LONDON on the Ground

A career aeronaut, one half of the 19th century’s ballooning power couple and a high profile media-savvy celebrity, she died in obscurity and was buried in an unmarked grave. On 28 June 1826, Margaret Graham became the first British woman to fly solo in a balloon, or in any flying craft. Her short flight across Islington from White Conduit Gardens covered only around one and a half miles, but assured her an enduring place in UK aviation history. This weekend is the 200th ann

Islington’s cricketing legacy includes Lord's, the MCC, Middlesex County Cricket Club and women’s county cricket. The Gentlemen’s Club playing on White Conduit Fields, by Robert Dighton 1784. Source: Yale Centre for British Art, public domain. Today, Islington is well known as the home of Arsenal Football Club, while the sport of cricket hardly features. The borough is home to only one public cricket pitch (Wray Crescent off Hornsey Road), but Islington played an important ro