Cool things to do in Camden
More than two centuries ago, boats drawn by horses arrived in a village just outside central London. Then, after the Regent’s Canal, came the trains and the warehouses, and all the people that thrive at the edges of cities, singing to their own rhythm.
Camden Town got its alternative identity long before the psychedelic kids and the punks and a young woman with a beehive called Amy came along. But now, something is happening again around the rails and the waterways. New businesses are flooding to the area, and new cafés and some of the best restaurants in London are opening their doors, while Camden’s old heart keeps beating boldly under it all. So let’s explore NW1, past and present and future.
Dine at some of Camden's best restaurants
NEW CAMDEN MARKET
With design agency Ragged Edge rebranding the market with new signage and typography, the Tom Dixon-designed Atrium gleaming over the old Stables Market (a stunning new glass-and-light co-working space), as well as Bauer Media recently relocating to Camden, this is fast becoming the new place for London’s creative community to get together. And when they get together, they eat and drink a lot. For lunch, head to the new street-food stalls around Camden Lock, run by KERB, where exciting global options include Venezuelan cornbread sandwiches, Israeli kebabs and Taiwanese lunchboxes. Then grab a cocktail at Gabeto on its huge outdoor terrace or, if it’s raining, retreat into the Victorian loveliness of the Elephant’s Head for a pint, and the best old punk jukebox in town.
The Stables is the best place for dining away sunny evenings. There are proper restaurants such as the incredible Cheese Bar (main picture, above), which sells burgers, grilled sandwiches and euphoria-inducing fondue, while new-kid-on-the-block Rudy’s Dirty Vegan Diner is drawing in crowds for its faux mac-and-cheese and dirty fries. Voodoo Ray’s combines old and new Camden with its New York-style pizza, blasting out Nine Inch Nails while serving gargantuan slices of Italian dough. Recommended are the Giorgio Moroder (goat’s cheese at the disco) and the Green Velvet (artichoke hearts and green olives are partying in this house).
Camden's pubs have never been particularly known for their dining menus (many seem to adhere to the 'eating's cheating' philosophy) but that changed when The Farrier opened in post-lockdown 2021, surprisingly the first ever pub in Camden Market. Set in the former horse hospital and stables just along from the Amy statue, with original iron columns and brickwork, it's the work of three Leeds-born creatives whose 'other' project is The Great Gatsby immersive-theatre show. A theatre space will eventually open upstairs, but right now it's the cooking and natural-wine list that takes centre stage – chef Ash Finch (Wild Honey, The Langham) stirs up vivid flavours on a menu that's strong on comfort-food classics (roast bone marrow, fish and chips, rhubarb and meringue) but never takes its ingredients for granted.
BREAKFAST
Breakfast in Camden on a weekday is a Full English affair, apart from a few other options: Casa Tua by Camden Road station, is a tiny Italian deli/diner, while Leyas at the bottom of Camden High Street does a lovely coffee and eggs Benedict or Florentine. Go to the legendary Mario’s Café, just off Kentish Town Road and memorialised in the Saint Etienne song of the same name, for its ciabattas and stained-glass windows.
CAMDEN’S CANAL
If you want to push the boat out, travel to Camden from Paddington with the London Shell Co. (above), which serves some of the very best British seafood on a canal vessel on summer weekends – food critics Jay Rayner and Fay Maschler rate it highly, and the menu includes Cornish scallops, Cumbrae oysters and Chalk Stream trout tartare. Otherwise, just stroll along the curving high towpath and take in the eccentric sights, such as the folly-like Pirate Castle, the floating Chinese restaurant Feng Shang Princess and even glimpses of wild animals from nearby London Zoo. There are some fascinating post-industrial canalside townhouses here, designed by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, full of light and space (one is available to rent on Airbnb). In quieter moments, you can still imagine the boats drawn by the horses as you walk, as Camden’s heart keeps pounding its own tune, now and forever.
Getty ImagesEXPLORE THE MARKETS
Getting lost among the stalls of cheap vintage and eccentric tiny businesses in Camden’s markets is still a pleasure. Look out for Turkish Delight’s gorgeous spotlit cave of handmade mosaic lamps, or Koko Art, where you can get a new pair of Converse personalised while you wait. Then there’s Black Gull Books, stuffed so full of second-hand paperbacks they’re practically torrenting out of the door. There’s fancier stuff on sale too, embracing Camden’s heritage. The Camden Watch Company makes timepieces inspired by the area’s industrial past, each model numbered after the bus routes that glide through its thoroughfares. Mosaiqe is another great watchmaker, making products out of sustainable, natural wood, while General Eyewear’s optical workshop dazzles the irises (its 56,000-strong collection of frames from across the decades makes it the largest retailer of vintage glasses in the world). And you can’t leave the markets altogether without taking a turn around the legendary Cyberdog (above): three floors of futuristic neon clubwear, much of it rendered in rubber. Don’t forget to say hello to the robots at the door.
