This is the Cloudesley Association website.  The Association is for residents living in the area roughly indicated on the right - bounded by Cloudesley Road, Cloudesley Place, Liverpool Road and Richmond Road.

Our purpose is to help residents make the most of our community by:

• Publishing news and other useful information

• Promoting communication between residents

• Co-ordinating planning projects and other local initiatives

• Researching local history

• Providing useful resources

Click here to download a copy of our Constitution.

We're always keen to hear from you, so please get in touch via the Contacts page or by by using the "Comment" facility below or on most other pages.

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Click here for latest, April newsletter.  Note we are hosting another Cloudesley Association drinks party in the Crown on Tuesday, April 30th, from 6.30pm.  A great opportunity to meet your neighbours.  Be there if you can!

Does anyone recognise this Islington street where the first Anderson Shelter was assembled in 1939?  Click here for the story of another groundbreaking investigation by the Cloudesley Association's crack team of local history sleuths and if you know the answer to this mystery please let us know.

Another chance to see art by Freddie Yauner in Chapel Market organised by White Conduit Projects on Sunday 7 January.  Click here for the flyer.

Newsletters are coming out thick and fast!  Click here for November 2023.

Click here for the latest newsletter (September 2023) which has just been circulated to members.

White Conduit Projects Gallery will be hosting an interesting sounding exhibition about food traders in neighbouring Chapel Market beginning on September 6.  Click here and here for details.  I'm certainly planning to go along to the opening reception on September 8 - Nick.

Once again we will be hosting a drinks party at the Crown Pub, on Tuesday, September 12th, at 6.30 to 8.00pm.  You should all have received the invitation email.  Make sure you get there early for your free drink!

If you've ever wondered about the charming building at 16A Cloudesley Street, Jenny has researched its history as a school and youth club and you can read all about it by clicking here.

We have a magnificent new fountain in Thornhill Gardens.  Click here to read all about it.

The Barnard Park Summer Party is happening this Saturday 17th June 11.00 to 3.00.  Check out their flyer here.  Fun for all the family!

Next time you're passing the churchyard, check out the bluebells, which look particularly good this year.  And various wildflowers should be making an appearance soon!

Hooray!  Lesley Cole from Cloudesley Street will once again be organising a street party, this time to celebrate the King's Coronation on Sunday 7th May.  See attached flyer for details.  The Association will be helping to fund the party and all members are invited.  The last party, for the Platinum Jubilee, was a great success as you can see from these photos in the Gallery.

Local artist Anne Howeson will be leading a walk through the railway lands around Kings Cross depicted in her recent works and talk about what inspired them on Saturday 3rd June 2-4 pm.  Details in this flyer.  If you'd like to join Anne, please rsvp directly via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to White Conduit Projects, N1 9EL, the Gallery organising the event. 

 Another masterpiece from Jenny, this time about the two "trench" air raid shelters which used to be in Thornhill Gardens, one either side of the central area.  Who would have guessed?

The Association meeting on January 24 was well attended and there was a lively debate with guest Rowena Champion about plans to turn Barnsbury into a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN), plans which the majority of those attending clearly opposed.  Check out the meeting minutes here.

Following on from this, the Council have published details of how to engage with the consultation on their plans.  We have circulated an update here.

A special Christmas treat for fans of local historian Jenny's research into Cloudesley Road.  Using Mick Bucknell's new data she's massively updated her two "Hunting Ghosts" reports and added greatly to our knowledge of the road's history.  If you can add more, do please get in touch.

Given how political and socially divisive the Islington Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) issue has become, your website manager, Nick, has decided to no longer post his polemics on the subject here on the Cloudesley Association website but will be doing so on a new website called Keep Islington Moving - check it out if you dare!  More details here.

There will be a Christmas Sing Along at Barnard Park this Saturday evening - details here.  Note that it's from 5.00 to 6.00pm so plenty of time to get back home in time to watch England triumph over the ancient enemy in the world cup!  Also a reminder that there will also be carols in Lonsdale Square on Tuesday December 20 at 7.00pm, as we reported in the last newsletter.

Hot off the press, our latest newsletter has just been emailed to all Cloudesley Association members.  To see it on the website, click here.

As Barnsbury residents, we're invited to a Council meeting at Bridgeman Road library on Tuesday 15th November at 5.45pm to "have our say" on plans for a "Liveable Barnsbury".  I think it's mainly about the Council extending its LTN programme into our neighbourhood, so you should probably be there.  And as it happens, I've just posted another opinionated polemic on this subject here (you can download this directly from here if you want).  As always, your feedback is warmly welcomed.

New website articles are coming thick and fast at the moment!  Here's Jenny's extensively researched history of the Mission Hall on Richmond Avenue and its predecessor St George's Hall, now demolished, which used to be just opposite.

More nuggets from Mick Bucknell - this time 1950 photos of a Cloudesley Road outing to the seaside organised by the "Friendly Neighbours Association" - his Dad features in most of them.

Based on a cornucopia of new data provided by Mick Bucknell, we've done a big addition to Jenny's popular "Hunting Ghosts" piece on the history of shops in Cloudesley Road.  It turns out Cloudesley Road was what can only be described as a major commercial centre throughout the 1800s and well into the 1900s.  The details are fascinating.  How did it start and where did it go?  Find out here!

We've been researching the history of our favourite pub - the Crown on the corner of Cloudesley Road and Cloudesley Square.  Apparently it was originally just one of the first wave of terraced houses to be built on the Cloudesley Estate, which obtained a victualler's licence in the mid 19th century.  Then around 1900 it was completely rebuilt as the rather magnificent Grade II listed building we know today.  But there are still big gaps in our knowledge.  If anyone knows more - early history, what it was like during the 20th century, or anecdotes about its ups and downs within living memory - then please get in touch.  Later addition: thanks to some great feedback, the article above has been substantially revised and extended - we now suspect the Crown may have been a purpose-built public house from the outset in 1830, and we are learning more and more about its colourful recent past!