The house building developments were originally planned for the "comfortably off", wanting to move from congested central London to the more rural suburb of Islington.

Starting about 1960 middle class and professional householders began returning to Islington, to houses which were once elegant but now, more often than not, were endowed with Victorian plumbing hardly suited for modern living.

Journalists, architects, lawyers, accountants, teachers and designers were attracted by the style and size of the Regency and Victorian houses and squares[6]: 27-28  and the opportunity to acquire large, characterful properties at prices they could afford, with easy access to the City of London, Westminster and the West End.

In the early hours of 20 April, he walked out into the summer-house in the garden behind his home (then named 16 Park Place West) and wrote a farewell to his "Best and dearest of wives", blaming only his "own weakness and infirmity".

60 Liverpool Road marks a top floor studio where Derek Jarman, English film director, gay rights activist and author lived between 1967 and 1969.

533 Liverpool Road displays a blue plaque unveiled by the Huguenot Society in 2017, commemorating the British artist Peter Paillou, best known for his paintings of birds.

[17] Other residents have included: Liverpool Road is supplied with several pubs, formerly to refresh cattle drovers and visitors to the Royal Agricultural Hall, more recently for local residents, including:[19][20] At its southern, Angel end, Liverpool Road parts from Islington High Street at the former Pied Bull pub.

The original purpose of the Agricultural Hall and its location were related specifically to its proximity to Smithfield, the great livestock market, and took advantage of Liverpool Road’s function as a cattle route.

The most glamorous event to take place was the Grand Ball held for the Belgian Volunteer regiments during their visit to England in July 1867.

[2]: 278-281  [5]: 140  [6]: 122,124 In 1943, after the nearby Mount Pleasant sorting office was bombed, the building was requisitioned for use during World War II and never re-opened to the public.

It continued as a sorting office until 1971, then lay empty and deteriorating until eventually the main hall was redeveloped as the Business Design Centre in the 1980s.

The Royal Agricultural Hall features as the location for a Victorian walking match in Peter Lovesey's 1970 novel Wobble to Death,[24] and its BBC Radio's Saturday Night Theatre adaptation.

This was constructed in the 1860s to protect pedestrians from being splashed by the large numbers of animals using the road to reach the then-new Agricultural Hall.

Despite much local opposition, Liverpool Road was believed to be a much better position for a fever hospital because it was on the top of a gravel ridge, high and well drained, and thought likely to be free of the miasma, or bad air, held to cause disease.

The circumstances caused some controversy: a competition had been held to choose a design, and one by David Mocatta had been formally decided upon by the committee, but it was set aside and Fowler was brought in to carry out the work.

The squares mostly date to the early 19th century when they were included in building plans as an attractive and fashionable amenity to justify charging higher rents from wealthier occupants of the surrounding houses.

The centre is occupied by Holy Trinity Church, which was designed by the young Charles Barry in the newly fashionable Perpendicular style and recognisably copying King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.

[31] A handsome painted window commemorates Richard Cloudesley who died in 1517 and bequeathed to the parish the piece of ground called the "Stony Field" (hence nearby Stonefield Street) upon which the church is built, asking that thirty requiem masses a year should be said for the repose of his soul forever.

A workhouse had been operating at nearby locations since 1729, until the first purpose-built building was constructed in 1777 in spacious grounds off the passage then known as "Cut Throat Lane",[32]: 166  now the west range of Barnsbury Street, at the junction with Liverpool Road.

[33] It ceased to be a workhouse in 1872 and the buildings were demolished and a new block erected at the south-east of the site as the district relieving offices, labour bureau and smallpox vaccination centre.

281 Liverpool Road, the curious asymmetrical turreted building of 1872 at the corner, was used until 1969 as the Registrar’s Office for Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Topographer Samuel Lewis wrote in 1842 that "the course of [Liverpool] road, which once passed in a direct line from the south to the front of the workhouse, and thence turned, easterly, to the top of Barnesbury-street, was changed into its present route in 1796; and by this alteration two dangerous angles, the cause of frequent accidents, were removed".

230-254 Liverpool Road, part of the former Manchester Terrace (c.1827) and backing on to College Cross, is one of the few developments in this area known to be by Thomas Cubitt, with segmental arched windows.

Samuel Lewis was a wealthy financier and philanthropist, who left an endowment of £670,000 for the purpose of establishing a charity to provide housing for the poor.

The buildings were designed by C S Joseph and Smithem and consist of five rows of blocks with trees between them, including notable pollarded planes, and small island gardens set in paved areas.

Nikolaus Pevsner described the estate as "the best illustration in Islington of the tremendous improvement in standards of planning and humane appearance that became apparent in the best working class housing around 1900".

It was built in 1814 to a design by William Wickings as a chapel of ease to the parish church of St. Mary's farther south on Upper Street.

[39] A welcome benefit of the building of St Mary Magdalene Church was a new parochial school, built at the rear alongside what became Liverpool Road, opening in 1815[40] on half an acre of land and catering for 400 children.