David Israel

David Israel was a master butcher and poulterer, born in Whitechapel. His business, inherited from his parents, was based in Middlesex Street (Petticoat Lane), with the family living above the shop until the 1870s, when they moved to a spacious home at 14 Canonbury Square.

David looks to have been an enterprising man, and the move to Islington doubtless brought home to him how ill-served the north of the borough was by shops for the rapidly-growing Jewish population. As a reminder that today’s innovations are not always as new as they seem, he started running daily deliveries to the borough, presumably using a horse-drawn van. His well-publicised rota involved a stop for Hackney and Kingsland residents at 8.15am; for Dalston and Stoke Newington at 8.45am; for Canonbury, Highbury, Islington and Barnsbury at 9.30am, and finally for Holloway and Finsbury Park at 10am.