Number 44 is the Old Queen's Head, one of a number of pubs on Essex Road. It was one of the inns licensed by Sir Walter Raleigh, who was granted that right by Queen Elizabeth I. The inn was built by Sir Walter, though it is believed he never lived there, preferring to live at the Pied Bull Inn, which was situated nearby. The Earl of Essex was said to have lived there for a time and during his occupation the Virgin Queen was a regular visitor.

The history of Islington, was first mentioned in the Doomsday book and a writer named it "a forest full of the liars of wild beasts" there were loads of institutions dissolved and given to aristocrat friends of the Tudors. Upper Street and Lower Road were changed to Essex Road.

A little girl haunts the inn, which was rebuilt in 1829. One of the little girl's tricks is to run ahead of anybody who is going upstairs. The tapping of her feet, as she runs up the stairs and along the passageway, has been heard many times accompanied by the rustling of her dress. It takes place on the firstt Sunday of every month.

Here are some more stories of ghosts at the Old Queen's head, taken from web searches for ghosts in London as I don't have any of my books here:

An unknown woman in Tudor dress has been seen drifting around the site, ghostly footsteps of what may be a mother and child that met a gruesome end.

Famous people associated with Islington include Sir Walter Raleigh, Mary Wollstonecrofte (her daughter, Mary Shelley, wrote Frankenstein and was friends with Lord Byron) and Kate Greenway.