North London Railway - Camden Market
North London Line
The line from Dalston Junction continues westwards but then bifurcates, one going westwards to Primrose Hill and one turning North West to Kentish Town West.
Fleet River
The Fleet River and a tributary to it, meet and flow southwards deep underground in pipes.
TQ 28827 84304
Busy inner city area around the Regent's Canal around tacky Camden Market and its even tackier outskirts mainly in disused canal and railway infrastructure buildings. People live here too! and there is much local authority housing as well as nearly posh housing. Many old industrial buildings, pubs and much else - the whole world is here somewhere.
Post to the north Gospel Oak, Gospel Oak and Kentish Town
Post to the south Camden Town
Post to the east
South West Quarter square Camden Road
South East quarter Square Camden Town
This posting covers only the south east corner of this square.
the north east section is Post to the north Kentish Town West
the south west section Camden railway goods yard
Buck Street
Buck Street Market – 200 or so stalls in an open space to the south of the street and stalls sell mainly clothes. It stands on the site of properties destroyed in the Second World War. It is said to have a nickname, 'The Cages', from the metal grilles that make up the grids tightly packed stalls in a uniform layout
Brick structure - this contains a ventilation shaft and entrance that is the visible part of a deep air-raid shelter built for the Ministry of Works by London Underground between 1940 and 1942. It consists of two long, deep tunnels, running either side or parallel to Camden High Street, joined by cross-tunnels and with a main entrance in Stanmore Place. These tunnels are now used for storage.
Trinity United Reform Church. There has been an Ebenezer chapel on this site since 1835 started by a Thomas Gittens. In 1869 William Ewart from Regent Square Presbyterian Church set up a church for railway builders in railway arches and began to use the chapel. By 1908 the building was in disrepair and George Lethbridge, architect, and was asked to draw up plans for a new church. Thereafter the building was used for many purposes and the congregation were active in local social and community work and this continues. The building is neo-Gothic with a red brick front. The inside has been changed with subdivision of larger spaces into individual smaller areas.
Hawley Infants School. The current school building dates from the Late 19th. The current building is the remaining part of a formerly larger complex of buildings between Buck Street and Hawley Crescent fronting Kentish Town Road.
Camden Gardens
Flats. This is a group of affordable rented homes made up of flats and maisonettes and a canal side terrace of houses and flats. The architects were Jestico and Whiles who were commissioned by Community Housing.
Camden Gardens. This is a triangular garden crossed by the North London Railway Line on brick arches. It was and laid out in the 19th for the people in the neighbourhood and it is still managed by a local committee. Building on it is prohibited by Act of Parliament.
Camden High Street
This is part of the Hampstead Road, an ancient thoroughfare which led the road from London through the Duke of Bedford's and Lord Southampton’s estates. After the construction of the Regent’s Canal here from 1816, businesses were established in along the Hampstead Road, immediately above and below the Lock. Today this stretch of the street is a market related area with shops decorated with endless lurid signs and protuberances and selling vulgar tat to provincial teenagers and innocent tourists.
202 Buck's Head pub. Mid 19th pub. Stone frontage with pilasters with brackets in the shape of bucks’ heads. The 19th street numbering remains above the former corner entrance. There is a large tiled sign on the end wall with lettering and a Truman 'eagle' saying 'TRADE MARK ... TRUMAN ... HANBURY ... BUXTON ... & Co Ltd ... LONDON & BURTON'. All
224 Elephant's Head pub. Mid 19th century pub with tiled shop front. At a high-level is a sign: 'TAKE COURAGE'. The Elephant name was the trademark of the nearby Camden Brewery
265 Oxford Arms. Late 19th pub. There are pictorial tiles in the entrance with the motto Virtute et Fide printed on them. The Etcetera Theatre is in the upstairs area
Hampstead Road Canal Bridge. Marks the junction between this and Chalk Farm Road.
Camden Lock Place
This dates from 1990 when the market was reconfigured but has replaced Commercial Place.
Gilgamesh Building. On the site of Bottle Stores built for Giblet in 1878. It has four storeys for washing, crating and packing. It later became a furniture store and was burnt down in 1980
Depot. The London and North West Railway bought Semple’s Wharf for a transhipment depot in 1847
Hawley Basin. Enlarged by London and North West Railway in 1847. It was then connected by rail and arrangements made to bring wagons down to its level and later into the interchange warehouse. In 1854-6the railway was extended to beyond the east side of the Interchange Basin.
Interchange Basin. Dock built London and North West Railway 60 ft long. The inlet to it goes under the interchange warehouse. It was rebuilt in 1854 on a different alignment and increased in size. There war warehouses on the west bank and rail sidings on the west. This is the basin which remains.
Alsopps Warehouse. This was on the west side of the interchange basin and built in the 1850s. The site had previously been coke ovens.
