 In the early 18th century , the Angel was the largest coaching house in a row of several along Islington High Street . Robert Bartholomew took over ownership of the inn in 1744 and was succeeded by his son , Christopher around 1766 , who continued to run it until the end of the century . The inn was the subject of William Hogarth 's 1747 drawing , The Stage @-@ Coach , Or The Country Inn Yard , which depicted busy coaching inn trade and traffic . In his book The Inns and Taverns of Old London published in 1909 , Henry C. Shelley said " The Angel dates back to before 1665 ... In the seventeenth century and later , as old pictures testify , the inn presented the usual features of a large old country hostelry . " 
