KNOT HEART - Almeida Theatre

Gibson SquareA classic late Georgian square located in the heart of Islington, between Upper Street and the parallelLiverpool Road. The housing in this area is most notable for its Georgian town house architecture, andmany houses in the square are Grade 2 listed – along with much of the neighbouring Liverpool Roadand Upper Street. Many of the townhouses are now subdivided, but they still represent some of themost desirable housing in the central part of Islington. The average property price in 2011 is £828,922.Upper StreetUpper Street is the main shoppingstreet of Islington, running roughlynorth from Islington High Street toHighbury Corner. The street datesback from at least the 12thCentury.Islington originally consisted oftwo streets in addition to the HighStreet: Upper Street and LowerStreet, which diverged from theHigh Street at Islington Green.Henry VIII hunted duck in theponds off Upper Street, whileWalter Raleigh lived in UpperStreet and owned a pub in LowerStreet. Lower Street has since beenrenamed Essex Road.Cafe culture on Islington’s Upper StreetIn the 1970s and 80s, Upper Street was a focal point of the radical left. It was home to Sisterwrite,Britain's first feminist bookshop, as well as the Trotskyist Pioneer Books, the anarchist Rising Freeshop (famous for stealing stock from other shops to sell in theirs) and the socialist Red Books. In the1980s, Upper Street was home to the Islington Action Group for the Unwaged, a major far leftcampaigning and activist group, and to the squatter-run Molly's Cafe, a focal point for the anarchistand squatting movement. Upper Street made headlines on 23 July 1995, when the Reclaim the Streetsmovement took over the street, barricaded it to traffic and held a long party in the street.Places in the PlayWhittington HospitalThe Whittington Hospital is ahospital with 470 beds in Archway, inthe northern part of Islington. It isnamed after Richard Whittington, andits logo incorporates Whittington'slegendary cat.Some medical services have beendelivered on the site since 1473,although the current hospital has itsorigins in the Small Pox andVaccination Hospital, built in 1848.Independently managed hospitalswere founded on the Archway Site and the Highgate Site. In 1946, all three hospitals were broughttogether. It includes the City of London Maternity Hospital, as well as Accident and Emergency and anumber of specialist departments. It is both a district general hospital and a teaching hospital for theUniversity College London.Resource Pack: The Knot of the Heart 34