Interchange Warehouse. This was built on the site of an earlier warehouse and has the canal inlet running under the building from under the towpath bridge and Rail way also entered the warehouse from sidings. The current building was completed by 1905. Underneath it the dock was bridged over with girders supporting railway track while barges were accessed through trapdoors. The Warehouse was converted to offices and refurbished in the late 1980s and connected to Camden Lock Place by the creation of steps through the retaining wall. In 2007 it was further restored. It is a rectangular four storey block, plus the basement dock, in multi-coloured stock brick with blue engineering brick dressings. On the canal front are arches which would have enclosed the ends of railway tracks and platforms. Inside is of brick fireproof construction and in the basement cast-iron columns are set in the water supporting beams. Under the forecourt was a gin store with steel doors. It was once used by 'Worldwide Television News' and on the door was said to be a notice warning of Weil's disease
Tunnel. From the corner of the interchange warehouse a ventilated tunnel for the movement of horses connected it to the railway at Primrose Hill and the stabling at Chalk Farm Road which is now blocked. It is in brick with cast-iron ventilation grilles in the roof. The branch from 'Fashion Flow' to the ‘Transfer Warehouse’ goes under a Housing Association development and has been sealed and back-filled. That from the 'Transfer Warehouse' to ‘Camden Lock’ market has had a blocking wall inserted.
Camden Market
In 1971 some of the unused industrial buildings and land, including T.E.Dingwall's timber yard, were leased from British Waterways Board by three young men and in 1972 were sub- as craft workshops, and a weekend market was started on open yards nearby. Sunday trading was also allowed on this private site. In 1990 many of the old buildings at the Lock were renovated and a new three storey Market Hall was next to the main road. The East, Middle and West Yards and Camden Lock Place remained open air areas.
Market Hall. The design was based on a 19th trading hall with wrought iron railings and tiled floors so visitors would think it was old.
Camden Town Goods Depot
Camden Goods Depot was established in 1839 on Lord Southampton’s land as the terminus for goods trains, hoping for the railway to the docks via the North London Line. As it was the line didn’t come through to Chalk Farm until 1851 beginning with coal and general goods a month or so later. This square covers only a part the south eastern quarter of the huge railway yard – the Primrose Hill layout - and about half of the canal side area. The area of lines going into a covered area to the north west of the Interchange building was laid out as the Depot opened and reconfigured with electrification in 1922. The area was sandwiched between lines out of Euston on the west, by the North London Line on the east and the canal on the west. The area is now a supermarket with a vast car park plus some housing.
Morrison’s Car park. Below the Camden Town railway goods yard was a labyrinth of brick vaults, allowing direct goods interchange between road and canal. The horses used to move wagons and for shunting, were stabled on both sides of the yard.
Canal
Canal. Four men were killed during the building of this stretch when the embankment collapsed at Chalk Farm. It cost as much to build it as the original money raised for the whole canal.
Pirate castle. This was the conversion of a lock cottage built in 1977 to the design of Sir Richard Seifert as a mock fortress to be the headquarters of the Pirate Club, founded by Lord St. David’s. It is open to young people as a canoeing and rowing centre. It also includes a youth theatre and other facilities.
Pumping station. This was built on the south bank in 1980 by the Central Electricity Generating Board. It circulates water around the cables which run under the towpath to keep them cool. The building is in the same style of the Pirate Castle opposite. Electricity cables have been laid under the towpath to bring power to central London from generating stations on the Thames Estuary and pumping stations like this one circulate water round the cables to keep them cool.
Ice Well Wharf. This was adjacent to a basin let off the south bank which is now filled in. The building fronted onto 34/36 Jamestown Road. There were two ice wells here – the larger built in 1839 when the basin was occupied by William Leftwich. It was deepened in 1846 to 100 feet to hold about 2,400 tons of ice. In the 1820s Leftwich had began to import ice from Norway, bringing it by sea to Limehouse and along the Canal.
Bewley Cliff Wharf. This was adjacent to a basin let off the south bank which is now filled in. it appears to have been used in the mid 19th by a company bringing in lime for building purposes from works at Wouldham in Kent via the Medway,
North Western Stone wharf. This also was adjacent to a basin letting out from the south side of the canal which is now filled in. It was later part of a bigger Suffolk wharf
Bridge over the entrance to the basin which lies under the Interchange Warehouse - this was built by the London and North West Railway in 1846. The Towpath this crosses it. It is said that locally is called Dead Dog Hole.
Vent openings in the wall of the Interchange Warehouse alongside the towpath to ventilate the underground vaults built in 1854-6.
Grooves – in brickwork made by tow ropes, etc wearing onto the bricks
Dingwalls. Dingwall's Market is sited on a filled in basin. A collection of 19th commercial buildings are grouped round two yards with granite setts. These buildings were used as warehousing and stables for canal boat horses. One building has been demolished following a fire in 1980. This was Walkers Wharf. The buildings were leased after the Second World War to a firm of packing-case manufacturers, T. E. Dingwall Ltd. The site includes a 500 capacity venue which hosts music gigs and other events. It is claimed that this has been used for this purpose since 1972.
