Highbury was owned by Ranulf, brother of Ilger, and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads.

Ownership of Highbury eventually passed to Alicia de Barrow, who in 1271 gave it to the Priory of St John of Jerusalem, also known as the Knights Hospitallers in England.

The wealthy Lord Prior built Highbury manor as a substantial stone country lodging with a grange and barn.

In 1381, during the Peasants' Revolt, Jack Straw led a mob of 20,000 rioters who "so offended by the wealth and haughtiness" of the Knights Hospitallers destroyed the manor house.

This should not be confused with the better known Jack Straw's Castle, formerly a pub and now residential flats at Whitestone Ponds, Hampstead, which was named after the semi-legendary leader of the revolt.

John Dawes, a real estate developer,[citation needed] acquired the site of Jack Straw's Castle together with 247 acres (1.00 km2) of surrounding land.

Over the next 30 years the house was extended by new owners, firstly Alexander Aubert and then John Bentley, to include a large observatory and lavish gardens.

He expanded its size and facilities, taking over land and buildings from the farm next door, reaching beyond what is now Kelvin Road and created a bowling green, trap-ball grounds and gardens.

In 1854 events at the annual balls in the grounds of the Barn included the aeronaut Charles Green's balloon ascent.

By 1865 there was a huge dancing platform, a rebuilt theatre, high-wire acts, pantomime, music hall and the original Siamese twins.

After a riot led by students from Bart's Hospital in 1869, locals complained about the Barn's increasingly riotous and bawdy clientele.

After this time, development went high-density with close packed mostly terraced houses being built, mainly in the north of Highbury.

[3] The new church, also dedicated to St Joan of Arc, and designed by Stanley Kerr Bate, opened on 23 September 1962 on Highbury Park.

After the Second World War large-scale rebuilding in parts of Highbury replaced bombed buildings and provided new municipal housing.

St John's Hall, originally called Highbury College (of Divinity), was built in 1825 on what is now Aubert Park and was a grand ionic-style building, reminiscent of the British Museum.

(Refs: George Martin speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs; The Independent, 3 November 2004; the "Queen – Days of our Lives" documentary screened by BBC4 in April 2012.)