Camden Market / Camden Lock Market, Classic or Dud thesedays?

It's funny, people have been saying that Camden Town's lost its edge for almost twenty years now, but it's basically still -- by any normal standard of measurement -- a bit of a shithole. It's a lovely old shithole, though. Mega City is still there. The Roundhouse is great. The Camden Brasserie is still cheap and does nice chips. The Monarch is more-or-less the same. And you can still get battered sausages, rockabilly and reliably shite beer at the Marathon.

I went to Camden market a couple of weeks ago for the first time in light years, as my colleague from India was keen to see it, and it wasn't the gruesome experience I feared it would be. It seems the various sections - crappy tourist rubbish, vintage clothes, relatively tasteful accessories, smart expensive furniture, etc - are quite clearly marked out.

Any truth to the rumours that the Stables market is to get demolished?

Plus, the toilet at the World's End is still the worst in the city. It's like the crows leaving the Tower of London. If someone installs a proper loo there, we're all screwed.

I think people saying Camden's lost its edge are talking more about the sense that the area is "over" as far as being hip, rather than it not being edg-y anymore. It's still rough and full of junkies & crackheads.

Mind you, now Camden's Trendy Hawley Arms is the hip place to be.

its the area that refuses to gentrify

oh i like the hawley arms!

I say demolish the whole thing and build a bland identikit shopping centre over the shithole. The blander the better.

Yeah it takes ages to get to the Starbucks on Parkway, they need one closer to the tube station.

I say demolish the whole thing and build a bland identikit shopping centre over the shithole. The blander the better.

I was tempted to advance this idea on the Save Camden Market Facebook group, but I didn't want to be that one guy who joins a group just to argue with its premise

You should join the "I joined a group just to argue with its premise" group.

Argh paradox!

p.s. camden market has always been mediocre. i actually like it better these days. feels less crowded than years ago.

best place around there is the Oddballs juggling shop.

That still going eh? Good to hear it.

I guess the blind short guy that sang Beatles songs with a zither has gone for good!

They used to have a bigger shop in Old Street, that's been shut for years but the camden shop is still there xpost

I love the atmosphere, the pubs, and the Chinese food. But God the market's really really awful. Just wall to wall hippy/tourist tat that you only find there or at festivals.

Chinese food?

yeah, smelled lovely. By the bridge, just through the 'door'

Oh I know it's there, just not convinced about its quality that's all. Especially if the complain later was about tourist tat that you find at festivals.

had some nice Japanese food from the stalls around the lock.

or maybe it was crap, but it SEEEMED good.

you only looked at it?

yeah, only looked. Was dashing to get into Zoo des Londres to see the new grills.

oh that was to stevem

damn son

http://image.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/02/09/camden460x276.jpg

holy shit.

oy vey

Sky news reporter on the scene: "I'M SURROUNDED BY DRUNK PEOPLE!".

Fire behind the Hawley Arms, "where Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty are regulars". Open and shut case, M'lud.

yeah, this is pretty bananas. i have some friends who live around there -- i hope they're ok.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44416000/jpg/_44416478_camden4_416300jpg.jpg

fuckin' 'ell! that's a big fire.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/02_01/camdenFIRE0902_468x297.jpg

Moira Smith, 46, also of Kentish Town, saw the flames out of the window of her home "and the next minute, it was on the news ILX".

No casualties, it seems.

god. there must be at least £200 worth of nice vintage clothes, poof, gone, just like that.

haw!

Pete told me about this in the pub last night and I just assumed it was a lie.

Bloody big fire though - all that tat isn't half flammable.

Not a big Silverfish fan myself but this is perhaps going a bit too far.

god. there must be at least £200 worth of nice vintage clothes, poof, gone, just like that.

Where's Noel Fielding going to get his clothes from now, eh?

^^^ i was thinking the same thing about the guys that wear 'nobody knows i'm a lesbian' t-shirts

Those shirts should read "nobody knows I'm an idiotic post-modern ironist ponce who thinks he's all that and a big hit with the ladiezzz"

i like the pope, the pope smokes dope

i like the archbishop, the archbishop smokes crack

'bout time somebody burned this dump to the ground

I'm gutted :)

You guys were all so incensed when people made light of that warehouse full of brit-art burning down.

i think i was reliably snarky about that yo.

(xpost) You mean Saatchi's warehouse including Tracy Emin's bed? I had a good laugh about that.

Hell yeah, straight lulz.

Yeah ok that thread was awash with schadenfreude too.

Yeah, I think there's one Brit ILXor maximum whose first reaction to Saatchi isn't "lol douchebag wouldn't mind a run on his missus tho"

His missus has jumped the shark.

