’ for ‘Disobedience and disgusting behaviour’. They immediately conjure up images in the mind about what these offences entails…

Another is ‘Continual impertinence, kicked 3 members of staff’, the punishment for which was ‘3 (light) on seat’. My personal favourite: ‘misuse of water’… 

3. A Lifetime Of Standing Up

A very personal set of items again here that are a window into the life of one Islington resident. They also though give a sense of the struggles, hopes and conflicts of the wider world.

This is the badge collection of Martin King, born in 1959 and an Islington resident from 1989. He started collecting badges in the 1970s when he became active in left-wing and gay politics. In there is a badge relating to the fightback against Clause 28 of the Local Government Act in 1988 to stop councils and schools promoting positive images of lesbians and gay men, repealed in 2003. There is a ‘No War With Iraq’ badge, a Free Nelson Mandela badge from the 1980s and many more. 

4. A Heartbreaking Letter

There was a whole corner dedicated to the closing of Holloway Prison. Holloway opened in 1852 as a mixed-sex prison but became England’s first female only prison in 1903, eventually becoming Europe’s largest female prison. It shut in 2016 with the site currently being redeveloped into housing by the Peabody Trust. 

Displayed was the reproduction of a letter from 1940 from a young girl to Eva to her mother.

Eva, aged 8, came to the UK with her parents and were interned as ‘enemy aliens’ because they were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Women were kept at Holloway Prison before being taken to an internment camp on the Isle of Man. Children were kept in children’s homes. Eva tells her mum, food is ‘not at all like you said’ and ‘we don’t wear our own frocks’, capturing the confusion she must have felt. She also, as you can see, wrote ‘When will I see you again?’ in the middle of the letter. You can imagine the worry and stress that her mother must have been feeling. 

5. the Famous Defaced Library Books

We have the items that I was told entice most people into the library, the Islington Public Library books defaced by Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell from 1959-1962. 

Playwright Joe Orton lived at 25 Noel Road in Islington with his partner Kenneth Halliwell from 1959 until their deaths in 1967. It is where he wrote pretty much all of his successful plays, such as Entertaining Mr Sloane, Loot, What The Butler Saw  and more. 

Orton and Halliwell were sentenced to six months in prison in 1962 for stealing and causing malicious damage to seventy-two library books. They added different images and illustrations to the covers and even sometimes wrote in new bits of texts and endings, picking out books they considered mainstream and dull. They also removed illustrations from library art books to wallpaper their flat. Orton felt the harsh sentence was partly because of their sexuality. 

Orton was murdered in the flat by Haliwell on the 9th August 1967, with nine hammer blows to the head. It is said to have been fuelled by jealousy for Orton’s success and that Orton was planning to end their relationship. Halliwell then ended his own life with a drug overdose. 

Above are two they had on display, but my understanding is that they regularly swap round different books and covers. 

6. A Skull And A Badge

Finally, I have picked out this small exhibit with items relating to the links between the meat industry and Islington. Smithfield Market was London’s livestock and meat market for centuries, as I wrote about recently here. In the 19th century the livestock market moved up into Islington to where Caledonian Clock Tower Park is today.

Many of the sheep, cattle and other animals came through Islington on their way to market. This would be sheep from East Anglia and cows from Wales and Scotland.

Men called ‘drovers’ would then walk them to London. From the 1500s they had to be licensed and were given numbered badges. You can see one dating from 1917 in the case above. The skull is of a long-horn cow, most likely from the 17th or 18th century. It was found in an old pond on Holloway Road, so it was likely being driven to market at Smithfield before it died.

Visiting Islington Museum

I hope that has persuaded you to pay a visit to Islington Museum! It is totally free and can be found at 245 St John Street, EC1V 4NB.

The museum is open everyday except Wednesdays and Sundays, from 10am-5pm. It is worth bearing in mind as well that they shut for an hour for lunch from 1-2pm.

You can find out more about visiting here.

Thank you for reading, more of London’s wonderful history below!