What is Camden Town?

Camden Town
Camden Town (Greater London)
OS grid reference	TQ295845
London borough	Camden
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	NW1
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Holborn and St. Pancras
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden
European Parliament	London
List of places: UK • England UK • London

Coordinates:

Camden Town is an area of North London, England, in the London Borough of Camden. Camden Town is sometimes referred to simply as "Camden", but it should not be confused with the borough. Camden Town is an inner-city district located 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north of Charing Cross, and is famous for its crowded market and as a centre for alternative lifestyles. The area is popular with students, including those from overseas. It is also an area with a large congregation of people following alternative subcultures, most notably goth, punk and emo. Camden is also home to Amy Winehouse who is often spotted at the Hawley Arms which is her local.

Attractions

The Regent's Canal runs through the north end of Camden Town; its 8.5 mile towpath, which passes through London Zoo, is a pleasant and popular walk in summer [1]. Boat trips along the canal, from Camden Lock, are also interesting. Many of the handrails by the bridges show deep marks worn by the towropes by which horses pulled canal barges until the 1950s, and there are still underwater ramps to assist horses which have bolted due to the overrunning railway bridges and fallen in. One of the many canal bridges, Macclesfield bridge, is known as "Blow-up bridge": it was the site of London's largest pre-war explosion, where a barge laden with gunpowder blew up in 1874.

Camden Lock is a traditional manually-operated double canal lock operating between widely separated levels. A large complex of weekend street markets has mushroomed there since the 1970s.

Not far away is Regent's Park, a large and pleasant park which was formerly Henry VIII's hunting chase. There are spectacular rose gardens in bloom in the spring, a boating lake, always-hungry ducks and geese, and several children's playgrounds. Conkers are plentiful in autumn. London Zoo is at the north of the park.

The Roundhouse is a railway building constructed in 1847 for the London and Birmingham Railway. It had various uses and eventually became derelict and was converted to a music venue in the 1960s. Since its re-opening in 2006 it has once again become one of London's leading cultural venues, as a theatre and music venue.

To the east of Camden Town station and running along the canal is a modern complex designed by Terry Farrell as the original studios of TV AM. The studios are now used by MTV but retain the egg cup sculptures along the roof line of original owners.

There are a great many shops, bars, restaurants and cafes. The area south of the tube station is typical of a London High Street; towards the north we find the markets and attractions typical of the area. There are a number of English language schools in the area.

Camden Square is a short walk away from Camden Town station and boasts and impressive playground and dog walking area.

Camden street markets

Camden is well-known for its markets: these are of relatively recent date, except for Inverness Street market, a small food market good for fruit and vegetables serving the local community, though now with more touristy stalls on weekends. Camden Lock market proper started in a former timber yard in 1973, and is now surrounded by satellites: Buck Street market, Stables market, Camden Canal market, and an indoor market in the Electric Ballroom.

The markets are a major tourist attraction at weekends, selling inexpensive goods of all types including fashion, lifestyle, books, food, junk/antiques and bizarre goods; they and the surrounding shops are popular with young people, in particular those searching for "alternative" clothing. Stables Market also has a growing antiques and furniture trade.

In recent years entertainment-related businesses such as a Virgin Megastore and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, and represent an extensive range of world cuisine. Many restaurants are a little away from the markets, on Camden High Street and its side streets, Parkway, Chalk Farm Road, and Bayham Street.

Camden Lock market has its own web site [2] with maps, detailed transport information, and details of some shops and stalls.

The conflicting pressures of developing London have given rise to a controversial plan to re-develop the heart of the historic Stables Market. A steel and glass extension was built on the edges of this site in summer 2006. This increases the market's capacity but increases the pressure on Camden Town's streets and transport, already pushed to their limits over the weekend as thousands of tourists come to the area. Camden Council passed the plans for the additional development in October 2006 against much opposition from residents strongly opposed to the modern redevelopment of their town into a homogenised high street area typical of much of London.