Always found Camden market ultra-depressing, being such a clean -cut young bod. Although I did get "Repo Man" on VHS for £3 there as a teenager, before broadband and torrents and whatnot.

His missus has jumped the shark.

-- Noodle Vague, Sunday, 10 February 2008 22:01 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I believe the correct term is her "boilerlogical clock" has ticked over.

Then she cooked the shark in a cranberry sauce with dill, truffles, veal slices, and other sundry items that everyone "just happens to have in the cupboard".

i haven't been to camden market since 1998 </enrique>

So what's left?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7238711.stm

How interesting that this market should burn down at a time when Camden Council are looking to purchase the land to build a new identikit shopping centre with offices, condos, Starbucks etc. despite multiple protests from stallholders, shopkeepers and residents.

Makes their job easier now, this fire, doesn't it?

Just saying, like.

First thing I thought when I heard about the fire, tbh.

And me!

x4

most fires of this kind are insurance jobs.

I was in the pub in Stokey on Sat night, and me and the girl I was with simultaneous recieved panicked texts from our mothers asking if we were in Camden.

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/12/1286/Hawley_Arms/Camden

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/9223/picture1bu6.png

C+

http://www.nme.com/news/razorlight/34258

i go (went?) to the hawley arms from time to time, i never saw amy winehouse, razorlight, or the mighty boosh there. having said that i don't know what the mighty boosh or the other members of razorlight look like. anyway, i think it is/was quite a nice pub

Crying Eagle jpeg, stat.

okay the formatting of that nme article was even worse than Tuomas' local newspaper.

People are making the funnies BECAUSE no-one died or got injured. Mr So-called Jamie L of no fixed noticeboard!

Ahem.

I started that other thread, (I admit I didn't search for this one) as I felt people overseas who know camden would want to know, and they wouldn't see the BBC News and would not get that this had happened purely from this thread revive. OK, you guys?

Suspects include Billie Piper, Brian Molko and Prince:

People in Camden are convinced they know who was behind a huge fire that engulfed much of the market area - but are too scared to tell police.

Several traders and residents believe the blaze which tore through Camden Market in north London is suspicious, but are worried about revenge attacks if they go public.

Sky News cannot reveal the name on locals' lips for legal reasons.

Fire officers and police have refused to be drawn on whether the fire may have been started deliberately.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1304897,00.html

my awful indie sister goes/went to the hawley arms. loooooled at this.

pics

Wasn't "My Awful Indie Sister" a My Life Story single?

Ha. It's official: Michael Hann thinks you're scum.

"useful facilities for real people"

Did he fail the League of Gentlemen audition?

T-shirts bearing the legend "I like the Pope, the Pope smokes dope"

high five

hann otm

He doesn't want markets selling tat, he doesn't want modern chain stores, he doesn't want busy pubs like The Hawley Arms, and he doesn't want modern drinking establishments, he just wants the streets clean of cattle-like scum so he can safely drop his daughter off at school. Y'know, just like Travis Bickle.

Perhaps he should consider moving somewhere quieter and more to his family's living. Hungerford, for instance.

that should have been "family's liking" though Freudian slip ahoy.

Whilst I share his lulz, he does come across like some enormous mecha-cock.

spend more than five minutes in camden and you too will feel like travis bickle had the right idea.

Camden Market - an international tourist attraction which de facto is going to be crowded at weekends.

Next week: Michael Hann takes his family to live in Disneyland and complains about the lack of suitable primary schools.

Michael Hann: "I went to Camden Market and all I got was this lousy T-shirt":
http://www.bluecatstore.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/tb02.jpg

^Travis looks like the kind of person Hann wanted off the sreets.

Sometimes when I read stuff like this I understand how Stalin felt about the kulaks.

I'm sure Mr Hann earns enough money to go and live somewhere like Belgravia or the Boltons, where the streets are leafy and silent and lifeless.

The Graun should commission a series, get somebody on next to do "SPEAKING AS A COUNCIL TAX PAYER, THIS SO-CALLED 'NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL' IS GHASTLY".

Order your special commemorative issue with Tom ap Rhys Pryce centrespread ("OUR GLORIOUS MARTYR") now!

I'm sure Mr Hann earns enough money to go and live somewhere like Belgravia or the Boltons, where the streets are leafy and silent and lifeless.

-- Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:45 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

dude dude camden is one of the most expensive boroughs in london.

Seems like a certain broadsheet editor failed in his quest to get a blowjob off an Avenged Sevenfold fan last week.

