Camden?

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It's been a while since I been there, I used to go a lot.

Is that midget guy with the zither still playing beatles songs?

One of the last times I went, I bought a 'guide' to Camden, and was amazed at various things (e.g. where the Clash used to rehearse was up where Camden Lock market sort of expanded into)...

et cet?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:24 (twenty-one years ago)

haha zither

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:25 (twenty-one years ago)

ha ha eh?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:27 (twenty-one years ago)

haha sorry it's just a funny word.. it triggered happy memories

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:28 (twenty-one years ago)

that's the same as an autoharp right?

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, I haven't been in ages. I used to go every weekend when I lived just over the hill.

I bet they cleaned away the bloke with the zither like they cleaned away all the good (i.e. affordable) market stalls.

― Danger Whore (kate), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i haven't seen the midge though :( in fact i don't recall seeing any buskers at all which is sad. instead of a guy on the bridge selling cannabis lolly now they sell them in a store. alongside the magic mushroom growing kit

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:32 (twenty-one years ago)

The motorbike through the window of that 'mondo' record shop.

(delete the good mixer. Never went there)

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Have the pot peddlars on the canal bridge gone legal now?

Man, they freaked me out the first time I was there because they were actually even more aggressive than the Lower East Side "CRACK OR SMACK CRACK OR SMACK" brigade.

x-post. Awww, the Good Mixer. We used to go there to gawk at pop stars. I stopped going there the day that we were the most famous people in there. Sigh.

― Danger Whore (kate), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:34 (twenty-one years ago)

(slight detour)

Notting Hill Carnival one time:

Bloke with a tray full of little bags: "PEANUTS! PEANUTS! hash PEANUTS!"

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:37 (twenty-one years ago)

zither guy derinately not there anymore, the dealing has gotten dodgy, lot more crack than their used to be. In fact camdens got a little nasty, according to som,e thing i read in the papers it had twice as many homicides as brixton in 2003

― lukey (Lukey G), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:46 (twenty-one years ago)

goth rage

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:47 (twenty-one years ago)

my first impression of camden was that it was a morphing of hippiegothraverpunk stuff

good magic mushrooms, though. and i like the dude who sells fresh squeezed OJ for £1 (sometimes 2 bottles for £1 if you catch him on a good day!)

that 'cyberdog' place freaks me out, but the place across from it has some good electronic/trance/chill CDs (you can preview any CD), and a cafe upstairs, if you're into that sort of thing (it's a bit too much of the patchouli and big bead necklace crowd for me)

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Thursday, 21 October 2004 07:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I like going to Cyberdog because it makes the world seem so normal again when you leave!

― Danger Whore (kate), Thursday, 21 October 2004 08:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Is that midget guy with the zither still playing beatles songs?

Didn't see him for a while, but definitely playing there about six weeks ago.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Thursday, 21 October 2004 08:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been a couple of times recently. I think it's one of the worst places I've ever been too, although I intend to go back one day to check out the Jewish Museum. I walked to it along the canal from Little Venice, the whole operation was a disappointment. This was the day of the Alba FAP. Then I went to the Open University Chat Day or something, but it was chock-a-block, so that was crap. Also I found the industrial architecture quite depressing, I don't know why. The Spread Eagle looks nice. In fact Camden away from 'Camden? looks OK really. My heavy metal friends thought it was fantastic.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 21 October 2004 08:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I love it a lot. It is often sunny, and everyone plays music loudly, good summer music about girls and dancing. And all the tribes. It's like a utopian version of sixties sci-fi youth dystopia.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:18 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was looking for a place to live in London this summer Camden was pretty much the one area I refused to contemplate.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:19 (twenty-one years ago)

At night it's different, darkblue and the n31 never comes. But still! At night it is Bladerunner, you leave the computers and walk out, cold and alive and maybe somebody is dead. But never you.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The way velvetillusion sits so white, all among drugsqualorsunglassescoloursfuture, an eyepast that never happened. Or maybe it did. It doesn't matter.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:25 (twenty-one years ago)

i'd live in Camden - either up from Parkway, towards Chalk Farm or even near Camden Road

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I like some of the bars north of the 'main' part - Lock Tavern, Lounge, etc. And that ice cream place up closer to Chalk Farm tube...

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I went to that new Camden Palace recently. It was funny, and I warmed to Camden a bit. Nothing really changes there.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:30 (twenty-one years ago)

was this when you were in London?

