Morning: Upper Street
Now a vital part of my daily commute, I take Upper Street in both directions, so it’s a good enough place to start to chronicle the different stages of my journey. Bear in mind, this is for my own interest really: just say what you see.Starting at Highbury Corner I swoop round and catch the littlest bus lane, on the roundabout, before joining Upper Street itself. It’s an interesting venture - Islington is the gentrification capital of London and has successfully steered itself from hobo district to Boris-toting, yummy-mummy land. The top end, meeting Holloway Road, isn’t so swank: it’s a bit seedy, a bit chicken shop, but soon enough the boutiques pick up, Ghost, Phase Eight, and swarms of the little independent shops that road is famous for (After Noah, Gill Wing, and so on). Certain landmarks mean an uphill climb for me: Keston Lodge (I refuse to use the umlaut on the final E, surely the most redundant since Nikki Sixx was naming his band); Le Mercury, and After Noah.
Then it’s downhill all the way, past more Starbucks than you can shake a fist at, and to the big junction with Essex Road. There’s usually a delay here, so a little bit of a generous reading of the traffic lights helps the flow, then down to Angel itself through the double-wide bus lane, to where the massing cyclists gather to hoon on down St John Street.
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All in all, it’s a mile.
