Pentonville Road

Our exercise walk today took us along a section of Pentonville Road. The name will probably be familiar to non-Londoners, if at all, because of the name of Pentonville Prison, though this instituion is some way away along the Caledonian Road.

Pentonville Road was built in the 1750s as part of the New Road joining Euston to the City Road. The section from Kings Cross to City Road was renamed Pentonville in 1857 after the local landowner, Henry Penton. Various other landmarks in the district bear the name Penton or Pentonville.

The road, which at its inception crossed open fields, was built as a by-pass for stage coaches. It was originally a turnpike, that is, users had to pay a fee at the toll booth.

Many stage coach passengers no doubt disembarked at the Angel Inn, to take refreshment or spend the night before continuing into the city.

The district is still called The Angel, after the famous inn, though this no longer exists. The pub bearing that name is a modern upstart, residing next door to the site of the original, now occupied by a pretty building housing offices and a branch of the Co-operative Bank. It was built as a hotel and once provided premises for a Lyons Corner House whose customers were served by the famous “Nippies”. You can just see the dome of that building at the end of the road.

We played our usual game of “Dodge the careless passer-by” and for fun I took note of how many people wore masks. More did so than previously though it was a somewhat motley collection. Some wore proper medical-looking masks and a few seemed to be those masks which some cyclists wear in city streets. A couple went by, one with and one without, a mask. Two women passed us wearing ordinary scarves across their faces like bandits from a bad crime film. Not that I am criticising any of them. In the current state of bewilderment in which we find ourselves, we each do what we think best.