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, the week I was down, before, you know. Not again.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

It's probably coincidence, but every time I'm in Camden I end up with really boring friends of friends (not the same each time) and have a shit time. I definitely prefer living in Bow.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:36 (twenty-one years ago)

BOW! Selectah!

(Sorry, it's Charlie's fault.)

― Kissing Time At The Pleasure Unit (kate), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i didn't know you lived in Bow, you're my nearest ILX neighbour that means

xpost

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I've made the Bow! Selecta! joke looooads of times since I moved (and always with the suffix "AS IN CRAIG DAVID NOT AVID FUCKING MERRION"). Not tired of it yet.

Where do you live Stevem? I only moved to London like a fortnight ago.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm glad you two live in Bow. I like Bow.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Re-e-e-wind.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I recognise half the pictures in the Dizzee sleeve from my area.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:47 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't live in Bow i live in Stratford. i haven't seen enough of Bow yet to decide whether i like it or not - i have the pre-conception that it's not very nice but am willing to be persuaded otherwise. anyway welcome to London Alex!

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm at the Stratford end of Bow! The houses over the road are all technically in Stratford. Bow's kinda dingy - what I've seen of it so far anyway - but in a lived-in rather than actively unpleasant way. And thanks!

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 21 October 2004 11:52 (twenty-one years ago)

we went to bow when we were looking for houses two years ago.. it didn't bow me over. we were driving through at the time which probably didn't help.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 October 2004 12:42 (twenty-one years ago)

living in camden sounds hell though, yes, visiting is ok. chalk farm is very nice to live but isn't camden

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 October 2004 12:43 (twenty-one years ago)

it's in the borough of camden i guess.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 October 2004 12:43 (twenty-one years ago)

it's not a farm made of chalk either

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Thursday, 21 October 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a farm where they raise chalk

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 21 October 2004 12:47 (twenty-one years ago)

It seemed like a good idea until it rained.

― robster (robster), Thursday, 21 October 2004 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

A chalk farm is a kinda gorgeous image.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 21 October 2004 13:40 (twenty-one years ago)

You're right. Certainly it is better than a cheese farm.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 21 October 2004 14:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I shouldn't be flippant - it really is a gorgeous image. Do sculptors ever do large works in chalk? Like, enormous ones, the size of farms. The shape of farms. Oh, Chalk Farm, why are you not mine?

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 21 October 2004 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh no, see I'm having fantasies about the Cheddar Gorge now. From Chalk Farm to the Cheddar Gorge... mmmmm....

― Kissing Time At The Pleasure Unit (kate), Thursday, 21 October 2004 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe Bowie should have made that line 'from Chalk Farm to the Cheddar Gorge'.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 21 October 2004 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

if he think it'll be that easy getting on the M4 at this time of day he can think again

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Thursday, 21 October 2004 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I spent my youth in and around Camden, I cannot hate it.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 21 October 2004 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I have been

a)chased
b)threatened at knifepoint
c)mugged

several times there and yet IT'S ALL GOOD between us.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 21 October 2004 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, cause even when you're mugged at knifepoint, it's like, by Pete Docherty or something.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 21 October 2004 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't be silly, that only happens in Whitechapel.

― Kissing Time At The Pleasure Unit (kate), Thursday, 21 October 2004 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 117 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

i read a letter once, and the sender's address was 'albany'.

but now i have realized my mistake.

albany -- never 'the' albany -- is a super-exlusive apartment block nr picadilly, and this film director must have lived there.

i am very glad that this thread has given me this knowledge, if only via elimination!!

― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Thursday, 24 August 2006 08:19 (nineteen years ago)

oh i thought you meant there was an area called 'albany', but you mean the street? im pretty sure the sign says albany st

― -- (688), Thursday, 24 August 2006 08:37 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, i meant the street, and i was wrong about it, it is called 'albany street' alas.

but there is a place called albany, and it'd be bloody handy to live there.

― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Thursday, 24 August 2006 08:43 (nineteen years ago)

Albany? Are you mad?

― Goldene Schnitt (kate), Thursday, 24 August 2006 08:46 (nineteen years ago)

(Wait, clearly you are not talking about the one in NY.)

― Goldene Schnitt (kate), Thursday, 24 August 2006 08:46 (nineteen years ago)

no, the apartment block, in picadilly.

― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Thursday, 24 August 2006 08:47 (nineteen years ago)

looks alright to me

no. no. the american camden is the worst place in america (though east st louis comes close).

