It's been an eventful few weeks for our hero, as he's avoided hordes of tourists, a group to which he reluctantly belongs, reminded his aunt to drive on the left, and found himself unfavorably comparing UCL to Wesleyan. Having beat a path from St. Andrews to St. Paul's, we now find out our hero in Camden Town. We take you to him now...
After a very meandering transition from my job in Washington to London, I'm finally settled in my new home in Camden Town in North-Central London. My new neighborhood is fantastic, far enough away from the more touristy neighborhoods at the heart of the city but still having a really active community life, albeit with an Anti-Establishment streak.
Camden Town has had a history of radicalism beginning with Sir Charles Pratt. Pratt, an uncompromising defender of Civil Liberties as a Whig Statesman and Lawyer, was the last man to hold the area as an estate before he allowed homes to be built on his property. For the next
hundred years, Camden Town would be considered an undesirable address, leading Charles Dickens to set Bob Cratchit's house in the neighborhood.
By the 1930's Irish immigrants began to settle in the area, making it a hub for Irish Folk Music in London, and ultimately a musical center generally. It was Camden Town's status as a home to musicians that led young people in the 1960's to settle in the area, with London's Punk scene eventually taking root in the neighborhood's creative firmament.
This Punk culture still colors the neighborhood today, it's not at all unusual to see someone with a dozen piercings, faded denim, and tattoos walking down the street. In fact, counterculture folks own alot of the local businesses that cater to both Punk and more mainstream clientele.
The most striking feature of Camden Town is the markets on the Northern end of Camden High Street, where small stalls and food stands evoke capitalism in the raw. Even on weekends, the sidewalks in this part of town can only be described as a crush of humanity, mostly Londoners, but tourists as well, attracted by cheap clothes and a street culture very much distinct from Central London, free of the bankers in suits and camera-clickers that dominate to our South.
It's hard to get a picture that captures the maze of the markets, as a view of the back of the next person's head is the characteristic view. The market is a mix of stuff for Tourists, non-mainstream clothes, and ethnic food stalls. The last is of interest.
Behold Lunch, a mixture of lamb and vegetable tajines, over Cous Cous with Sliced Red Onion, Cilantro, and what I think was a Morocaan take on a tzaziki sauce, but I'll let my readers who've been to Morocco correct me if I'm mistaken. It was really good, and only £4. I came back to a different stall for dinner later and had some of the best Thai vegetable curry I've ever had, and it was only £3. Yum.
Camden Town is a world away from the stuffiness of London received. It's instead a place where people, young people, live, play, and organize for Socialists. The international character of this Imperial city is evident everywhere in London, but I haven't seen it more raw than here in Camden Town. North Africans in traditional dress share the streets with students at London's best university; hipsters both past and present roam. Camden Town, though still tinged with its radical past, has emerged as a stewpot of London, and it is rather delicious.
