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Holloway Road, LONDON, N7 8DQ

The shop still retains the sign for Blackwells, but had been used after that as a "cash point" and by this time (late 2013) was empty again.

This place of worship occupies a shop unit on Holloway Road, sitting uncomfortably next to a betting shop.

See Image and Image

The original "main entrance" of one of the older buildings of the LMU, on Holloway Road. The LMU is spread over several sites in this area.

The university was created in 2002 by the merger of The University of North London (formerly the Polytechnic of North London) and London Guildhall University (formerly the City of London Polytechnic). See the Wiki entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Metropolitan_University and the university's website http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/ .

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The casual observer will no doubt be impressed by the harmonious blend of architectural styles on display: the pleasingly proportioned three-storey brick building with interesting clock tower and cupola, the Image beyond, and the rectilinear concrete and glass high rise neo-brutal monument to the triumph of Soviet realism looming malignantly over both (and over large stretches of Holloway Road in both directions). Just be grateful that I have spared you the full horror of the utterly depressing four-storey monstrosity that has been tacked on to the south end of the brick building with no respect for its window lines (part of which intrudes on the right hand side of the photo) - if you really want to see it, here's the Streetview image https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5512585,-0.1105225,3a,75y,49.64h,100.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYToKmyJx7Q5b6ph7TuvHOw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 . As if this were not enough, part of yet another monstrosity can be seen poking out from beyond the high rise block - this can be seen in (most of) its full glory in N Chadwick's photo Image in which you can fully appreciate the care that was lavished on the design to ensure that the overall height, the curved front, the height of each floor, the very pale coloured stone cladding, and the height, lack of glazing bars and the green reflective glass of the windows made absolutely sure that the building was not only hideous in itself, but also would bear no relationship whatsoever to the adjacent high rise block – or to any other building in the vicinity. How reassuring that out esteemed centres of higher learning obviously care so deeply about the built environment.

This began as the Polytechnic of North London before it became a university of the same name, and now London Metropolitan since merging with the City of London University. I studied at the Highbury branch on and off from 1979-84 and finished with a law degree. It was officially Britain's lowest ranked university last time I checked, despite having the country's best plastics laboratory at the ground floor of the old building to the right of here until it was shut down.