Bars, clubs, pubs, and restaurants

• The Black Cap pub on Camden High Street serves a clientèle of gay men and women. Often confused with the fictitious "Mother Black Cap" featured in cult British film "Withnail and I", the name "Mother Black Cap" is a conflation of "The Black Cap" and the former "The Mother Red Cap" (see below). The actual pub used for the exterior of the "Mother Black Cap" in the film is in Notting Hill, London W11, and has recently changed its name to "The Mother Black Cap" to reflect its fame.
• The World's End has been a pub since 1778. Formerly known as "The Mother Red Cap" and later "The Red Cap", it is on Camden Road near Camden Town tube station.
• The Underworld is a live music venue with a capacity of 500, located under The World's End.
• Koko, formerly The Camden Palace, is a major dance and rock venue on Camden High Street near Mornington Crescent tube station. The building hosted the famous Goon Show, and in 2006 hosted Channel 4's Album Chart Show.
• The Edinboro Castle, a gastropub with a beer garden for summer; Dylan Thomas lived opposite for a while.
• The Hawley Arms, located by Camden Lock bridge
• The Dublin Castle is an Irish pub and music venue, and has hosted Blur, Travis and Madness, amongst other bands.
• The Lock Tavern, a pub opposite the Camden Lock market with two bars, terrace and a beer garden.
• The Oh! Bar on the corner of Camden High Street and Delancey Street has (in 2007) free WiFi wireless networking for customers with suitable portable computers. Free WiFi is also available near the gateway from the canal to the market in the West Yard.
• The Camden Tup, hidden on Greenland Place, plays all major Rugby internationals and football matches.
• The Purple Turtle, small music venue near Mornington Crescent
• Electric Ballroom, hosts weekly club nights and acts as a live music venue including recent performances from AFI and Sick of it All
• Quinns, an Irish pub on the Kentish Town Road, serves many beers of different styles.
• The Devonshire Arms ("The Dev"), a goth themed pub
• The Ice Wharf, a Lloyds No1 Bar.
• Lock 17
• The Camden Barfly, live music venue showcasing up and coming artists.
• The Good Mixer, famous 'muso' pub located on Inverness Street. One time hang out of Britpop band members, especially Graham Coxon of Blur and Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis.
• The New Goodfare is a simple restaurant/cafe which has been on the corner of Parkway and Arlington Road for many years.
• A large and constantly changing range of conventional and fast-food restaurants and cafes, both chain and independent.
• There are many stalls in the markets selling ready-to-eat food of many types and nationalities, notably in the West Yard and near Stables Market. Many stalls sell remaining food at half-price at the end of every day, from before 18:00 until about 19:00 and often later.

Places of interest

• Camden Lock
• Camden Lock Market and other street markets
• Jewish Museum
• London Zoo
• Regent's Canal and its towpath
• Regent's Park
• The Roundhouse
• St Pancras Old Church
• St Michael's Church, Camden Town
• Wolf Armouries, the UK's only dedicated physical retail shop for airsoft.
• The unusual Sainsbury's supermarket in Camden Road was designed by Nicholas Grimshaw. It is on the site of the former large ABC Bakery.

Transport

Many bus routes serve the Camden Town area. Camden Town Underground station is close to the markets and other attractions; other stations are listed below. Black taxis ply for hire in the area, and there are minicab offices. Illegal unlicensed "taxis" tout for business on the street, particularly late at night when other forms of transport are much less available[3]; they often demand excessive fares and are not insured for hire services. In 2005 there were an average of ten sexual attacks and rapes on women by illegal minicab drivers throughout London each month[4].

Camden Town Underground station was not designed for the volume of traffic it handles since the area became popular. It is very crowded all weekend, and, as of 2006, is closed to outbound passengers on Sunday afternoons, the peak time, for safety.

London Underground has made many proposals to upgrade the station. In 2004 a proposal requiring the compulsory purchase and demolition of 'the Triangle' — land bordered by Kentish Town Road, Buck Street and Chalk Farm Road — was rejected by Camden Council after opposition from local people; of 229 letters, only 2 supported the scheme.

Nearby places

• Chalk Farm
• Kentish Town
• Holloway
• Tufnell Park
• Primrose Hill
• Regents Park

Nearest tube stations

• Camden Town
• Chalk Farm
• Kentish Town railway and tube station
• Mornington Crescent

Nearest railway stations

• Camden Road
• Kentish Town railway and tube station
• Kentish Town West

In literature

In Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit and his family live in Camden Town.

In John Le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a mole at the heart of MI6 is exposed in the climax of the plot at a meeting in a safe house at Five, Lock Gardens, Camden Town (a fictitious street).

Cayce Pollard, the protagonist of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, is based in Camden when in London.

The book High Fidelity is set in Camden, including a ficticious record shop 'Championship Vinyl'.