London Waterbus. This runs between here and Little Venice, with three historic boats
Roving or diagonal bridge. This footbridge built in 1846 with a span of eighty feet to take the towing path across to the right-hand side of the locks. It has setts in order to give the horses a good grip underfoot and under it are grooves where ropes have worn the brickwork. A plaque under the bridge explains the details of its construction
Winch. The winch alongside the basin dates from 1870-71. It was moved here from Limehouse Barge lock where it was used for opening the lock gates and abandoned in 1968. It is said it was brought here at the instigation of a number of GLIAS members.
Stables. These were for horses used to tow barges. Now demolished
Hampstead Road top lock. The locks were constructed between 1818 and 1820 by James Morgan with John Nash as supervising engineer. It is the first of twelve locks on the Regent's Canal which drop the level some eighty-six feet down to Limehouse Basin - the exact drop depends on the height of the tide at Limehouse. Like other locks on this Canal, it was built as a double lock, but this is the only one remaining now as a pair. A column carries a rack and pinion on the centre island between the locks, was used to operate the paddle, which allowed water to flow from one lock to the other in order to conserve water. The paddle gear for the locks themselves is the conventional Grand Junction Canal type. These locks replaced an innovative, but unsuccessful, hydropneumatic lock designed by William Congreve in an attempt to conserve water.
Sculpture - a large cut-steel sculpture by English artist Edward Dutkiewicz in the square beside the lock
Camden Lock Cottage. The Lock Keepers Cottage for Hampstead Road Locks. Originally built in 1815 and enlarged in 1972, it was converted in 1985/6 as a Regent's Canal Information Centre. It has since been taken over by a large coffee shop chain and a dispute has arisen as the information centre work. Camden was the middle of three horse-changing stages between Limehouse and Paddington and thus facilities were provided.
Bridge wharf and basin. This was used transfer of bricks, etc. In the early 20th it was owned by the London and Provincial Ballast Co. Ltd.
Chalk Farm Road Bridge. This was built in brick in 1815 but the current iron bridge dates from 1876. The Keystone of the original bridge is in the brickwork near the bottom of the slope. At the corner of the bridge next to the towpath is a vertical iron roller, which prevented the ropes from cutting grooves in the stonework. Under the bridge are cut the names of Parish Officers who dealt with roads and bridges.
Jenny Wren cruises. Canal boat company running cruises down to Little Venice and back. Based at what was Walkers Purfleet Wharf which had opened in 1816. The facility was opened in 1969 by Sir Alan Herbert.
Canal side walls of the MTV building plus TV AM’s egg cups, fronting on to Hawley Crescent.
Hawley Lock. Like the other locks between here and Limehouse, the second chamber has been converted into a weir.
River Fleet. The two branches of the Upper Fleet are said to join north of the lock and the canal then follows the route of the river until it reaches Camden Road.
Kentish Town Lock. Beside it on the left was once a pumping station which pumped water back past the "Hampstead Road 3", as they were called by boatmen, to above Hampstead Road Top Lock
Kentish Town Road Bridge. This is a white bridge and there is access to the canal by steps.
Castlehaven Road
The road was renamed around the time of the Second World War from a name taken at random from a gravestone at St.Pancras Old Church. From Chalk Farm Road to Hawley Road was once Grange Road, and the rest Victoria Road
Candida Court. Monumental local authority flats by Hamilton and Chalmers in 1947 and has one of the names connected to Bernard Shaw's plays, along with some other flats in the area. Its wings are named after places in Devon. The Fleet flows under the green in front of it.
21 Castlehaven Community Association. This was established in 1985 by concerned residents and opened for business in 1986. It is now the lessees of a 4 acre community campus
23 Haven Youth Cafe. This was the Old Piano Warehouse where the Castlehaven Community Centre began.
Castlehaven Open Space. Ball courts and strip of open land. This was a bomb site, empty for many years and used by travellers. It was improved as a sports area in 2003.
20 Scar. The premises include arches 12 to 14 and have hosted a creative industry incubator since the 1990s. There is a workshop for wrought iron.
Rail bridge. There are two rail bridges taking the two lines which diverge at Kentish Town Junction. To the south is the 1851 line to what was Hampstead Road and to the north the 1860 line to Old Oak Junction.
Hawley Arms. 19th pub once a hells angel hangs out but more recently full of left field show biz people. Burnt down inn 2008 and rebuilt sharpish.
Chalk Farm Road
Pancras Vale was an older name of this area. There are lots of claims for the site of the original Chalk Farm.
Railway bridge painted with a 'trompe l'oeil' image which has since become an icon for Camden Lock. In 2007 25 arches were changed as part of developments in Stables Yard. At the same time they were shortened from the south and the cross arches were closed to create linear retail outlets.
