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6
1912
as this writer—a press man—publicly confesses his ignorance, although no
doubt he directly or indirectly pays rates to the Council of his borough.
It is, indeed, sad to find that so many people know so little about
Islington ; and yet there is much within its boundaries to interest them if they
would only take the trouble to enquire into its extent or its history. It will
come as a surprise probably to many to know that the mere perambulation of
the borough boundary would mean a walk of nearly ten and a half miles ; and
yet this great place had but a very small beginning, for so far as history can
tell us, it was the merest hamlet in its early days. It is difficult to say whether
it existed at the time of the Roman occupation when they built an encampment
somewhere near what is now Barnsbury Square, the remains of which
still exist, but which, extraordinary to state, are known to few Islingtonians.
It was on the high ground here that the Romans kept watch over London
prior to attacking it, and it was in this neighbourhood probably that the huge
army led in person by Boadicea, the Queen of the Iceni, attacked them and
was driven off, to be finally annihilated in the rout which followed as her
soldiers fled to Colchester.
How few people know that in its early days Islington was situate on the
verge of a forest in which the citizens of London had the right to hunt, although
the villagers had not. Even in those days there was considerable traffic from the
City northwards, and it will be found that a new gate—Newgate—was erected
about the time of the reign of Henry and Stephen; and that its construction
became necessary owing to the enclosing of ground for the Churchyard of the
new St. Paul's, its predecessor having been burnt down, the result of which was
that the street stretching from Aldgate in the east to Ludgate in west was so
crowded and stopped up that the carriage of merchandise from the City westward
was forced to pass without the churchyard wall on the north side, through
Paternoster Row and other streets, which caused such congestion of traffic
" that for remedy thereto a new gate was made and so called by which men
and rattle with all manner of carriages might pass more directly through
Westcheap by St. Paul's on the north side ; through Nicholas Shambles and
Newgate Market to Newgate, and from thence to any part westward over
Holborn Bridge or turning without the gate into Smithfield and through
lsledon to any part north and by west." This shows, therefore, that the
traffic to the north from London passed through the village of lsledon, which
must have reaped considerable benefit from its unceasing flow.