Archy Ash

Go diagonally towards the Round Pond, up the slope, along the Broad Walk and left past the sunken garden which was created as recently as 1909. As you go look through the railings at the architecture. The east front to be seen beyond the statue of Queen Victoria at the time of her accession, by her daughter Princess shows the beginnings of Palladianism, with the central three bays projecting forward under a pediment.

At the end of the antiques area is an authentically Victorian pub, the Camden Head (1899). To the left, Upper Street and Essex Road fork at Islington Green headed by a crumbling 19C statue of the chief promoter of the New River Sir Hugh Middleton by John Thomas (1862), with a shady garden behind.

Take the right fork up Essex Road: there are still a few antique shops here but they are down market by comparison with Camden Passage.

The finest aspect of Islington is its rich residue of Georgian streets and squares, and this walk takes you through all the best. But it also has more than its share of local entertainment, a fascinating collection of antique shops and a market, as well as a range of restaurants, pubs and cafes. Islington was poor until it was rediscovered from the 1960s, and some parts still are, but rich and poor seem to co-habit here in reasonable harmony.

This is a mundane name for a prestigious district, but the High Street is the spine of this walk. Kensington Palace is tucked away with astonishing modesty (compared with Buckingham Palace) and is all the more enjoyable as a result.

There are fine residential streets, two fascinating small museums of the 19C, a particularly leafy and underestimated park and some good shops.

Our main route takes us north up Compton Road, with pompous stuccoes mid-19C houses, leading up to St Pauls Road, where you turn right, cross and then turn left into Highbury Grove.

Highbury is an entity distinct from both Canonbury and Islington and developed separately from the later 18C. As a development it was never so co-ordinated or complete but some individual terraces are as beautiful as any in Islington.

There are three dimensions to Notting Hill. First the area of shops and streets around Notting Hill Gate, with a fair amount of buzz and interest, and some quaint artisan housing all madly fashionable today: second, Portobello Road market, to be seen any day, but in full flood only on Saturdays and third, for the housing enthusiast, the extravagances of the Ladbroke Grove Estate.

The Carnival is the biggest public festival in London, Caribbean in origin and inspiration but increasingly international and multi-racial in spirit and fact. It originated in 1966 as an unofficial response to race riots in Notting Hill in the later 1950s, as a simple street parade with music.

In one sense that is still its basis, but now the Carnival is a huge show on the August Bank Holiday weekend, with childrens costume parades on the Sunday and adults on the Monday, from morning till night.