OUR PEOPLE

The Islington Society is a membership organisation of people who live, work or have an interest in Islington. It is a registered charity with an elected committee of officers, drawn from the membership, who manage the society.

The Society has been chaired by Leslie Wood, Raymond Harris, Beatrix Lehmann, James Ogilvy-Webb, Marion Harvey, Harley Sherlock, Andrew Bosi, David Gibson and, currently Peter Kilborn. Its President is The Rt Hon. the Lord Smith of Finsbury.

Peter Kilborn (Chair)

Peter is the Society’s Chairman. He has lived in Islington since 1974 and has been a member of the Society for more than 25 years. Since 1991 he has lived with his family in Barnsbury and is now retired after a long career in and around the book publishing industry.

Andrew Clayton (Vice-Chair)

Andrew is a retired television producer, programme editor and media company executive. He also spent ten years working to develop independent media in the Balkans after the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. He was born in the borough in 1947 and has lived in Tufnell Park since 1984. He is particularly interested in the preservation of Islington’s locally listed buildings and has been closely involved with the “Our Eyes on Islington” project which is reviewing the borough’s local list.

Patrick Green (Hon Treasurer)

Patrick is a solicitor with Colman Coyle solicitors, based on Upper Street and has been with the firm for several years. Patrick specialises in Private Client law with a particular interest in charity law.

Fredrik Borjesson

Fredrik has been a member of the Islington Society for several years and lives in Barnsbury. He has a special interest in building technology and architecture. He works in the financial services industry.

Andrew Bosi

Andrew has been a resident of Islington since 1978 and a school governor since 1981. Andrew was the past chair of Islington Society from 1999 to 2010, a councillor and a member of the Planning Committee from 1990 to 1998 and a member of the London Forum of Amenity and Civic Societies, Planning and Transport Committee. Andrew regularly writes about cricket and transport issues.

James Dunnett

James Dunnett is a practising architect who has been a member of the Islington Society committee for about twenty years. He also writes about architecture and combines an interest in the Georgian past (he lives in a Georgian house) with an engagement with the theory and practice of architecture in the twentieth century . This means he is equally concerned with the legacy of the Modern Movement and how that is treated in Islington, in relation, for example, to Ashmount School or the legacy of Lubetkin and Tecton in Finsbury, and with guarding green spaces and the green environment generally.

Aurelia Faure

Aurelia has lived in the heart of several historic cities including Paris and Oxford before moving to London. She has a special interest in architecture, historical buildings and houses. Aurelia has been a member of the Islington Society for several years and works in the financial services industry.

David Gibson

David is from Warrington, Lancashire and came to Islington as a student at University College London. David trained as a modernist architect with James Stirling and Colin St John Wilson. He has a passion for architectural conservation and established his architectural practice in Islington in 1987. David is fascinated by the uniqueness of Islington and wants to preserve the best of the environment here and improve the remainder. David was vice-chairman of the Islington Society between 1995 and 2004 and Chairman between 2010 and 2020. David represents the Islington Society on the Angel Town Centre Management Group, he is a trustee of the London Historic Buildings Trust and is a member of the principal national building conservation groups.

Andrew Robinson

Andrew Robinson has lived in Islington since the 1980s, mainly in Barnsbury. He was employed in book publishing, television production and journalism until 2006 when he became a freelance author and journalist. Since the 1980s he has written more than 25 books for trade and academic publishers on an unusually wide variety of subjects, ranging from science and the history of science to scripts and decipherment, and the history and culture of India—not to mention the history of London. He is a long-time member of the Society.

Stuart Scott

Stuart first lived in Islington in the 1960s and returned permanently in 1974. He has been a member of the Islington Society for several decades and a committee member too. Stuart has been Director of Collaborative Learning since 1983 and has worked in London schools since 1974. He has also been an Ofsted inspector for English/EAL and has taught language and reading development for the Open University.

Emma Smith

Emma has lived in Islington for over 10 years and enjoys the buzz, the amenities it offers and exploring its interesting streets.

Paul Thurlow

Paul was born and brought up in the New Towns & Garden Cities of Hertfordshire but has lived in Holloway since 1986.

After spending five years working in local government he spent the rest of his working life as a Registered Nurse at the Royal Free Hospital.

Paul has been a member of the Society since 2019 and joined the Committee in 2023. He is the Chair of the Northview Residents’ Association, and helped fight off a series of planning applications by the freeholder to build a new floor on top of the Northview block of flats from 2009 to 2013.

His particular interests are LGBTQ+ history of Islington and the history of Islington more generally.

He is also a volunteer at the Islington Local History Centre in Finsbury.

Francis Ware

Francis has lived in Tufnell Park for over 30 years and joined the Islington Society in 2020 while campaigning on a local planning issue. As a professional photographer he has worked with architects, landscape architects, for museums and galleries, as well as pursuing and exhibiting personal work much of which is concerned with changing environments and landscapes.