Above: Koko in Camden
GET TO KNOW CAMDEN'S MUSIC – PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE
Camden has enjoyed many moments in musical legend, and many of its old venues are still doing great things today. The Grade II-listed Roundhouse, the Victoria train-turning shed used for psychedelic ‘happenings’ in the late 1960s, works with the community’s youth on creative new projects, and any show in its huge circular main space always feeling incredibly special (Thom Yorke, George Clinton and Angie Stone are among its headliners this summer). On Parkway, the Jazz Café remains an old faithful with queues snaking out the door, while Nineties’ Britpop hangout The Good Mixer, where Blur famously ran into Oasis, has recently been refreshed and rewired without compromising its traditional looks.
Elsewhere, Camden’s heart remains nicely raw. Home to many a Madness and Libertines gig over the years, The Dublin Castle now has an adjoining charity shop, Rock 'n' Roll Rescue, overflowing with artfully knackered rock memorabilia. The area’s best record shops are still also open for business: Sounds That Swing on Parkway is great for early rock and roll and rockabilly, while Out On The Floor is brilliant for reggae and soul. Also don’t miss Our Black Heart, a fantastic new pub in a hidden alley near the Tube station on Greenland Place. Sitting in cosy panelled booths in near-darkness, you’ll find spotlit Detroit Cobras, Devo and Death Cult posters, religious icons strewn with fairy lights and the best craft beers in town.
Getty ImagesSEE THE MANY AMY WINEHOUSE MEMORIALS
Brightly coloured tributes to the area’s much-missed most recent legend Amy Winehouse keep on appearing. At last count there are seven graffiti memorials – the beatific one on the side of the Earl of Camden is the best – as well as a statue of her in Camden Lock(above), staring at the punters defiantly, hair backcombed high, back in black.
SEE A DRAG SHOW
After the shocking closure of legendary drag venue The Black Cap in 2015 (local action to re-open it continues apace), Her Upstairs on the nearby Camden Street has picked up the suggestively shaped baton. Behind gold-foil curtains and a rainbow flag on an anonymous-looking office building, this bar ‘run by queer people for queer people’ is putting on emerging performers and particularly encourages performers of colour. It’s hosted by madame of the house Meth, who describes her look as ‘a clown on acid going to the Met Gala’.
TAKE A BREAK IN CAMDEN’S QUIETEST CORNERS
Off the top of Parkway, you’ll find Regent’s Park’s peaceful northern extremities – pop into the new KooKoo deli on the way for a pickled-fennel salad or rump-steak with chimichurri for a particularly high-end Camden picnic. The York & Albany hotel is in this part of town too, its townhouse bedrooms made particularly fine with regal purple and red furnishings, period antiques and Egyptian bedlinen. Angela Hartnett launched the restaurant here, where seasonal British food continues to impress: the summer set menu includes salmon rillettes and a passion-fruit posset. There’s also the stunning 1932 Grade II modernist beauty that is Cecil Sharp House, and a turn around the main Kennedy Hall is an experience to be savoured by any art lover (its extraordinary mid-century Ivon Hitchens’ mural hangs above a gorgeous sprung wooden floor, brightened by natural light). The genteel downstairs café and old-fashioned folk singers’ bar are real hidden gems too.
If you’re after an old-fashioned, atmospheric restaurant, Daphne on Bayham Street is a locals’ favourite, serving traditional Greek food on intimate tables – its mezze for two is full of authentic flavours, with the kleftiko and spanakopita being particularly good. And look out for the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Camden Coffee on Delancey Street, a tiny coffee-seller’s store rather than a café. George Constantinou has been selling the world’s greatest beans from his simple, rustic counter since 1978, always in his basic blue overalls.
Getty Images / PegasusAn Amy Winehouse mural by street artist Pegasus
The London Shell Co. barge
York & Albany, on the north-east corner of Regent's Park, where Angela Hartnett serves up seasonal British food
The York & Albany's hotel exterior
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