please empty your brain below
It always amazes me how close the southern tip of Camden borough is to the Thames - actually, if you had to walk its boundary, it'd be a fascinating stroll.

I used to go to Camden religiously as a teenager - can't believe how busier it's got over the years since then.

darryl | Homepage | 16.01.11 - 12:17 p.m. | #

I've recently been reading "Suggs and the City" by the Madness frontman Suggs, which is on much the same theme as his TV series "Disappearing London"
He says quite a lot about Camden Market, including explaining how part of the site used to be stables and yards for horses - LOTS of horses!
In the same chapter he also mentions a documentary film made in 1967, presented by James Mason, called "The London Nobody Knows"
I tried looking it up on YouTube, and - hurrah! - it's there. That's got a piece about Camden Market (and the Roundhouse) too.
Hmmm. Just thought you might like to know :)

RogerW | 16.01.11 - 2:59 p.m. | #

There's a wonderful short film narrated by Kenneth Williams where he shows where he grew up, similar to the David Benson walk but by the man himself. Black and white I think. There's a great bit about the neighbours wheeling their upright piano down to the pub every week and the singalongs in there. I saw it as part of the LFF a few years ago, when they showed lots of short films about London in Trafalgar Square one cold night.

HF | 16.01.11 - 3:31 p.m. | #

Ooh, do you mean this 1983 "Comic Roots" documentary? God bless YouTube, it's fantastic.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 16.01.11 - 3:35 p.m. | #

Kenneth Williams! Hysterically funny man! I grew up listening to the re-runs of Hancocks Half Hour, Round the Horne etc in the 70s and have recently discovered them all over again on Radio7!! Classic!

Introduced my 2 teens to Camden Lock a couple of years ago while on holiday. It was the only thing I could get to tempt then back again with, the following year!

CornishCockney | 16.01.11 - 5:13 p.m. | #

My husband lived on Marchmont Street the first year we began dating. I have many wonderful memories of that part of Camden, and am pleased the Marchmont Street has retained most of its small businesses, even with the chain-store haven of the Brunswick Center nearby.

Although, there is now a delightful second-hand bookstore in the Brunswick Center, it what seems to be the basement of Waitrose!

My fondest memories of London are centered around that southern tip of Camden where UCL resides. Reading this post was a delight.

veronica | 16.01.11 - 10:31 p.m. | #

There's been some shocking destruction of the area in the name of development over the last few years; the steps down to the catacombs featured at the start of The London Nobody Knows were still there as recently as 2008, but bit the dust as the old Creature Shop was redeveloped into flats.

And the second-hand bookshop in the Stables is one of the worst I've ever seen, I've a feeling they pick up the rejects from the much, much better Black Gull Books in the west yard.

SimonCrubellier | 17.01.11 - 10:39 a.m. | #

I knew the Roundhouse area in the early 60s before it was renovated. The Roundhouse, I think, still contained the vast turntable for trains, but you couldn't go in. The whole area was still Victorian in an atmospherically drab way: the cobbled yards, the dingy sooty brick, ochre and dark grey, the small workshops with cobwebby windows, as far as I remember, and that huge brick wall going down to Chalk Farm. No street signs, road markings, advertisements or graffiti.

However tacky the market may now be, at least the area wasn't knocked down!

Vivien | 17.01.11 - 11:19 p.m. | #

Camden Town brings back memories of my teenage years when I liked to thing I was an 'emo'. Spent many hours wandering around the markets and eating the greasy Chinese food they served.

Memories.

O | 22.01.11 - 8:23 p.m. | #

@DG: Your link didn't work but I had a search and yes it must be that one. This link might work to the first part http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmqt0eguBYs although the quality's not very good, the man is quite brilliant.

dg writes: Sorry, I missed an equals sign out of the coding. Should work now. And yes, isn't Kenneth so watchable?

HF | 23.01.11 - 11:39 p.m. | #











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