Editing Islington (section)

===Housing===
Some early development took place to accommodate the popularity of the nearby Sadler's Wells, which became a resort in the 16th century, but the 19th century saw the greatest expansion in housing, soon to cover the whole parish. In 1801, the population was 10,212, but by 1891 this had increased to 319,143. This rapid expansion was partly due to the introduction of horse-drawn omnibuses in 1830. Large well-built houses and fashionable squares drew clerks, artisans and professionals to the district. However, from the middle of the 19th century the poor were being displaced by clearances in inner London to build the new railway stations and goods yards. Many of the displaced settled in Islington, with the houses becoming occupied by many families. This, combined with the railways pushing into outer Middlesex, reduced Islington's attraction for the "better off" as it became "unfashionable".<ref name="world and its people">{{cite book
  |last = Dunton
  |first = Larkin
  |title = The World and Its People
  |url = https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop05duntgoog
  |publisher = Silver, Burdett
  |year = 1896
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop05duntgoog/page/n37 29]}}</ref> The area fell into a long decline; and by the mid-20th century, it was largely run-down and a byword for urban poverty.<ref name=Growth/>

[[The Blitz|The aerial bombing of World War II]] caused much damage to Islington's housing stock, with 3,200 dwellings destroyed. Before the war, a number of 1930s [[Public housing in the United Kingdom|council housing]] blocks had been added to the stock. After the war, partly as a result of bomb site redevelopment, the council housing boom got into its stride, reaching its peak in the 1960s: several extensive estates were constructed, by both the [[Metropolitan Borough of Islington]] and the [[London County Council]]. Clearance of the worst [[terraced housing]] was undertaken, but Islington continued to be very densely populated, with a high level of overcrowding. The district has many council blocks, and the local authority has begun to replace some of them.

From the 1960s, the remaining [[Georgian architecture|Georgian]] terraces were rediscovered by middle-class families. Many of the houses were rehabilitated, and the area became newly fashionable. This displacement of the poor by the aspirational has become known as [[gentrification]]. Among the new residents were a number of figures who became central in the [[New Labour]] movement, including [[Tony Blair]] before his victory in the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 general election]]. According to ''[[The Guardian]] in 2006,'' "Islington is widely regarded as the spiritual home of Britain's left-wing intelligentsia."<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,,1724459,00.html David Clark, "Accusations of anti-Semitic chic are poisonous intellectual thuggery"]; ''The Guardian'', 6 March 2006, Retrieved 9 March 2007</ref> The ''[[Blair-Brown deal|Granita Pact]]'' between [[Gordon Brown]] and Tony Blair is said to have been made at a now defunct restaurant on Upper Street.<ref>Happold, Tom and Maguire, Kevin. [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,971669,00.html "Revealed: Brown and Blair's pact"], ''The Guardian,'' 6 June 2003. Retrieved 25 December 2005.</ref>

The [[African National Congress]]'s headquarters in exile was based on Penton Street. It was the target of a [[1982 bombing of the African National Congress headquarters in London|bomb attack in 1982]].

The completion of the [[Victoria line]] and redevelopment of [[Angel tube station]] created the conditions for developers to renovate many of the early Victorian and Georgian townhouses. They also built new developments.  Islington remains a district with diverse inhabitants, with its private houses and apartments not far from social housing in immediately neighbouring wards such as Finsbury and Clerkenwell to the south, Bloomsbury and King's Cross to the west, and Highbury to the north west, and also the Hackney districts of De Beauvoir and Old Street to the north east.

Islington is the most densely populated borough in the UK according to the 2011 census, with a population density of 138.7 people per hectare, compared to an average of 52.0 for London.