Run 1: Manor House Station to Gibson Square.

   

"The longest journey begins with a single step."
Not for many of the regular users of Black Taxis. Arab nobility,
Russian oligarchs & SE Asian "businessmen" don't walk much.
Manor House tube station. Fred Housego, Peter Shreeve, Dermot
Drummy, Mitch Winehouse, Jon Warboys, Anis Abid Sardar - all
started out here...& John Smead, who has less self-discipline than me!

     The opening Run on The Knowledge has, for as long as almost anyone can remember, been Manor House Station to Gibson Square.
     It's a relatively straightforward Run, along a reasonably straight line. It starts at a major junction and finishes at an upmarket residential square, just off the A1, where four-bedroom houses sell for in excess of £2,000,000, in an area lampooned in Private Eye's cartoon strip, "It's Grim Up North London." The last few hundred yards apart, it's "A" and "B" roads all the way.
   

The leafy, upmarket and Oh-So-Right-On Gibson Square.
One can imagine Jez & Quin calling to their poodle, Flaubert...
with a poop-scoop at the ready, natch.

     

It's Grim Up North London:
Blogging & the wisdom of Jez & Quin

 

It's Grim Up North London.
Jez & Quin: not doing The Knowledge 

     Traditionally, this Run went along the full length of Highbury New Park to get from Green Lanes to Highbury Grove. That's the shortest way and one of the Knowledge schools still runs it via that route. The relocation of some of the Lake District's smaller peaks to N5, where they served as speed humps on Highbury New Park for many years, was presumably the original reason for the diversion.
     A cab-driving acquaintance told a possibly apocryphal tale of a "friend of a friend" who got his badge, hired an old cab and decided to drive to Manor House Station before putting the meter on for the first time - just for good luck. This is not an uncommon superstition. It didn't bring him luck. A hand shot up on Green Lanes. The punter wanted to be taken to the West End.
     Down Highbury New Park went the venerable cab, until the rear axle broke while negotiating a speedhump. A newly-qualified Cabbie is honour-bound not to charge his first punter, but that's for reasons of tradition and superstition, not because the punter has to get out and walk after 500 yards.

     Another of the Knowledge schools runs this via a right turn from Upper Street into Islington Park Street. That looks inadvisable to me, as there's clearly a timed "No Right Turn" sign at that junction. I've never seen that sign operative. It was, as usual, blacked out when I did this Run, but that's hardly surprising at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning. There's an opinion that it may be there solely for Arsenal FC home games, but I don't see what impact banning that turn would have on match traffic.
   

Junction of Upper Street with Islington Park Street & Canonbury Lane.
It's rarely operative, but that's a "No Right Turn" sign, making the right
into Islington Park Street illegal. I won't be calling through that.   

     Leave on left - Green Lanes
     Right - Brownswood Road
     Left - Blackstock Road
     Forward - Highbury Park
     Forward - Highbury Grove
     Right - St. Paul's Road
     Comply - Highbury Corner
     Leave by - Upper Street
     Right - Barnsbury Street
     Left - Milner Square
     Forward - Milner Place
     Gibson Square facing

     I poodle around the vicinity of Manor House Station in a state of mild shock at the continuing demolition & building work on the Woodberry Down Estate. Blocks that I'm sure hadn't even begun to rise last autumn are more or less complete. Of course, the Chinese knock-up blocks of this size in about three months. They need something to keep them occupied, as family planning legislation prevents many of them knocking-up anything else, but we tend to be less industrious and take all the tea-breaks in China. We're also less cavalier with Health & Safety matters. Mind you, in comparison to some developments in China, so is Qatar.
     Most of the blocks on the cut-through that evades the "No Right Turn" sign from the southern arm of Green Lanes to Seven Sisters Road are gone. Only whitewashed plasterboard lines the roads.
     In spite of a "No Through Road" sign at the entrance to Spring Park Drive, the cut-through is still navigable: "Right & left - Spring Park Drive; right - Town Court Path; left - Kayani Avenue; right - Goodchild Road; left - Woodberry Grove."
     A sweep of the 440-yard radius doesn't take long here. One third of the area is taken up by the grass & trees of Finsbury Park. Resident winos & flashers are not asked as Points on The Knowledge. The Woodberry Down Estate takes another third. The West Reservoir is also in the radius. As well as scooters, Knowledge Boys use bicycles, vans, cars & Shanks's pony to locate some of the trickier Points asked by Examiners at the Public Carriage Office. However, sneaky though Examiners may be, speedboats, submarines, snorkels and scuba kit are not yet deemed necessary.
     Apart from Manor House Station itself, Christina Square, on the north side of Adolphus Road, and the John Scott Health Centre, on Green Lanes, are the only Points asked with any degree of regularity.

   

A traditional favourite of Examiners: the John Scott Health Centre on Green Lanes.
Behind railings at a zebra crossing but it's possible to set down outside the zigzags.  

     On the Run itself, Woodberry Down Estate shenanigans apart, the only new developments I noted were on Highbury Grove.
     The islands, road markings and barriers at both the Alwyne Castle and the Hen & Chickens are unchanged, making the set-down arrangements at both a continuing matter of debate.
   

The Alwyne Castle, on St. Paul's Road, facing up Highbury Grove.
Legally & safely setting down near the door is more or less impossible. 

 

The Hen & Chickens on Highbury Corner.
Another pig of a Point to set down at. I can't see
how it's gettable from Highbury Corner itself. 

     With Run Two starting close by, a spin around Upper Street and Essex Road completes the outing. The former Royal Mail sorting office between Studd Street and Almeida Street is being turned into "Islington Square." I'll bet there won't be too much affordable housing in that development.
   

The Almeida Theatre in Almeida Street. One of the most frequently asked
Points on the whole of The Knowledge. Hard to see why, as there are no
tricks to setting down or leaving it - even of asked to leave it on the left.   

     For an area so close to the middle of town, there aren't many tricks to learn. The most frequently asked Points are the Almeida Theatre, the Islington Hilton, the Business Design Centre and the Little Angel Theatre. All are on streets with no access restrictions from the adjoining major roads.
     As with many of the start/finish areas on Runs in Central London, it's worth parking the bike and having a look around here on foot. Parts of Camden Passage and the alleyways around it are pedestrianised. The likes of Frederick's restaurant and Pierrepont Arcade aren't easy to spot on a scooter.
     Run One looks a doddle. Only 319 to go.