Happy birthday to us!

Number 1, April 2012: the early editions of The Arlingtonian were in black and white

Bring out the cake and fizz! The Arlington Association is twenty years old.

It all started as an attempt to sort out the antisocial behaviour that plagued our neighbourhood. Back in 2002 Arlington Square was the venue of choice for rowdy youngsters and drug dealers. Late-night revellers decorated the square with graffiti, litter and fires, and underage joy-riders on stolen scooters made the most of our wide and previously quiet streets.

Two disgruntled neighbours, Hazel Fletcher and Valerie Hansard, decided to take action. With the help of the then local vicar, Fr Evan Jones, they held a public meeting at St James’ and invited the Leader of Islington Council, the local Community Police Officer and the Head of Islington Greenspace to meet local residents.

Two hundred concerned neighbours turned up and 18 people agreed to help Valerie and Hazel form a committee for what became the Arlington Association.

The AA has since worked closely with the council, the local community police and the Greenspace rangers on many issues, especially discouraging antisocial behaviour and transforming the garden square. Valerie has moved from Arlingtonia but Hazel is still a much valued committee member.

We are truly grateful to Hazel and Valerie, our current and long-standing chair Gordon McArthur, our committee members past and present, and all our volunteers for their tireless work and support over the first 20 years.

Hold the front page

That’s not the only anniversary: your local newsletter is 10 years old. The Arlingtonian is still free and still written, edited, designed and dist ributed by volunteers in the neighbourhood.

This edition is the 27th we have produced. It would have been the 30th but You-Know-What got in the way. During the first year of lockdowns, the editors couldn’t face producing pages that just listed everything that had been cancelled.