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West Hampstead | |
Tufnell Park |
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Hampstead Garden Suburb | |
Camden Town |
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Muswell Hill | |
Kentish Town |
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Crouch End | |
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Camden Town
Camden Town is an enclave within the borough of Camden, an area of enormous variety and vitality. It has a fine range of properties, including some of London’s best homes on the eastern fringe. At Camden Lock nearby there is the famous street market. Regent’s Park, one of London’s largest and most attractive, lies just to the south. A little further away, around Kings Cross and St Pancras, one of the biggest re-development schemes in Europe is underway, to provide new apartments, offices and shops. Nearby you will find the new British National Library and, by way of contrast, a profusion of nightclubs.
History
Until the 1790s Camden Town was a quiet country area, home to a collection of farming folk and affluent people who had picked a very pleasant and convenient spot in which to live, in green fields on the banks of the Fleet River which rose in Highgate and ran to the Thames. They were happily clear of the crowded city to the south yet conveniently within a couple of miles of it.
As the area began to develop, among the early builders was one of London’s most famous, Thomas Cubitt, who would go on to create some of London’s greatest streets and squares.
At first development was slow but in the 1820s the Regent’s Canal was cut, linking the Grand Junction Canal at Paddington to the Thames at Limehouse Basin - and next to the area’s existing graceful houses appeared warehouses, business premises and mean streets, in one of which Charles Dickens lived here as a boy.
Then came the railways, cut to Euston (1838), Kings Cross (1852) and St Pancras (1868). Unfortunately, beyond the enclave of Camden Town, slums soon developed but Camden Town itself was still described in 1850 as being ‘more thickly inhabited by professional men’ than any other district of London, and in 1870, as ‘a residential quarter of wealth and even fashion’.
Today Camden Town continues to boast an array of superb properties – while the area nearby, around Kings Cross, which remained run-down for over a century, is at last seeing massive re-development (see Future Development below).
Location
Camden Town is less than two miles from the West End and the City to the south – and many residents choose walk there, crossing Regent’s Park to the West End, or striding through some of London’s most historic streets to the City. Even the South Bank with its great cultural attractions can be reached in 15 minutes or so by car or underground.
To the west lies chic and sophisticated Primrose Hill (click on ‘Primrose Hill’ for more information). To the east Islington lies with its cafes, bars and restaurants and lively nightlife.
Amenities
Camden Town borders on Regent’s Park with its magnificent rose garden, London Zoo, open air theatre, football pitches, tennis courts and boating lake.
For a different kind of open-air experience, there is Primrose Hill with its magnificent panoramic views of London.
Another attraction, for those who like to walk, is the towpath of the Regent’s Canal.
At Camden Lock on the Regent’s Canal is a world-famous street market, a top destination for hundreds of thousands of shoppers and browsers. It is a great place for fashion (especially alternative and vintage), accessories, unusual gifts, hand-crafted jewellery, recorded music, antiques, collectables, books, food, games and pastimes, and much more besides.
Camden Town teems with restaurants, bars and cafes. The restaurants may not be famous – for that you need to make a short journey south – but you can enjoy dozens of different cuisines right on your doorstep.
The area has its own modest array of galleries, museums, theatres and cinemas –but, if you want more, you are only a short distance from the immense cultural wealth of the West End and South Bank.
At nearby St Pancras station is the new British Library, one of the world’s great libraries, in which is placed a copy of every book published in the UK.
In the areas around Kings Cross and Camden Parkway there is a profusion of nightclubs, a magnet for London’s under 30s.
Property in the area
There are properties of all kinds: great houses on Regents Park; many pleasant, quiet, terraced streets and squares; and a fine choice of smaller houses and flats, popular with first-time buyers and singles. There are also some lofts in 19th century commercial buildings which have been tastefully converted to provide quality living space.
The residents
There are people of great fame and fortune living in the great mansions near the Park (Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett are long-term residents). Alongside in the terraced rows live a lot of people in the arts, media, academic life, business people and professionals, while an army of singles and first-time buyers live in the vast choice of flats which are a feature of the area.
Future development
St Pancras station, to the southeast of Camden Town, is destined to become the London terminus for the high-speed Channel Tunnel rail link connecting London to Paris and Brussels.
The completion of the last section of the line - from Kent to St Pancras - in 2007 will cut London-Paris journey times to 2hrs 20 minutes, and London-Brussels to 2hrs.
The new line is triggering the transformation of the area around St Pancras and Kings Cross stations. As the Guardian newspaper said ‘St Pancras will become the hub of a magnificent international terminus and transport interchange…At once ultra-modern and old-fashioned, it should delight both those with a passion for the past and those for whom only the very latest in design, engineering and architecture will do’.
The new development will be a mix of residential and commercial building, with apartments, offices and shops. The new properties are expected to be popular with many people who live in London but work in Paris or Brussels, and vice versa.
Anticipating a big rise in value once the new terminus opens, people with an eye to a profit in the future are buying up property in the adjacent areas.
Transport
Camden Town is served by the Northern Line on the Underground with stations at Camden Town and Mornington Crescent. Camden Road is on both the overland Silverlink Metro network and the North East London line.
The great transport hubs of Kings Cross, Euston and St Pancras are only a short distance away, where mainline railways connect London to the North, South and Midlands in the UK, and to Europe via Eurostar. They also give access to the Circle, Victoria, Metropolitan, and Hammersmith and City Lines.
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