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9 July 2018

Goodbye Highbury Corner roundabout

Have you seen what's been going on at Highbury Corner recently?
It's turned into Islington's version of Diggerworld expect that the machines don't seem to have moved much since they demolished a strip of grass and trees approx 5 metres wide from around the north and western sides. And I can't see where the ticket booth is.
As far as I am aware reconstruction work only started this week – so the sign I saw at the top of Canonbury Road last Monday (right)
Two days later I took these pics from the upper deck of bus:

Pics taken morning of Wed 4th July
Turns out it's all in the name of progress and here is the explanation.
The really good thing is that the lovely foresty area at the centre of what Islington Council had labelled "Highbury Island" will now be accessible as a park – I've been wanting to get in there for decades. As you can see it's really lush and shady.
The loss of the flora is to put in cycle lanes and to change the flow of this junction. It won't be a roundabout any longer – it'll return to how it was before the Germans made a mess in 1944.
When the work is completed I really hope cyclists will use their designated lanes because if the tumbleweed tracks along Drayton Park and around Navigator Square at Archway are anything to go by I very much doubt the green tarmac will see much action.
And... buses and bus stops... where are they going?
The concourse outside Highbury and Islington station has been in a state of flux for ages now.
Last month I thought they'd finished, though it looked really dull, but then two weeks ago they started digging up a newly-paved area near the kerb and I thought, aha, they've forgotten to put a bus stop there!
But nope. There is still only a tiny bay that I reckon you could squeeze two cars into. What's that for? Four buses use that route. I think a big opportunity has been missed here.

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Thanks, Jane