7-8 Caernarvon Castle Pub. Demolished.
36 -37 are the premises of pawnbrokers, who were established here in 1837
35 Camden Lock Tavern. 19th pub tarted up as a music venue.
Brick wall on the west side –developments here were gradually removed after the railway arrived to be replaced by the stables behind this blank wall. It was built in 1854-6 to retain the fill deposited to raise the level of the Camden Goods Depot. There were houses here until the 1850s in what was called Pancras Vale. R.B. Dockray, who designed the Round House, lived in one of them.
Four blocks of brick stabling, built 1855-1870 as part of the London and North-Western Railway Company's Camden Goods Yard with later additions. A tunnel south of the railway connects the complex with other railway buildings and the Canal. 19th railway goods depots required large numbers of horses for the transfer of goods and shunting of wagons and, around 700-800 horses were used at the here. Stabling for 50 horses was in the vaults below the sidings. Only a small part of the first phase of 1839 survives under the North London Railway at what is now the Horse Tunnel Market. Some of the vaults built under the original goods sidings can be seen at the far end of the easternmost arches and in the shops on the west side of the bridge under the railway which that connects Horse Tunnel and Stables Markets. Part of the buttress walls can be seen in the northern part of Horse Tunnel Market. By 1849 427 horses were employed here. In 1846-7 four stable blocks for 168 horses, were built and others were stabled below the Construction Shop and Pickford’s warehouse. In 1854-6 the original stables were demolished and the present buildings erected. The four blocks stabled 162 horses and was linked to the rest of the depot by the Eastern Horse Tunnel.
Block on Chalk Farm Road built 1855 and 1895. There was stabling on the ground floor and there is an open balcony on the first floor with concrete horse troughs and a bridge going to the next block.
Block north of the North London railway. The ground floor built 1868 was the provender store. There is a bridge to the other block
Blocks between the others, built 1868 and also a provender store. There is a horse ramp on the north side connecting to another block.
Block to the west of the others. Built 1868, upper with brick chimneys. Inside is timber benching and some harness hooks and said to have been the Tack Room. It used to be connected by a bridge to the others.
Horse Hospital. This is built to the north-west of the stables in 1882-3. It held 92 horses with 40 more later. It is now shops with a music venue on the upper floor.
Bonded Warehouse. Remains of a four-storey building built on the 1880s for Gilbey's. This was their No.2. bond and was mostly demolished in 1985 apart from a small section called The Gin House.
Clarence Way
Built on part of the grounds of the Castle Pub it was laid out in 1837 as Clarence Road.. The east end has some massive post war council blocks which replacing 19th streets. This was built 1947 by Hamilton and Chalmers. To the west are terraces which are pre 1849. The street lighting is gas standards converted to electricity.
Most Holy Trinity Church. The design for was exhibited in the Royal Academy, by Thomas Henry Wyatt and David Brandon. It was built 1849-50 of Kentish ragstone and had a west tower with spire. It largely funded by Rev David Laing. The spire was destroyed during World War II.
Holy Trinity and St Silas Primary School. The origins of the school lie with the local church with which it is still associated.
41 Victory 19th public house where the barmaid was murdered in 1880. Closed in 1993 and now flats.
Ellen Terry Court - named after the actress associated with Shaw
Lorraine Court. Built by St. Pancras Council in 1952. Built on the site of Clarence Grove which had become a very poor area when CPOed after the Second World War.
Torbay Court - the centrepiece of the Clarence Way Estate designed in 1947 by Hamilton and Chambers
Collard Place
Posh, gated, housing on the site of Chalk Farm bus depot.
Farrier Street
The road was renamed in 1961 and had previously been part of Clarence Way
Clusters of brick houses and flats; built 1980-1 by Michael Brown Partnership.
Gilbeys Yard
Site of Gilbey's Gin Bottling plant and Warehouse which extended from the edge of the canal basin and then along the main canal. Now flats and houses.
Harmood Grove
Modern innovative office complex with sculpture of windblown person on the wall. Gates and fence by Alex Relph
Carville. Harmood Grove Works. The firm who are, specialists in Perspex and acrylic applications had a factory here from 1928-1966 when they moved to Dorking.
Harmood Street
Called after the family which owned the field it was built in.
1-2 Mohawk Garage. In 1922 this was the base of the Mohawk Motor Cab Co. and then, in 1923, a private bus company. Originally it had been a coach building works for C.Dodson and then a garage. Demolished.
59 Harmood Arms. Now closed and converted to housing.
Chalk Farm bus garage. This opened in 1916 a previous site in Albany Street having been requisitioned by the War Department. Closed in 1993. The site is now housing – gated housing behind a terrace with ‘AJ 1995’ on the gable.
Chalcot School. The buildings date from 1896 and has been extended since. It was originally Harmood Street School, then Harmood Street Boys Secondary. It was renamed as Chalcot School in the 1960s and is currently school a special school for secondary boys. The original stone ‘Girls’ entrance remains.
