Islington is the archetypal gentrified inner-north neighbourhood: rows of elegant Georgian and Victorian terraces, leafy garden squares, and a long spine of restaurants, bars, and shops running up Upper Street from Angel. It has been fashionable middle-class London for decades — the area's politics and dinner parties are a national shorthand — but the streetscape genuinely is one of the most attractive in the city.
The pleasures are concentrated and walkable. Camden Passage, just off Upper Street, is a string of antique shops, vintage stalls, and small cafés. The Almeida is one of London's best small theatres, and the converted Victorian Union Chapel hosts concerts under a soaring nave. Chapel Market keeps an old working-class street-market tradition alive a few minutes away. Eat and drink along Upper Street, browse the passages, and catch something at the Almeida — that is Islington at its best.