Highbury is well connected for daily life and in no hurry to show it off. The stations are close by. The buses come every couple of minutes at peak. Most homes have gigabit broadband. When the census asked how people got to work, most of them didn't go anywhere.
Highbury & Islington and Drayton Park are the local stations, with Canonbury, Essex Road and Finsbury Park close enough to count. Even so, only about 2% of working residents took the train to work at the 2021 census, and about 6% took the bus. Highbury has 61 bus stops, so the buses are there whether or not the census caught many people using them. Highbury has more stations nearby than it had train commuters on census day.
Working from home led by a distance in the 2021 census, at about 63% of working residents. Driving, walking and cycling took about 6% each. About 62% of households have no car at all and only about 5% have two or more. A car here is an optional extra, and with the commute mostly done at a desk at home, most households have decided they can do without one.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, which are modelled averages for the area, put the nearest town centre about 7 minutes away by car, 10 by public transport, 9 by bike and 10 on foot. When walking takes as long as the bus, the bus is mostly for days when it's raining.
Broadband is close to complete. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 96% of premises and superfast broadband reaches all of them, with none below the government's minimum standard. Mobile coverage from 4G or 5G reaches every postcode on every network. In a place where most people work from home, that matters more than the trains.
There are 41 public charge points in the area with 59 connectors between them, and two of those are rapid chargers. With about six in ten households having no car, that count serves a minority, and with only two rapid units most electric drivers will be plugging in overnight. Doing it while you shop isn't really an option.
In practice a commute from Highbury means a short walk to a station or a bus that turns up before you've checked when the next one is due, or no commute at all. Nothing in it calls for a car.
The same Department for Transport statistics, modelled for the area and with the public transport figures dating from 2019, before later service cuts, put a GP about 7 minutes away by car, on foot or by public transport, and a food shop about 5 minutes' walk or 6 minutes' drive. A hospital is about 15 minutes by car or 24 by public transport. A centre of employment is about 5 minutes by car or 12 by public transport. A GP and a food shop within a short walk are what make going without a car practical here.
The buses are a real service, not a pin on a map. The stops with timetable data average about 465 departures every weekday and about 25 an hour at peak, and every one of them has weekend buses. Unlike the modelled journey times, those figures describe the current timetable.
Traffic noise is the cost of living this close to everything. About 42% of Highbury's postcodes are near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats it as significant, and the loudest band present reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate and smaller source, with about 6% of postcodes near the same threshold. A flat on a main road is a different proposition from one in a side street. Visit at rush hour and listen from the bedroom.
Highbury is reasonably well connected, with buses, broadband and walkable everyday services doing most of the work. Comparatively few people commute from it by train.