Editing Highbury (section)

== Highbury in the arts ==

For 40 years from 1965, [[Highbury New Park]] was home to [[Wessex Sound Studios|Wessex Studios]]. Created by the Beatles producer Sir [[George Martin]] (who grew up on Drayton Park in Highbury), the studios saw the recording of some of the best-known albums created by bands including Queen, Genesis, the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols and the Clash. The building is now a block of residential apartments called "The Recording Studio" and located at 106, Highbury New Park. (Refs: George Martin speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs; The Independent, 3 November 2004; the "Queen&nbsp;– Days of our Lives" documentary screened by BBC4 in April 2012.)

Highbury was also home to [[Highbury Studios]], a film/TV/recording studio further along the same street, at 65A Highbury New Park; these studios had a training school next door in a disused [[Church (building)|church]] hall. Built initially as a music conservatoire in 1890, the site became a recording studio in 1926 for the Piccadilly label. In 1933, they became the Highbury (film) Studios and in 1945 they were acquired by the [[Rank Organisation]]. Due to economic difficulties, Rank closed the studios down and they were demolished in 1960. Athenaeum Court, a block of flats, now occupies the site.

As of September 2019, Highbury is home to the [https://LSA.ac.uk London Screen Academy] (LSA), a state-funded sixth form college located on Highbury Grove opposite Christ Church. LSA is dedicated to training young people of all backgrounds in behind-the-camera skills. LSA's founders include Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of [[Working Title Films]], Lisa Bryer of Cowboy Films, David Heyman of Heyday Films, and Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of [[Eon Productions]].

The following books and films feature parts of Highbury:
*The book ''A London Family 1870–1900'' by [[Molly Hughes]], {{ISBN|0-19-282896-7}}. In particular it mentions Highbury New Park.
*The book ''The Rescue Man by Anthony Quinn <ref>{{cite book |title=The rescue man |year=2009 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |isbn=9780224087285}}</ref>''. The dramatic book finishes with scenes at Highbury Corner on 27 June 1944 after an attack by V-1 flying bomb. 
*The film ''Killing Her Softly'' was partially filmed on Highbury New Park.
*The film ''[[Fever Pitch]]'' was filmed around the Arsenal stadium and along Highbury Hill.
*The film ''[[Four Weddings and a Funeral]]'' begins with Hugh Grant trying to hail a taxi at Highbury Corner and ends in front of the houses that run along the edge of [[Highbury Fields]].
*The film ''[[The Arsenal Stadium Mystery]]'' was filmed in and around the Arsenal stadium.
*The poem ''[[Summoned by Bells]]'' by [[John Betjeman]]. This verse autobiography mentions Highbury several times, including St Saviours Church on Aberdeen Park, which he used to attend. St Saviours closed in 1980 and is now an art studio.
*Highbury is where the fictional comedy character [[Mr. Bean]] lives.
*Writer [[Alan Moore]] recorded a 'beat seance' in and about Highbury, titled '[[The Highbury Working]]'.
*In the early 70s a drama was filmed by the BBC called "The House on Highbury Hill".
*Highbury is mentioned in ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)|Vanity Fair]]'', the novel by [[William Makepeace Thackeray]]; in chapter 4, the Sedleys are said to be going "to dine with Alderman Balls, at Highbury Barn."
*The novel ''[[Emma (novel)|Emma]]'' by [[Jane Austen]] is set in a village called Highbury, though located in [[Surrey]].{{Relevance inline|date=March 2016}}This information is fairly pertinent here, since Austen's fictitious Highbury village might otherwise be confused with the Islington area. This is so despite the author's placing Emma's Highbury 'sixteen miles from London' and the fact that it is regarded by perhaps most Austen scholars as imagined to be in Surrey.
*Highbury is mentioned in The Fire Sermon, part III of [[T.S. Eliot]]'s [[The Waste Land]]: "Highbury bore me. Richmond and Kew / Undid me."
Highbury is the setting of Andrea Levy's autobiographical novel, Every Light in the House Burnin'.