In music

• The 1996 Lush single "Ladykiller" contains the lyric "I'm hanging out in Camden / Drinking with my girlfriends on a Saturday night".
• "Come Back To Camden" from Morrissey's 2004 album You Are the Quarry.
• "Camden Town", from Uffington Horse's debut album Enchantment.
• "Camden Town", from the album The Lone Ranger by Suggs, Madness's vocalist. There is a signed poster of the song in Madness' spiritual home, The Dublin Castle pub.
• Madness make many references to Camden Town in their music. Arlington House (a hostel for the homeless) in Arlington Road, near Parkway, inspired vocalist Suggs to write "One Better Day" about the sadness of living in London. The joke and fancy dress shop Escapade on Camden High Street features in the video to "House of Fun".
• The record company 2 Tone Records was located on Camden High Street.
• The Pulp song "Sorted for E's & Wizz".
• Puertorican singer and songwriter Robi Dräco Rosa refers to Camden Town in his song "La Flor Del Frio" from album Vagabundo.
• Camden is mentioned in the song "Ain't No Lie", by famous Camden resident guitar player Graham Coxon. Coxon also refers to Britannia Junction, near Camden Town tube station, in his song 'What's he got'.
• Punk band The Clash recorded their seminal album London Calling at an address in Camden Town. Also, their song The Prisoner makes reference to Camden Town.
• Ben Mitchell (singer/songwriter) lived and performed in Camden while writing and recording The Stars Can See. It was in Camden where Mitchell also started and hosted Acoustic Trip (at The Lock Tavern)
• Coldplay made their debut appearances in Camden at the Dublin Castle pub whilst Chris Martin was studying at University College London, which is in the Borough of Camden.
• Subterraneans are identified with Camden Town, living and recording in the area, rehearsing at Scar Studios, and running their record company The Electric Label from offices in Chalk Farm Road and Camden High Street. All of the band's record launches since 1992 have taken place at the Dublin Castle pub.
• Camden Town is mentioned in the song A Girl in Port by Okkervil River.
• Bon Scott, former lead vocalist of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC, died of alcohol poisoning at the age of 33 after a night's heavy drinking in Camden Town.
• Hip-Hop and Rap artist Akala, was born and grew up in Camden Town, and did most of his early work there. He won a MOBO award for Best Hip-Hop artist in September 2006, beating, amongst others, Sway, another London born Rapper, and Plan B.
• DJ The Camden Slags formed in Camden during its Britpop era in 1994-7.
• Belle & Sebastian refer to many of the sights of Camden Town in their song Mornington Crescent.
• Plan B's "Suzanne" , from his mixtape Paint It Blacker tells the story of the Camden Ripper.
• "Camden Town" is the name of the track produced by the famous Italian Disk Jockey Emanue le Inglese in 2006
• "Camden Town" is mentioned in the song "Out Of The Dark" by the unsigned band Chimera Rouge.

So?

• Camdem is mentioned in Ryan Adams's song "English girls Approximately" in his album "Love is Hell, Volume 2". The line says "Falling down in Camden like a couple drunken criminals".

In Film

• The cult film Withnail and I starts and ends in Camden Town.
• This Year's Love is filmed almost entirely in and around Camden, showing many local landmarks, shops, restaurants and bars.
• The famous Christmas film, A Christmas Carol ends with Scrooge Sending a young boy to buy a turkey from Camden.
• The Rules of Attraction (2002) features images of a busy Camden High Street during a fast-paced montage of a character's promiscuous tour of Europe. He cites "girls with pink hair" as a notable feature of area. The film is set in Camden College, a fictional Ivy League institution in the eastern United States.

In Television

• The ship from the BBC sci-fi sitcom Hyperdrive is called the HMS Camden Lock. The town has been featured in the Channel Four sitcom Spaced.
• Television actress Tamsin Greig grew up in Camden as a child.
• The Apprentice winner Sean Yazbeck grew up in Camden Town.
• Camden town was featured on an episode of the Sky one show, , as well as the Channel 4 show, Big Brother's Big Mouth.
• The personality of the stereotypical Camden town resident is parodied in a sketch from The League of Gentlemen, available on YouTube here.

Gallery

Britannia Junction in Camden Town	The Regent's Canal in Camden Town	Punks close to the Electric Ballroom	Camden Market
Camden Town	Camden Town	Camden Town	Camden Town
Camden Town	Camden Town	Camden Town	Camden Town
Camden Town	Camden Town

Footnotes

See also

• Portobello Road Market

External links

Local Directories/Guides

• Camden Town Online
• Camden Guide "guide to everything that happens in Camden"
• Camden Markets web site
• The Camden New Journal Newspaper
• Soundmap Audio Walking Tour of Camden Town

Businesses/Organisations

• Camden Town Methodist Church

Government

• Camden Council web site
• Camden Primary Care Trust: health services
• Police crime statistics; see "Camden Town with Primrose Hill" ward.
• Alternative Camden "energising civil society v pseudo-democracy"

Maps

• Map showing Camden Town markets
• Map of Camden Town and surrounding areas

•  • [ e] London Borough of Camden

Districts: Belsize Park • Bloomsbury • Brondesbury • Camden Town • Chalk Farm • Covent Garden • Dartmouth Park • Fitzrovia • Fortune Green • Frognal • Gospel Oak • Hampstead • Highgate • Holborn • Kentish Town • Kilburn • Kings Cross • Primrose Hill • Saffron Hill • St Pancras • South Hampstead • Swiss Cottage • Tufnell Park • West Hampstead Attractions: West End theatre • British Library • British Museum • Camden Arts Centre • Donmar Warehouse • Foundling Museum • Fenton House • Freud Museum • Kenwood House • The Roundhouse • Sir John Soane's Museum Parks and open spaces in Camden Street markets: Camden Market Constituencies: Holborn and St Pancras • Hampstead and Highgate

•  • [ e] Main districts of the London boroughs • List of places in London

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