― mike a (mike a), Thursday, 24 August 2006 20:03 (nineteen years ago)

???

camden, maine, looks delightful

― -- (688), Thursday, 24 August 2006 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

oh, this conversation has already been had, upthread.

lets have it again, its summer!

the american camden, worst place in america

― -- (688), Thursday, 24 August 2006 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

http://invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu/intro.html

Click on "Enter Camden, NJ Database." There's your real Camden.

― mike a (mike a), Thursday, 24 August 2006 22:57 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.camdenme.org/

woah, thats a pretty real lighthouse, thats probably saved a few lives over the years, that could be a pretty dangerous stretch of coast!

― -- (688), Friday, 25 August 2006 04:15 (nineteen years ago)

perhaps, we could rank all the different camdens of the world, in how real they are, on this thread about camden, nw1, north london? at the top we could put the camdens that are the most real, and at the bottom we could put the camdens that are the least real.

its almost a pity that there arent threads for these other camdens! i think it'd be pretty great if there was a thread for this camden, nj, that is very real

something like... this, for instance

yes, but what about Camden?

woah, weird!

― -- (688), Friday, 25 August 2006 04:19 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

h8 camden

― doop snobby snobb (history mayne), Friday, 11 June 2010 11:01 (fifteen years ago)

otm

― just sayin, Friday, 11 June 2010 11:47 (fifteen years ago)

Awful place.

― GamalielRatsey, Friday, 11 June 2010 11:48 (fifteen years ago)

Can't walk along the street without Jonathan Miller trying to sell you hash or Alan Bennett begging for change

― I am utterly and abjectly pissed off with this little lot (Tom D.), Friday, 11 June 2010 11:50 (fifteen years ago)

First time I visited London and someone took me there I thought it was great but when I actually lived in London I grew to h8 it. a lot.

― o sh!t a ˁ˚ᴥ˚ˀ (ENBB), Friday, 11 June 2010 12:24 (fifteen years ago)

shit place, great borough

― nakhchivan, Friday, 11 June 2010 12:26 (fifteen years ago)

I get kind of defensive when people hate on Camden, it's my manor. It is objectively a bit shit though. Kentish Town is better.

― rhythm fixated member (chap), Friday, 11 June 2010 12:27 (fifteen years ago)

Camden Market's great - but best reached by walking across Regents Park and along the canal. The tube station and the high street can be too much of an ordeal.

― Bob Six, Friday, 11 June 2010 12:50 (fifteen years ago)

Absolutely. Parking is not that bad there, and it's a nice stroll along.

― Mark G, Friday, 11 June 2010 13:00 (fifteen years ago)

I used to park fairly regularly in Camden itself, before the traffic wardens went nazi.

One place was in one residential street, that had spaces outside all the houses, there was always the same place that had no car parked, so I used that one.

Years later, found out it was Noel Gallagher's.

― Mark G, Friday, 11 June 2010 13:03 (fifteen years ago)

I sort of love Camden forever - I burnt out on it for a while (after spending my entire teenagerhood there, every weekend), but it's actually a total dream of a place, this one fraction of London where it has always been and will always be the nineties.

― gin bunny (c sharp major), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:05 (fifteen years ago)

Friend of mine used to work in Camden (in the Market actually), never used to refer to it as Camden though, he always just called it "The Hellhole"

― I am utterly and abjectly pissed off with this little lot (Tom D.), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:08 (fifteen years ago)

it's changed since the 90s (which were awesome) tho. less grebby. super-expensive. i mean that kinda neutrally.

i like that it's easy to get to (depending on where you're coming from).

― sites.younglife.org:8080 (history mayne), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:09 (fifteen years ago)

I'm hard pressed to think of a decent pub in Camden that isn't the Crown and Goose. The Edinburgh Castle's alright for summer drinking.

― rhythm fixated member (chap), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:09 (fifteen years ago)

I made the mistake of trying to walk from Chalk Farm to Mornington Crescent the other month. On a Saturday afteroon. Fucking shithole.

The Crown & Goose is the only good pub in Camden. It's lovely though, good for pre-gig food and booze.

― Vulvuzela (Matt DC), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:10 (fifteen years ago)

The Enterprise is OK... 'cept that's prob'ly Chalk Farm

― I am utterly and abjectly pissed off with this little lot (Tom D.), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:11 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah, I quite like The Enterprise. Less so after the rumour that it was owned by Suggs turned out not to be true.

