Focus on: Islington

Focus on: Islington

by: Tom Jeffreys

Tom Jeffreys takes a stroll round the galleries of another London area. This time, the focus is on Islington.

The area
One of the truisms of living in London is that it's easy to overlook what's right on your doorstep. Spoonfed have been based on City Road in Islington since August 2010 (and before that, a smidge further east, over by Regent's Canal) but it wasn't until the opening of Sam Nightingale's exhibition, Spectres of Film, that I really gave the area's history all that much thought.

Part of the reason for this may simply be that the stretch round Angel tube station is one of the least attractive in London, with Upper Street a seemingly interminable procession of overpriced restaurants, chain coffee shops, banks, estate agents and, further north, a smear of 'boutiques' peddling mid-market 'designer' tat.

As Camden Passage is dragged inexorably into an abyss of blandly branded boredom (where Reiss, Tesco and, worst of all, Jack Wills cheer to tread), Islington is now dominated by the ugly Vue Centre and sadly soulless Business Design Centre (which does at least play host each January to the generally impressive London Art Fair). Thankfully the uniquely brilliant Chapel Market is yet to suffer the crude lunges of the acquisitive developer.

Off the beaten track it's a (mostly) different story, as sundry politicians, celebrities and media types make their homes in rows of gleaming Victorian terraces. Perhaps as a consequence, and certainly befitting a place named after a coaching inn (the Angel Inn mentioned in Oliver Twist is now a Co-Op bank) Islington is blessed with a surprising number of good pubs. There's everything from real ale specialists like the Charles Lamb and The Harlequin to less groomed (and less expensive) places like The Compton Arms and The Shakespeare's Head. Several of the area's pubs also double as excellent little theatres (The King's Head and Old Red Lion in particular) whilst the Almeida is something of a big-hitter.

The area's art 'scene', if it can be termed as much, is less well known. Generally overlooked in favour of Hoxton to the east and Clerkenwell to the south, Islington is nonetheless home to some impressive galleries. The twin pillars of Victoria Miro and Parasol Unit currently dominate proceedings, although rumours abound of the imminent arrival of one of London's most respected galleries. Meanwhile, Islington's smaller spaces like Cubitt, Arcade, Rod Barton, the Centre for Recent Drawing and, a little further east, Waterside Contemporary, consistently punch above their weight. James Freeman, Hart, and Candid Arts contribute to Angel's small but varied selection. There's also the Londonewcastle Depot which hosts occasional pop-up restaurants, sample sales and art shows (like Ryan Gander's Locked Room Scenario in 2011).

Worthy of particular note is LAARC, the Museum of London's archaeological archives, recently announced as the largest of their kind in the world. These have been open to the public since 2011, but you have to book a spot on one of their guided tours in order to visit. It’s a fascinating experience, following the archiving process right from the start, when sacks of dirt arrive from archaeological digs, right through to pieces being classified and filed away for future reference.

It is the process of constructing an archive that is explored, albeit in very different fashion, by Sam Nightingale. Nightingale's show, which marks the launch of A Brooks Art on Hoxton Street, includes, among other things, a series of photographs and a stylised map that chart the lost cinemas of Islington. More than 40 cinemas have existed in the area at one time or another since their invention in 1895, and Nightingale's blankly enigmatic black and white images touch on (capture/create) that strange trace of loss so often at the heart of attempts to relate to London's hidden history and its (psycho)geography.


See our Focus on Islington map in full.

The walk
The walk starts at Cubitt Gallery, an independent, artist-run space founded in 1991, and tucked away down Angel Mews since 2001. On the day I visit, the little street is overrun with builders and machinery, but the exhibition inside – a solo show for Nina Canell that has now finished – is a joy. Exploring air as both empty space and transmitter of waves/currents, the show features tuning forks emerging from the gallery wall, coagulated air in a wood-framed, wall-mounted box and a large glass desiccator that claims to contain air from the studio of Dmitri Mendelev. The highlight for me is a Telefunken radio from the late 1960s, which has various lengths of wire tied to its aerial. These delicate little threads spiral upwards, and branch out like little glinting cobwebs around the gallery's pipes and lights. It's a subtle and surprisingly beautiful centrepiece to a thoughtful, sensitive show.