Hartland Road
Camden Plants Centre
57 Royal Exchange Pub, Renamed as "Fake Club" in 2007, and as "1949 Bar" in c2012.
The Arches. Network Rail industrial units in railway arches
Haven Street
Camden Canal Market. Offices manage about 150 stalls and shop units selling fashion accessories, etc
Passage under the railway to canal side markets
Murals and street art by Dale Grimshaw
Lion – bronze lion in the street, surrounded by lion designs in street art
Car – street art car.
Hawley Crescent
TV-am Breakfast Television Centre. This was designed by Terry Farrell in 1981 on the site of 1920s Henley Garage, itself on the site of much of Camden Brewery. It had large “T. V. A. M” lettering and a large archway. Inside the atrium was said to match the sun’s travels from East to West i.e. a Japanese Pavilion which was TV-AM’s Green Room represented the East and the staircase was the Middle East. The journey was said to continue through temple like forms. There were also two studios and the Good Morning Britain set. 12 enormous eggcups were on the roof and could be seen from the canal. In 1993 the TV-am building was sold to MTV Europe who have made some radical changes and major rebuilding.
Elephant House. These are the buildings of Camden Brewery Co Ltd. Founded in 1859. In 1889 they acquired Whitaker, Grimwood and Co with 84 public houses. It was acquired by Courage & Co Ltd in 1923 with 78 tied houses and Brewing ended in 1925. Over an entrance door is a large stone panel with a central roundel and an elephant's head - the brewery's trademark. There is a similar image, in Kentish Town Road.
Walls from the brewery alongside the canal were retained
Henley's Garage warehouse. This large building was reconfigured for TV AM.
Hawley Road
One of the earliest roads laid out by members of the Hawley family in the 1830s on what was previously meadow land.
Fleet River. Until the 19th this area was covered by the pleasure grounds of the Castle Inn, alongside the Fleet River. The confluence of the two bits of the Fleet from Highgate and from Hampstead was at the junction with Kentish Town Road. The river here was 65' wide
1 House dating from 1837. The brick addition was a meeting room for the Plymouth Brethren
1-11 Open University – this is their London base.
Hawley Crescent Primary School - this was the junior department of Hawley Infant School. The building was damaged in Second World War bombing and became unsafe and so was demolished.
New Harmood Estate of 1978-81, arranged around landscaped courts
Atunbi House. on the site of artisans dwellings.
4-6 Bradfield Court on the site of St.Paul’s church and lecture room. This had been a meeting house of the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connection opened in 1842 which had fallen into disuse and was taken over in 1851 by a charismatic Congregationalist, Edward White, under whom it became successful. In 1918 it joined the Kelly Street Congregational Church and is later shown on mid 20th maps as ‘Holy Trinity Memorial Hall’. A block of flats now stands on the site
35 Stags's Head pub this is now flats – Stag Apartments
Railway arches – used for businesses including Victory Motorcycle and classic Citroen car specialist
Clarence Way Tenants and Residents Hall. This is behind other buildings at the north eastern end of the road, It is used for meetings, young people's clubs, etc. It is on the site of a building shown as a Unitarian Church in the 1870s. This was the Free Christian Church founded in 1855 by William Forster who had been a Congregational pastor but had changed his ideas. A Gospel Hall and Milton Hall, used by the 19th temperance movement is also in this area. These may be separate buildings, or indeed this one. Milton Hall was said to stand on the site of an old cricket ground.
Jamestown Road
Was Upper James Street and later called James Street
Gilbey House. The distillery opened in 1879 is now part of Gilbey House, formerly the Bottle Warehouse built by William Hucks in 1896. It also includes the W. &A. Gilbey Stores which is now flats.
Kentish Town Road
The River Fleet crossed the road north of the junction with Camden Road. Thus the lower end of the road was once called Water Lane and liable to flood. The River here could spread to 65 feet wide at flood, as in 1826. It now runs deep below the road in pipes.
Hobgoblin. This was previously the Devonshire Arms
Bridge over the Regents Canal
Sainsburys – entrance to the store in Camden Road
41 Camden Brewery offices, with an elephant's head above the door.
Bridge Wharf Garage, used as a garage for private buses in the 1920s
Railway bridge and Viaduct. The North London Line divides slightly to the west of the road. Built in the early 1850s for the East and West India Docks and Birmingham Junction Railway. While under construction in 1849 seven arches collapsed onto the road. In 1962 two goods trains crashed and five wagons fell onto the road.
57-63 remains of Moreton Villas built in 1837.
65 Quins. Irish pub which was previously called The Moreton Arms. Built in 1842, renamed Duck in 1988 and Quinns in 1994.
99 Police, base for the Cantelowes Safer Neighbourhood Team. This was once the Clarence Arms, renamed Dillons in 1999 and closed in 2003. Most of the building is now flats and has been rebuilt within the original walls.
