Mural
The mural at Highbury & Islington (Edward Bawden) depicts a castle that used to stand nearby.
At Highbury & Islington the Victoria line offers another cross-platform interchange, this time with the Great Northern Line heading from Welwyn Garden City into Moorgate.
The line is operated as a national rail line now, but when the Victoria line opened it was part of the Northern Line. The infamous Moorgate crash (the worst in underground history) happened on the line in 1975.
A Victorian War
Queen Victoria died in 1901 just a few months before the end of the Boer War. That conflict resulted in over 22,000 deaths of soldiers from the British Empire. A memorial, located just a few minutes’ walk from the station (on the south western corner of Highbury Place and Highbury Crescent) commemorates 110 of them.
The female figure holds a small figure of victory in her right hand, a laurel wreath in her left hand. There is a draped standard, a rifle, sword, a helmet and a laurel wreath at the base.
A Pub
The Duchess of Kent (Liverpool Road)
The Duchess is a very bright and airy gastropub and serves beers from the excellent Camden Brewery. Judging by the portrait on the pub sign it is possibly named for Victoria’s own mother.