Sorry, "A7X"

I'd be interested to know the nature of the "local residents" whom Hann allegedly canvassed. I strongly doubt whether any of them hail from the numerous dilapidated council estates which the borough of Camden has in abundance, which I might add are dilapidated largely because Camden Council are repeatedly persuaded by loud, opulent, Hampstead-centrist middle class voices to push more and more resources their way rather than to the poor of the parish who actually need them; the battle can be closely monitored by weekly perusal of the Camden New Journal.

As for the lack of shops for local people, try and buy a pint of milk or a loaf of bread anywhere in Hampstead.

http://www.wweshop.com/newimages/images/35297pi.jpg

I say demolish the whole thing and build a bland identikit shopping centre over the shithole. The blander the better.

-- Matt DC, Tuesday, 28 August 2007 13:26 (5 months ago) Bookmark Link

open and shut case

http://xanaduonline.com/item-images/0308S.jpg

RIP

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_hann/2007/03/patricia_hewitt_the_health_sec.html

^^^ Michael takes on the scourge of alco-pops

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_hann/2007/05/why_im_fuming.html

^^^ Michael takes on the scourge of smokers

Areas of London to wipe off the map:

Camden
Harringey
The entire southwest
Preston Road, mainly because I got lost there Monday and spent an hour wandering about like a twat

OMG, YEAH? I SAW THIS GUY, YEAH? HE HAD A BONG THAT LOOKED LIKE YODA, YEAH?

He seems to be quite fond of fascist imagery, our Michael.

(re. alcopops: as Warrington kneejerk BRING BACK HANGING affair confirms, you can legislate as much as you like but if the don't-give-a-fuck proprietors of LOCAL SHOPS for LOCAL PEOPLE continue to sell booze to kiddies unmonitored then it will all count for nothing. You don't get that happening at LARGE BLAND SUPERMARKETS like Camden Town Sainsbury's)

Kids don't buy alcopops because a) not enough bang for your buck; and b) they look mad gay.

^f'real, surely MAN OF INDIE Hann would knot that student vodka is, like, £2.99 a bottle from Aldi.

And surely MAN OF INDIE Hann must have ventured into C/Lock Market more than once in his life to look at all those desirable Bogshed bootlegs.

Last time I was there, they had loads of Can's "Tago Mago" 'repressings' on the 'original' UA 'label.

If they don't have the inner sleeve advertising the fab new Bobby Goldsboro album as my copy does, they're fakes.

Busted. Shit.

Why the hell does this hann guy live in camden anyway? its been the way it has since Sickerts time.

Unless he lives in 'the borough of...', ie Belsize Park or somewhere

Then he'd be complaining about all the Marillion fans loving on the floor.

What's Haringey/Harringay done to get your goat, Dom?

I lived there for a year. It's a fucking shithole.

felt let down by Sway full-length, fragile psyche never recovered

Was ripped off in heroin deal by Turkish drug kingpins

slowly driven insane by Haringey/Harringay divide

But does Camden still offer a veg curry on a polystyrene tray for £4.50?

Pretty sure the polystyrene trays will have gone up first.

Haringey is a shit borough, there's just fuck all of interest there.

It's like all the crap bits of Hackney without any of the good stuff.

Also Wood Green contains possibly the worst example of garish hamfisted 'regeneration' I've seen anywhere.

^real talk

God I hope the Wood Green neon tunnel of multiplex hell doesn't go up in flames next week, else I'm getting bummed in the showers for sure.

The result of a high-risk wager you made?

I admit it would be nice getting rid of a few of these tourist tat shops in Camden if we could get Compendium Books and some decent non-MVE record shops back.

At the moment it's down to Out On The Floor and Resurrection Records and I can't exactly see either surviving for much longer. So it'll be MVE for your Jenny Davey/Claire Sproule/Roger Robinson needs.

Wood Green is something of a mess but you should see what they are trying to do to Bradford these days. They basically knocked down about a third of the city centre...and then left a huge pile of earth with some billboards around it while they try decide what to replace it with

the leading suggestion appears to be a lake with a footbridge across it

Wood Green is something of a mess but you should see what they are trying to do to Bradford these days. They basically knocked down about a third of the city centre...and then left a huge pile of earth with some billboards around it while they try decide what to replace it with

the leading suggestion appears to be a lake with a footbridge across it

-- Filey Camp, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 12:04 (21 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Bradford looks like Luton or Bedford, it seems really out of place in Yorkshire.

Hey, I'm not knockin' MVE, I got "I love to Paint" StEt for £60 back in the day...

.. although, last time I was in there, it did look like 'everything bolted away lol thieves!'

But does Camden still offer a veg curry on a polystyrene tray for £4.50?