― rhythm fixated member (chap), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:12 (fifteen years ago)

Have I been in the Crown & Goose, I wonder? No doubt!

― I am utterly and abjectly pissed off with this little lot (Tom D.), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:12 (fifteen years ago)

Also I have a soft spot for Quinns, although it can be a bit depressing.

― rhythm fixated member (chap), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:13 (fifteen years ago)

Been in it once I think, didn't like it

― I am utterly and abjectly pissed off with this little lot (Tom D.), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:15 (fifteen years ago)

Hawley Arms was pretty OK last time I went?

I used to think that Camden had changed since the nineties but I decided that that wasn't the point - a lot of the changes that had been made (eg the rebuilding of the bit between the east yard and stables) actually made it more nineties, not less. It is steadily circling around the perfection of itself.

― gin bunny (c sharp major), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:18 (fifteen years ago)

Hawley Arms was pretty OK last time I went?

woah yikes. now i see where ur coming from.

― sites.younglife.org:8080 (history mayne), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:19 (fifteen years ago)

unless "last time" was like 1993 i guess

― sites.younglife.org:8080 (history mayne), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:19 (fifteen years ago)

it was like 2002, admittedly.

― gin bunny (c sharp major), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:21 (fifteen years ago)

ah. honestly do think the area's changed, post-winehouse era.

― sites.younglife.org:8080 (history mayne), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:22 (fifteen years ago)

but you might be right that change is only an intensification

― sites.younglife.org:8080 (history mayne), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:22 (fifteen years ago)

2 90s 4 u

― mdskltr (blueski), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:23 (fifteen years ago)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/amy-winehouse-and-the-hawley-arms-mob-the-home-of-the-camden-caners-462187.html

does the met bar really still exist?

― sites.younglife.org:8080 (history mayne), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:24 (fifteen years ago)

Occasionally drank in the Hawley Arms, never liked it much, I remember seeing Amy W. in the Lock Tavern a lot - before she was famous

― I am utterly and abjectly pissed off with this little lot (Tom D.), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:30 (fifteen years ago)

I still loves ya Camden.

I don't go there much though tbh. If I do it's usually just for a gig at the Underworld.

But I don't even hate the World's End which may indicate I am too easily pleased wrt drinking establishments.

― a fucking stove just fell on my foot. (Colonel Poo), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:35 (fifteen years ago)

Actually it can't have been 2002, 2002-4 were my 'never going to camden again' years. Maybe 2005? Whatever, it was a dark quiet pub with friendly enough bar staff and decent beer, that I hadn't drunk in as an underage, which is about all I ever want in a Camden pub.

― gin bunny (c sharp major), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:43 (fifteen years ago)

Anyway. I am curious about the effect the 'winehouse era' has had on camden that the 'britpop era' did not have?

― gin bunny (c sharp major), Friday, 11 June 2010 13:56 (fifteen years ago)

i think the media environment is kinda more relentless now. plus the britpop stars weren't (iirc) as "accessible" / openly effed up as la winehouse

― sites.younglife.org:8080 (history mayne), Friday, 11 June 2010 14:02 (fifteen years ago)

but the whole rhetoric around camden in 95 was "you cannot go anywhere without bumping into a member of menswear"? (i remember this because it was not, in my experience, actually true. perhaps because i was 12.)

― gin bunny (c sharp major), Friday, 11 June 2010 14:16 (fifteen years ago)

yeah, im not saying it's *totally* different, but yer meanswears were never on the front pages of the tabloids etc, not being internationally famous and successful like winehouse.

i guess damon albarn probably had photogs following him a *bit* back then, but even then not on a doherty/winehouse level.

― sites.younglife.org:8080 (history mayne), Friday, 11 June 2010 14:20 (fifteen years ago)

The whole rhetoric around Camden in 2010 is "you cannot go anywhere without bumping into a member of menswear asking you is you have any spare change"

― I am utterly and abjectly pissed off with this little lot (Tom D.), Friday, 11 June 2010 14:20 (fifteen years ago)

how would anyone know what menswear look like??

― mdskltr (blueski), Friday, 11 June 2010 14:21 (fifteen years ago)

The only indie guy I saw in Camden in the 90s was Brian Molko. My friend bummed a cigarette off him and he seemed extremely pleasant.

― rhythm fixated member (chap), Friday, 11 June 2010 14:23 (fifteen years ago)

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