Why Arlington? (continued)

Our research into why our Square is called Arlington continues. The latest possible clue came from a neighbour who was a pupil at Highbury Hill School for Girls, now Highbury Fields School.

She tells us that when she was there, the school had three ‘houses’ named Alwyne, Wellington and – you guessed it – Arlington.

Some time between 1851 and 1854 (around the time that Arlington Square was being built) Canonbury Terrace was renamed Alwyne Villas after Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, the Marquis of Northampton, a local landowner. And in the first half of the 19th century, many places and institutions were named after national hero the Duke of Wellington. (Islington has a Wellington Road, a Wellington Square, a Wellington Mews – and today’s Almeida Street was Wellington Street until 1890.) So perhaps the school’s three houses were simply named after prominent Islington street names.

The school was founded in 1844 in Gray’s Inn Road, as a Model School for the Home and Colonial Society. It moved to Highbury Hill House in Islington in 1894 and changed its name to Highbury Hill High School for Girls. In 1981, despite vocal protests, it merged with Shelburne High School for Girls and became the comprehensive Highbury Fields School.

It no longer has three ‘houses’. We’ve asked the school if they have any idea why they once used the names Alwyne, Wellington and Arlington. If they have, you will be the first to know.