After Cubitt, it's down St John Street, left, then right on to the quietly residential Paget Street, home to Rod Barton Gallery [pictured, top right]. Previously located above the Griffin in Shoreditch, Barton opened the current space in March 2009. Housed in what used to be a garage (behind a distinctive large, black, wooden door) the gallery has consistently proved itself to be ahead of the curve – showing work by the likes of Eddie Peake, Oliver Rafferty and Rowena Hughes well before other galleries catch up. I'm lucky enough to be given a sneak preview of James Clarkson's solo show the day before it opens to the public. His re-assembled parts from a Citroen Picasso demonstrate both playful and intelligent responses to art history and its relationship with design, but they don't quite grab me personally.

From Paget Street to the perfunctory offices of Goswell Road. Left at the City Supermarket, past an old sign for HJ Barham 'turf accountant' and on to Arcade. Set up in January 2008, Arcade has emerged as one of London's most consistently exciting, challenging and playful contemporary art galleries, showing work by the likes of Nick Laessing, Anna Barham and the brilliant Kit Craig. Housed in an old flower shop next to a chicken shop, its raw concrete floor and remnants of wooden frontage give character to the small space. Again, though, the current exhibition – a solo show for Maria Zahle – is not really my thing. An exploration, I think, of materiality and latent narrative, the fabric collages and clustered sculptural pieces are, frankly, a little baffling.

But no matter. From here it's on to Parasol Unit [pictured, top left]. Founded by Ziba Ardalan in 2005 and mostly funded by her husband, Deutsche Bank bigshot Pierre de Weck, the not-for-profit organisation is housed in a converted warehouse on Wharf Road. Despite a flimsy-sounding concept (something about lines) their current exhibition is the best thing I've seen here in ages. Highlights include Helene Appel's fishing net oil on canvas; Nasreen Mohamedi's graph paper drawings; Raoul de Keyser's exquisitely textured triptych; and Hemali Bhuta's dangling cluster of slim wax cylinders. With a cross-section of works from the 1960s to the present day and a theme that feels more like a curatorial whim than something based on conceptual rigour, this is exactly the kind of show that could never happen at either a commercial gallery or a major public institution. Parasol Unit doesn't always get it right, but Lines of Thought is a triumph.

Just next door is Victoria Miro, one of most influential commercial galleries in London. Miro represents some of the very biggest contemporary artists – Grayson Perry, Andreas Gursky, Yayoi Kusama and Peter Doig among others – and has a famously close relationship with the Tate, something that came to a head in 2005 due to the controversial sale of Chris Ofili's The Upper Room. Miro opened her first gallery in Cork Street in 1985 but moved to the current premises in 2000. An old Victorian furniture factory, beautifully renovated by architect Trevor Horne (who retained features like the criss-crossed wooden roof beams and worn staircase) it's one of the loveliest galleries in London. The current show – black and white photographs of retro recreations by Stan Douglas – is fairly dull stuff, but the space alone is worth a visit.

From here it's a bit of a trek to our last port of call: the Estorick Collection. Turn right out of Victoria Miro, walk up and over Regent's Canal, meander through rows of smart terraces, cross Essex Road (passing Steve Hatt and Get Stuffed en route), amble through Astey's Row Rock Garden, past red brick estates, through the dishevelled grandeur of Canonbury Square, and you're there.

The collection is the result of American writer Eric Estorick's passion for Italian art, and was assembled primarily in the early 1950s. Opened in 1998 with the help of £650,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the museum (which includes a library, café and cute little garden) is the only one in the UK dedicated to twentieth century Italian art. The permanent collection is displayed on the first and second floors, where Futurism features strongly. It's not a movement that has ever appealed enormously to me, but I do love Umberto Boccioni's Dynamism of a Cyclist, an ink on paper work from 1913.

The ground floor galleries, however, are currently playing host to a rather brilliant exhibition of work by twentieth century Italian photographer Giuseppe Cavalli. Cavalli's sparely elegant, high-key images manage to be both timelessly beautiful and very much of their era – something the exhibition does very well to bring out. Changes in technique are highlighted by the juxtaposition of Terrace on the Sea (1947) with the significantly crisper After the Summer (1957), whilst work by his contemporaries provide good background and contrast. It's a lovely show, neatly realised.

And finally, from one converted Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse to another: it's back to Spoonfed HQ, with a significantly better appreciation of what Islington has to offer.

Islington Facts
Eat: Ottolenghi, Eat Veg
Drink: 69 Colebrooke Row, The Charles Lamb
Stop: Paul A Young

See our map of Islington in full.

Updated January 2013.

  
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Tom Jeffreys