Summer 1: Highbury and Arsenal

  • 9 years ago
Summer In The City 2008 kicks off at Highbury, an ornate part of north London with terraced houses built in beautiful Italianate villa style.

I'll describe road names here so you can follow the journey using an online map if you desire.

We start at the junction of Highbury Park, Highbury Hill and Leigh Road, looking north towards the village then at the tall Highgate Clock and church at this junction. We then walk down Highbury Hill looking the beautiful italiante villas with their former glory of big houses complete with servants bell.

The camera pans 270 degrees finally pointing down Martineau Road (say hello to the telephone engineer - someone has to work!) and then at the giant 'ARSENAL' 3D letters in front of the walk from Drayton Park Rail station to the Emirates Stadium, new home of Arsenal football (soccer) team.

The stadium is a giant complex, and comes complete with cannons. The military connection (the name, and the cannons present in the team emblem) is based on Arsenal football team's original location in Woolwich where military weaponry (including cannon balls!) were made.

We leave the stadium and head down Hornsey Road to Holloway Road, taking a look at the tube station which was surfaced in tiles and opened in 1906.

We then walk south along Holloway Road and look at the unusually shaped London Metropolitan University's "Graduate Centre" building designed by the internationally renowned architect, Daniel Libeskind, whose portfolio includes the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the redevelopment of the World Trade centre site in New York.

Finally we take a quick glimpse of the Church of St. Magdelan and St. David before arriving at Highbury and Islington rail and tube station before we turn right next week and walk into Islington.

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