-- Mark G, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 11:52 (19 minutes ago) Link

yeah, smelled lovely. By the bridge, just through the 'door'

-- Mark G, Tuesday, 28 August 2007 14:00 (5 months ago) Link

yeah, but there's been a fire in the area since then...

MVE's fine but some competition would be welcome (preferably the equivalent of the old Rhythm Records before that went down the toilet).

Areas of London to wipe off the map:

The entire southwest

Myself and the residents of tooting colliers wood and south wimbledon say 'fuck you dude'

http://991.com/newGallery/Sandi-Thom-I-Wish-I-Was-A-Pu-358911.jpg

fuck a tooting, it takes like two weeks on the northern line to get there

I liked living in Haringey. The old castle (now climbing centre) is ace, not that that's where I lived, alas.

http://www.tootingpopularfront.com/citizensmith.jpg

Also, Tooting has the best Indian restaurants in London as Baron Nedward of Raggettstein will testify.

snakes on a northern line

I still like Camden too. Hann's attitude is slightly more annoying than all the gauche market commercialisation that's been going on there.

Areas I'd nuke:
Bermondsey & Walworth
Woolwich & Charlton
A fair chunk of Harlesden (but save the Tr3w4rthas)

this summer - please mind the gap

mind the gap

Woolwich & Charlton

f'real

Isn't that where Jagger grew up in the throes of Dickensian poverty?

It's disgraceful how you kids treat the SO BRAVE survivors of Munich '58.

Ah thought Jagger was Lewisham

nuke that too though

Also, Tooting has the best Indian restaurants in London as Baron Nedward of Raggettstein will testify.

cf the keralan restaurant around the corner from st georges. also tooting bec lido = lushness, as do tooting common, wimbledon common, wandsworth common.

Surely Bethnal Green is curry capital of London? Unless I've been lied to?

'curry' more liek 'yuppie running dogs'

i don't understand south london >_<

you've been lied to, dom. and DG, don't fight it, feel it.

^_^

Tooting ranks high but so would Wembley and Southall for obvious reasons.

Oh yeah, when did "Mind the Gap" become "Please mind the gap" ?

"Please don't fall down between the train and the platform and break your dam leg, snakesonaplane" in 5..

don't tase me bro

"Come tase my mind"

Earl Brutus reunion single to be.

I'll apologise, but I'm not taking my sunglasses off.

london that's south of the river = nuke.

except keep 02 arena.

i'm pretty sure i saw dave q's band at the hawley arms once

Ken you wouldn't be able to get to Brighton if you did that.

i have honestly never understood south london hatred at all, though i have lived here my whole life.

nobody understands the hate for somewhere they happily live

I don't hate South London! I like Clapham.

^^^wannabe yuppie

Clapham has a Bodeans

d.i.h.a.Primark?

Clapham would be the first place on the map I'd nuke.

twatsville

Clapham or this thread?

;_;

Matt DC seems to be confusing "Clapham" with "Streatham" and "Peckham" here.

Last time I was in Streatham I watched a big fight in a car park between a gang and a fuckload of police, while sitting in a chair in a garden drinking beer while being totally ignored by all concerned. It was kind of a weird experience.

No change there then. Can't say that I miss the place.

i went to mottingham the other day! that was an experience!

Does ILX have any love for the burbs? Teddington? Harrow-On-The-Hill? Etc.

Romford!

London Overground is going to shake up what we think of as London, let me tell you.

Croydon, however.

Ken you wouldn't be able to get to Brighton if you did that.

First Capital Connect goes from st pancras innit.

IT HAS TO CROSS THE RIVER AT SOME POINT

Croydon, however.

aye.

Brixton>>>>>>>>>>Clapham

you can't get weed as easily in clapham

you can't get clap as easily in weedham

i went to mottingham the other day! that was an experience!

an incredibly tedious one?

Does ILX have any love for the burbs? Teddington? Harrow-On-The-Hill? Etc.

i'm from them so yes and no. inevitably increased peace, lower street crime and pollution are countered by the increased monoculture + stereotypical smalltown mindsets, crapper transport options etc.

i went to a nice party actually but yeah i did kind of feel like i'd arrived in the middle of nowhere

Clapton may be the Streatham of North London (as Peckham is to Hackney)

Clapton >>>> Streatham though.

clapton has some nice walks

i don't know the whys or hows of that really - are they so different? but i think the main selling points for where i live are 1) close to v nice riverside walk, marshes etc. and 2) nuff buses (xp)

oh and that i'm terrified that wherever i end up next and whenever that may be it won't have a shop 2 mins walk up the road that sells great bread baked instore daily. this is important.

Now a home for the BNP and Aslan:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/6984/7732704.jpg