Our Funfair Family History At Islington’s Highbury Fields

Our funfair is currently on Islington’s Highbury Fields, but did you know that our ancestor George Irvin was born at the fair in Highbury in 1850?

As you can see from this excerpt from the birth register below, George Irvin was born to James Abraham Irvin (NOT Irving!) and Elizabeth Irvin (née Young) on 12th August 1850 in a caravan in Britannia Fields.

We wonder if he could have imagined that 174 years later, his family would still be Showmen and the fair would still be visiting Islington every August!

George was the fourth of nine children and we note he had a brother named James. As you know, we have brothers George and James Irvin today – and their children are the fifth generation of Showmen since George Irvin was born in 1850!

Britannia Fields has long since been built on, but it was a stretch of open space between Lower Street and the Regent’s Canal. A Britannia Fields Methodist Chapel was built four years after George’s birth at the bottom of Packington Street, which gives you a sense of where the fields once were. The name survives in Britannia Row.

We are very grateful to the Highbury Fields Association who looked up these documents for us.