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Holloway, London
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Holloway is an inner-city district in the London Borough of Islington and follows for the most part, the line of the Holloway Road (A1 road). At the centre of Holloway is the Nag's Head area.
At the 2001 census, the population of Holloway was 11,214, of those 47% male and 53% female. It is home to a very multicultural population and is one of the most densely populated areas of London.
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The name derives from the fact that this ancient route through the area was the main cattle driving route from the North into London's cattle market, Smithfield. As with similar ancient cattle driving routes, the way became sunken leading to the name Holloway, a sunken road. Even in Roman times it was the main route to the North and Scotland and much of the Holloway Road has a Roman base to it. Holloway Road is one of the nearest parts of the A1 to its start in London.
Until the 19th century the area was predominantly rural, but as London expanded in the second half of the 19th century it became extremely built-up. By the 1960s much of Holloway was covered with run down late Victorian terraced housing, and the area had a reputation as a run-down district with many larger properties used for light industrial purposes.
Today, Holloway is still one of the poorer parts of Islington, however, gentrification is occurring, particularly in the Hillmarton and Mercers Road/Tavistock Terrace conservation areas. There are also many development projects taking place over a large area between the Arsenal stadium development and Caledonian Road. In addition, Islington Council have earmarked many improvement projects for the Nag's Head area over the next decade.
Holloway is often best known for its prison, HMP Holloway in Parkhurst Road, which was first built in 1852, originally housing both male and female prisoners, but since 1902 it has housed only women and is the UK's major female prison. Prisoners that have been held at the original prison include Mary Pankhurst, Isabella Glyn and Oscar Wilde.
- John Betjeman, poet laureate, lived at 329 Holloway Road.
- Ben Chaplin, actor
- James Collinson, artist and co-founder of the pre-Raphaelite movement, lived at 15 St John's Grove.
- Charlie George, the legendary Arsenal footballer, grew up in this area and attended Holloway School.
- Katherine Hamnett, fashion designer, lived in Hillmarton Road.
- Bob Hoskins, actor, lived on Penn Road.
- Dominic Krepski, medical pioneer.
- Jonathan Cohen, local musician.
- Edward Lear, poet and illustrator, was born in Bowman's Place.
- John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten, lead singer of the Sex Pistols lived in Benwell Road.
- Charles Pooter, fictional diarist in the classic 19th century novel Diary of a Nobody, lived in Holloway Road.
- William Heath Robinson, cartoonist, was born in Hornsey Rise in 1872 and moved to Benwell Road in 1878. He later lived in Cathcart Hill.
- Suggs, lead singer of Madness
- Kate Winslet, actress on Penn Road
Arsenal Football Club have moved, after 93 years at Highbury, to a new stadium at Ashburton Grove in Holloway. It was informally known as Ashburton Grove until a naming rights deal with the airline Emirates was announced, and that name is still used by some people. The stadium opened in the summer of 2006, and has an all-seated capacity of 60,432, making it the second biggest stadium in the Premiership after Old Trafford and the third biggest in London after Wembley Stadium and Twickenham Stadium. The overall cost of the project was £390 million.
- Holloway Road tube station
- Caledonian Road tube station
- Highbury & Islington tube station (BR interchange)
Holloway is also an alternative spelling of Hollow way.