Islington Museum
- Local history enthusiasts
- Social history enthusiasts
- Families with children
What Visitors Say
The lady at the front desk was a bit cold and unwelcoming upon entrance. Other than that, cool museum to learn more about the rich and interesting history of the Islington borough. You could easily view everything and be in and out within 20 minutes — great day trip.
After checking website, we went to visit museum on Friday December 26. Closed sign on entrance gate, BUT NOTE ON MUSEUM WEBSITE. Poor administration!!
Set in several rooms underneath Finsbury Library,this is a gem of a museum,covering amongst others, the story of Welsh farmers walking their cattle to Smithfield Market,local theatres,underground rivers,life during wartime and even some books with covers adulterated by Joe Orton the playwright. When I was there,a video was playing relating experiences of women who had spent time in Holloway prison. Free entry,no need to book.
Fascinating small musuem with displays, some interactive, on the history of Islington split into themes e.g. leisure, education, work....plus great temporary exhibition on the hidden waterways of Islington. Note its closed 1pm to 2pm at present.
Islington Museum has collected quite interesting expositions of historical artefacts. Also, there is a nice play area for kids as well as a toy cafe and a kid's kitchen with a couple of historical things.
Highlights
Radicals & Dissent
Islington’s history of activism—campaigners, printers, meeting halls—told through placards, pamphlets and portraits.Follow a single cause across decades (suffrage, housing, civil liberties) through original local material.
Core gallery sequence
Holloway & Pentonville: Prisons and the Borough
Documents the social history around two nationally significant prisons and their impact on local streets and families.Registers, ephemera and testimony link everyday Islington to national debates on punishment and reform.
Justice & Society section
Hidden Waterways
Maps and models of the New River (opened 1613) and buried tributaries like the Fleet trace how water shaped settlement and health.Aqueducts and culverted streams run under today’s pavements—the city’s plumbing as urban archaeology.
Environment / Mapping displays
Stage & Street: Collins’s Music Hall and Beyond
Programmes, posters and props recall a major Islington venue (19th–20th c.) and local popular entertainment.Music-hall satire and variety shaped working-class nights out long before television.
Leisure section
Opening Hours
Fun Facts
The museum sits beneath Finsbury Library and works hand-in-glove with the Islington Local History Centre—archival holdings regularly feed into temporary displays.
Collections include material on playwright Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell’s infamous defaced library book jackets (1960s), a local episode that ended in a court case and prison terms.
Water history is foundational here: the New River, completed in 1613 to bring fresh water to London, runs through the borough and appears in the museum’s mapping displays.
Similar Museums
Nearby Places
Museum of the Order of St John
6 min 👣
L-13 Light Industrial Workshop
7 min 👣
Goldsmiths' Centre
7 min 👣
Postal Museum
9 min 👣
Cubitt Gallery
9 min 👣
Charles Dickens Museum
11 min 👣
Barbican Centre
12 min 👣
The Viaduct Tavern, EC1
14 min 👣
Foundling Museum
15 min 👣
Wesley's Chapel, Museum of Methodism and John Wesley's House
15 min 👣