101-107 part of Providence Place – in the early 19th this was the name of the houses between what was then Clarence Road (now Clarence Way) to Castle Road
Lewis Road
A turning off the road went to the backs of houses in Hartland Road. This housed Hemingway and Thomas piano factory and later that of Keith Prowse. It then became the St.Pancras Reform Club frm 1912 to 1970.
Leybourne Road
Light industry and motor trade businesses in railway arches
Oval Road
Southampton Bridge
Gilbey site. This was the site of Gilbey’s distillery. It replaced buildings of Camden Flour Mills and the Stanhope Arms. The firm of W. and A Gilbey Ltd, was set up in 1857 to import wine from South Africa was a major employer in the area as well as the largest drinks firm in the world. Its premises here had a floor area of 20 acres with the bottle and bonded warehouses capable of storing 800,000 gallons. Daily a train - the Gilbeys Special - left for the docks for export. They set up a a gin distillery in 1879 opposite on the Flour Mills site and In 1895 built three tunnels under Oval Road to connect to“A” Shed.
30 The Henson Building. This is on the site of the former railway offices. Some of their façades have been retained and modified in this development. Ventilation grilles from the vaults have been replaced by brickwork.
Eastern Horse Tunnel an entrance has been incorporated into the social housing entrance of the Henson House development.
35 Lock House. This block of flats was built in 2008 and replaced a building of 1977. That replace Gilbey’s A Shed used for storing and processing wines
Academic House. On the site of the Stanhope Arms bought by Gilbeys in 1890s. In 1937 rebuilt as Gilbey’s Head office by Serge Chermayeff.
Vaults and tunnels. These were built around 1855-6 on the west side of the Interchange Basin for Allsopp’s Ales, under the forecourt of the present Interchange Warehouse and under 30 Oval Road. They were later taken over by Gilbeys as their No. 1 Bonded Stores. Until the redevelopment of the former railway offices at 30 Oval Road they had survived, but now only some remain,
Pavement – there are a number of goods yard remains, including granite setts, rail lines, granite bollards, ventilation grilles to the horse tunnel below, a turntable and the frames of two
Railway
Kentish Town Junction. At the west end the North London Railway's four tracks come together and branch out to the Chalk Farm and Hampstead Junction
The reversing spur to the interchange basin is marked today by a skew arch under the North London Railway viaduct.
Signal Box. This was a North London Railway design and was between the bridges over Kentish Town Road and Camden Street. It was opened in 1896 and replaced an earlier box. It was renamed Camden Road when the station to the east was renamed and to avoid confusion with a box on the main line out of Euston. It closed in 2011 when signalling was transferred to Upminster.
Torbay Street
Originally laid out in the 1840s by a local builder, Edward Oughten. Part of it was originally called Exeter Street.
Camden Road Coal Depot opened in the railway arches here and used by local coal merchants Locket and Judkins, taken over by Charringtons in 1922 and closed in 1940. Now in use mainly by the motor trade.
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British Listed Buildings. Web site
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Camden Railway Heritage Trust. Web site
Canal Walks
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GLIAS Walk 7
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Nairn. Modern Buildings
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Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Pirate Castle. Web site.
Robins. The North London Railway
Scar. Web site
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The Industrial Camera,
TV AM. Web site.
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Walker’s Quay. Web site
Wilson. London's Industrial Archaeology
The line from Dalston Junction continues westwards but then bifurcates, one going westwards to Primrose Hill and one turning North West to Kentish Town West.
Fleet River
The Fleet River and a tributary to it, meet and flow southwards deep underground in pipes.
TQ 28827 84304
Busy inner city area around the Regent's Canal around tacky Camden Market and its even tackier outskirts mainly in disused canal and railway infrastructure buildings. People live here too! and there is much local authority housing as well as nearly posh housing. Many old industrial buildings, pubs and much else - the whole world is here somewhere.
Post to the north Gospel Oak, Gospel Oak and Kentish Town
Post to the east
South West Quarter square Camden Road
South East quarter Square Camden Town
This posting covers only the south east corner of this square.
the north east section is Post to the north Kentish Town West
the south west section Camden railway goods yard
Buck Street
Buck Street Market – 200 or so stalls in an open space to the south of the street and stalls sell mainly clothes. It stands on the site of properties destroyed in the Second World War. It is said to have a nickname, 'The Cages', from the metal grilles that make up the grids tightly packed stalls in a uniform layout
Brick structure - this contains a ventilation shaft and entrance that is the visible part of a deep air-raid shelter built for the Ministry of Works by London Underground between 1940 and 1942. It consists of two long, deep tunnels, running either side or parallel to Camden High Street, joined by cross-tunnels and with a main entrance in Stanmore Place. These tunnels are now used for storage.
