Islington Museum, London

The newly located Islington Museum in Finsbury Library could be better. For such a large London borough with a rich history I had high hopes.

From the moment I saw the advertising, which hangs from lampposts near the tube station, my anticipations were on song. This looked like a borough that was proud of its museum. However, after finally reaching the museum I was somewhat baffled by the inconspicuous entrance, which is half-hidden behind a tree.

The small council plaque informing you of the library's existence does a better job than the large "Islington Museum" etched into the glass at the entrance. The revamped entrance does manage to revitalise the original 60s architecture of the library, but in some ways it seems wasted because it then leads to the basement, where the museum is tucked out of the way.

The museum was previously housed in the town hall, an impressive building with a more central location nearer shops and tourist attractions.

There must be benefits to moving to this location, as people will be able to combine visits to the library and the museum, but it could mean that the museum will miss out on being at the heart of a community. And by making it an addition to the library it is arguably sacrificing the museum's identity.

Having been told that one of the reasons for the move was to give the collections more room, I expected a larger exhibition area. But most of the new space seems to be for storage, with the result that displays appear condensed. And after £1.2m has been invested in the museum, visitors may want more from the initial welcoming area.

As you descend the stairs from the modern glass entrance, the first thing that greets you is a wall placed directly in front of the doors. The general layout is unstructured, leaving visitors confused at times. One example is the group of seemingly random Somali objects at the front of the museum, which give an impression of disorganisation, as if they were just filling space.

Eight themes have been chosen to represent the history of the borough, from caring, food and drink, to the story of radicals in Islington. They are well chosen and manage to differentiate the exhibition from other local history museums.

Fashion, Work and War provide scope to tell Islington's story, but the way they are presented is via the usual, unrevealing, labelling. Sometimes the arrangement of objects is thought-provoking, but all too often they cry out for a story. In the War section, for example, the baby gas mask just proves to be another gas mask, with no narrative attached.

The museum seems to lack the confidence to break away from the norm. Islington has had a few famous residents over the years, Tony Blair and Lenin to name just two, but their time in the borough is brushed over. Islington was also one of the bases for the campaign for the legalisation of homosexuality, which had many leading proponents in the area, but this story is ignored too.

There are some interesting objects but it not always clear why they are on display, such as the Kurdish turban placed next to a Victorian top hat. Maybe it is an attempt to get the visitor to make a link between the objects and Islington or to show how the area and its residents have changed over the years, but either way, it is not immediately obvious.

To its credit, the choice of artefacts does provide some moments of intrigue: an 18th-century cow's skull sits next to a gas and air apparatus to aid women in labour, and manages to keep the visitor interested.

But some of the themes lack personal accounts and fail to engage. The War and Fashion sections are both guilty of this, with a reliance on written descriptions of events, meaning that it is hard to connect with
the topics.

Where the museum succeeds in creating an emotional connection is with its audiovisuals and interactives. Hearing accounts of Islington residents during world war two was absorbing.

In the Leisure section, the roles of Arsenal Football Club and the music halls are covered, with the former showing how it has tried to overcome differences and bring different communities together.

Taking up some of these contemporary themes could have helped the visitor to understand the local community, and some of the issues it faces.

The best part of the museum does just that - this is found in the temporary exhibition, the Journey Travelled, which is on until September. It will then be digitally stored in the museum.

The depiction of personal stories explains the tough and sometimes harrowing experiences that refugee women have had; leaving their homelands and then trying to build a new life in places such as Islington.

The stories were emotive and conveyed in an intimate style. Visitors are seated and listen through a handset as though the women are talking directly to them. After hearing how these women have received support from Islington council in their struggles, residents could feel justifiably proud to come from the area.

Unfortunately, the temporary exhibition feels slightly disjointed from the rest of the museum because of the shortage of emotional engagement elsewhere.

It would be nice to see this exhibition given more prominence in the rest of the museum. If a braver style like this could be incorporated, the museum would have a real community spirit, instead of the easy option it has gone for.

Farhaan Mumtaz is a freelance writer