The Streets They Left Behind is an interactive mapping project funded by the HLF. Created by John Shepherd of the London Borough of Islington, and Dr Peter Rauxloh of MOLA. The online resource remembers the 9,400 people involved in the First World War (1914-1918) that lived and worked in the early 20th century districts that make up the modern borough of Islington, before they departed for war, where they died as serving soldiers, sailors and airmen.
MOLA’s expertise was called upon to process the data of those commemorated, including names, regiments and units, last known home addresses and grave and memorial references. Our experts then developed and populated the GIS mapping platform that forms the basis of the interactive map.
First World War casualties are located on the interactive map by their last known address. The poppies marking each person are scattered around the world, because information about all casualties with an Islington connection were collected, for example people who were born in Islington but went on to live elsewhere.
The project draws on a database created for the Islington Book of Remembrance, which accumulated the names of all casualties of conflict (military and civilian) from the 20th century up to the 1950s.
It is possible to carry out searches of the people remembered so please explore the The Streets They Left Behind interactive map. Some of the points are as yet only roughly located and there are also more people that need to appear on the map. During the commemorative period, a team of volunteers will make these improvements to the map.