Trinity United Reform Church. There has been an Ebenezer chapel on this site since 1835 started by a Thomas Gittens. In 1869 William Ewart from Regent Square Presbyterian Church set up a church for railway builders in railway arches and began to use the chapel. By 1908 the building was in disrepair and George Lethbridge, architect, and was asked to draw up plans for a new church. Thereafter the building was used for many purposes and the congregation were active in local social and community work and this continues. The building is neo-Gothic with a red brick front. The inside has been changed with subdivision of larger spaces into individual smaller areas.
Hawley Infants School. The current school building dates from the Late 19th. The current building is the remaining part of a formerly larger complex of buildings between Buck Street and Hawley Crescent fronting Kentish Town Road.
Camden Gardens
Flats. This is a group of affordable rented homes made up of flats and maisonettes and a canal side terrace of houses and flats. The architects were Jestico and Whiles who were commissioned by Community Housing.
Camden Gardens. This is a triangular garden crossed by the North London Railway Line on brick arches. It was and laid out in the 19th for the people in the neighbourhood and it is still managed by a local committee. Building on it is prohibited by Act of Parliament.
Camden High Street
This is part of the Hampstead Road, an ancient thoroughfare which led the road from London through the Duke of Bedford's and Lord Southampton’s estates. After the construction of the Regent’s Canal here from 1816, businesses were established in along the Hampstead Road, immediately above and below the Lock. Today this stretch of the street is a market related area with shops decorated with endless lurid signs and protuberances and selling vulgar tat to provincial teenagers and innocent tourists.
202 Buck's Head pub. Mid 19th pub. Stone frontage with pilasters with brackets in the shape of bucks’ heads. The 19th street numbering remains above the former corner entrance. There is a large tiled sign on the end wall with lettering and a Truman 'eagle' saying 'TRADE MARK ... TRUMAN ... HANBURY ... BUXTON ... & Co Ltd ... LONDON & BURTON'. All
224 Elephant's Head pub. Mid 19th century pub with tiled shop front. At a high-level is a sign: 'TAKE COURAGE'. The Elephant name was the trademark of the nearby Camden Brewery
265 Oxford Arms. Late 19th pub. There are pictorial tiles in the entrance with the motto Virtute et Fide printed on them. The Etcetera Theatre is in the upstairs area
Hampstead Road Canal Bridge. Marks the junction between this and Chalk Farm Road.
Camden Lock Place
This dates from 1990 when the market was reconfigured but has replaced Commercial Place.
Gilgamesh Building. On the site of Bottle Stores built for Giblet in 1878. It has four storeys for washing, crating and packing. It later became a furniture store and was burnt down in 1980
Depot. The London and North West Railway bought Semple’s Wharf for a transhipment depot in 1847
Hawley Basin. Enlarged by London and North West Railway in 1847. It was then connected by rail and arrangements made to bring wagons down to its level and later into the interchange warehouse. In 1854-6the railway was extended to beyond the east side of the Interchange Basin.
Interchange Basin. Dock built London and North West Railway 60 ft long. The inlet to it goes under the interchange warehouse. It was rebuilt in 1854 on a different alignment and increased in size. There war warehouses on the west bank and rail sidings on the west. This is the basin which remains.
Alsopps Warehouse. This was on the west side of the interchange basin and built in the 1850s. The site had previously been coke ovens.
Interchange Warehouse. This was built on the site of an earlier warehouse and has the canal inlet running under the building from under the towpath bridge and Rail way also entered the warehouse from sidings. The current building was completed by 1905. Underneath it the dock was bridged over with girders supporting railway track while barges were accessed through trapdoors. The Warehouse was converted to offices and refurbished in the late 1980s and connected to Camden Lock Place by the creation of steps through the retaining wall. In 2007 it was further restored. It is a rectangular four storey block, plus the basement dock, in multi-coloured stock brick with blue engineering brick dressings. On the canal front are arches which would have enclosed the ends of railway tracks and platforms. Inside is of brick fireproof construction and in the basement cast-iron columns are set in the water supporting beams. Under the forecourt was a gin store with steel doors. It was once used by 'Worldwide Television News' and on the door was said to be a notice warning of Weil's disease
Tunnel. From the corner of the interchange warehouse a ventilated tunnel for the movement of horses connected it to the railway at Primrose Hill and the stabling at Chalk Farm Road which is now blocked. It is in brick with cast-iron ventilation grilles in the roof. The branch from 'Fashion Flow' to the ‘Transfer Warehouse’ goes under a Housing Association development and has been sealed and back-filled. That from the 'Transfer Warehouse' to ‘Camden Lock’ market has had a blocking wall inserted.
Camden Market
In 1971 some of the unused industrial buildings and land, including T.E.Dingwall's timber yard, were leased from British Waterways Board by three young men and in 1972 were sub- as craft workshops, and a weekend market was started on open yards nearby. Sunday trading was also allowed on this private site. In 1990 many of the old buildings at the Lock were renovated and a new three storey Market Hall was next to the main road. The East, Middle and West Yards and Camden Lock Place remained open air areas.
