Penton Street is a through-route leading on to the narrower Barnsbury Road which continues its line northwards into Islington.
A scheme for making the path to White Conduit House across Henry Penton’s land into a street had been conceived by late 1767. Building took place between after 1768.
Penton Street was the first street to be laid out as part of what was to become Pentonville. The Pentonville name was most likely adopted due to the importance of this street - Thomas Cromwell, historian, described Penton Street in 1828 as the ’High Street’ of Pentonville
Until the 1820s, the road stopped abruptly at a gate leading to White Conduit House and Fields, beyond which the original footpath meandered on to Highgate.
For some time after it was laid out, Penton Street retained a half-urban, half-rural air. Thomas Cromwell further described Penton Street as being "thronged with citizens, hastening to or returning from the fields which commence a little beyond its northern extremity."
While White Conduit House stood at the northern end, the south was flanked by Dobney’s tea gardens and the Belvidere, both with bowling greens. There were two notable pubs then: the Salmon and Compasses on the east side and the Queen’s Arms (the later Chapel Bar) on the west.
By the early Victorian period Penton Street had become a street of shops and tradespeople with two schools and relatively few private residences
