Holloway Road

Holloway Road is a road in London, 3km in length. It is one of the main shopping streets in North London, and carries the A1 road as it passes through Holloway, in the London Borough of Islington. The road starts at the Archway, near Archway tube station, then heads south-east, past Upper Holloway railway station, Whittington Park, past the North London campus of London Metropolitan University near Nag's Head, past Holloway Road tube station, and the main campus of the university, and then becomes Highbury Corner, near Highbury & Islington station.

The origins of the name are disputed; some believe that it derives from "hollow" due to the dip in the road from the cattle that made their way along the route to the cattle markets in London, whilst some believe it derives from "hallow" and refers to the road's historic significance as part of the pilgrimage route to Walsingham. No documentary evidence can be found to support either derivation.

The earliest record giving the name of the road as The Holloway dates from 1307. The main stretch of Holloway Road runs through the site of the villages of Tollington and Stroud. The exact time of their founding is not known, but the earliest record of them dates from 1000. The names ceased to be used by the late 17th century, but are still preserved in the local place names "Tollington Park" and "Stroud Green"; since that time, the area has been known as Holloway.

Holloway Road is one of north London's shopping streets, containing major stores as well as numerous smaller shops. Holloway Road is the site of the main campus of the much-renamed London Metropolitan University (formerly Northern Polytechnic Institute, the Polytechnic—then University—of North London), and includes the Orion Building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, which can be seen along the central stretch of Holloway Road, and of the headquarters of the National Union of Students and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Most of the shops are clustered in the Nag's Head area, near the junction with Seven Sisters Road. North of the Seven Sisters Road is the Nambucca pub and music venue, which burned down in 2008 and reopened two years later.

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