Market Hall. The design was based on a 19th trading hall with wrought iron railings and tiled floors so visitors would think it was old.
Camden Town Goods Depot
Camden Goods Depot was established in 1839 on Lord Southampton’s land as the terminus for goods trains, hoping for the railway to the docks via the North London Line. As it was the line didn’t come through to Chalk Farm until 1851 beginning with coal and general goods a month or so later. This square covers only a part the south eastern quarter of the huge railway yard – the Primrose Hill layout - and about half of the canal side area. The area of lines going into a covered area to the north west of the Interchange building was laid out as the Depot opened and reconfigured with electrification in 1922. The area was sandwiched between lines out of Euston on the west, by the North London Line on the east and the canal on the west. The area is now a supermarket with a vast car park plus some housing.
Morrison’s Car park. Below the Camden Town railway goods yard was a labyrinth of brick vaults, allowing direct goods interchange between road and canal. The horses used to move wagons and for shunting, were stabled on both sides of the yard.
Canal
Canal. Four men were killed during the building of this stretch when the embankment collapsed at Chalk Farm. It cost as much to build it as the original money raised for the whole canal.
Pirate castle. This was the conversion of a lock cottage built in 1977 to the design of Sir Richard Seifert as a mock fortress to be the headquarters of the Pirate Club, founded by Lord St. David’s. It is open to young people as a canoeing and rowing centre. It also includes a youth theatre and other facilities.
Pumping station. This was built on the south bank in 1980 by the Central Electricity Generating Board. It circulates water around the cables which run under the towpath to keep them cool. The building is in the same style of the Pirate Castle opposite. Electricity cables have been laid under the towpath to bring power to central London from generating stations on the Thames Estuary and pumping stations like this one circulate water round the cables to keep them cool.
Ice Well Wharf. This was adjacent to a basin let off the south bank which is now filled in. The building fronted onto 34/36 Jamestown Road. There were two ice wells here – the larger built in 1839 when the basin was occupied by William Leftwich. It was deepened in 1846 to 100 feet to hold about 2,400 tons of ice. In the 1820s Leftwich had began to import ice from Norway, bringing it by sea to Limehouse and along the Canal.
Bewley Cliff Wharf. This was adjacent to a basin let off the south bank which is now filled in. it appears to have been used in the mid 19th by a company bringing in lime for building purposes from works at Wouldham in Kent via the Medway,
North Western Stone wharf. This also was adjacent to a basin letting out from the south side of the canal which is now filled in. It was later part of a bigger Suffolk wharf
Bridge over the entrance to the basin which lies under the Interchange Warehouse - this was built by the London and North West Railway in 1846. The Towpath this crosses it. It is said that locally is called Dead Dog Hole.
Vent openings in the wall of the Interchange Warehouse alongside the towpath to ventilate the underground vaults built in 1854-6.
Grooves – in brickwork made by tow ropes, etc wearing onto the bricks
Dingwalls. Dingwall's Market is sited on a filled in basin. A collection of 19th commercial buildings are grouped round two yards with granite setts. These buildings were used as warehousing and stables for canal boat horses. One building has been demolished following a fire in 1980. This was Walkers Wharf. The buildings were leased after the Second World War to a firm of packing-case manufacturers, T. E. Dingwall Ltd. The site includes a 500 capacity venue which hosts music gigs and other events. It is claimed that this has been used for this purpose since 1972.
London Waterbus. This runs between here and Little Venice, with three historic boats
Roving or diagonal bridge. This footbridge built in 1846 with a span of eighty feet to take the towing path across to the right-hand side of the locks. It has setts in order to give the horses a good grip underfoot and under it are grooves where ropes have worn the brickwork. A plaque under the bridge explains the details of its construction
Winch. The winch alongside the basin dates from 1870-71. It was moved here from Limehouse Barge lock where it was used for opening the lock gates and abandoned in 1968. It is said it was brought here at the instigation of a number of GLIAS members.
Stables. These were for horses used to tow barges. Now demolished
Hampstead Road top lock. The locks were constructed between 1818 and 1820 by James Morgan with John Nash as supervising engineer. It is the first of twelve locks on the Regent's Canal which drop the level some eighty-six feet down to Limehouse Basin - the exact drop depends on the height of the tide at Limehouse. Like other locks on this Canal, it was built as a double lock, but this is the only one remaining now as a pair. A column carries a rack and pinion on the centre island between the locks, was used to operate the paddle, which allowed water to flow from one lock to the other in order to conserve water. The paddle gear for the locks themselves is the conventional Grand Junction Canal type. These locks replaced an innovative, but unsuccessful, hydropneumatic lock designed by William Congreve in an attempt to conserve water.
Sculpture - a large cut-steel sculpture by English artist Edward Dutkiewicz in the square beside the lock
Camden Lock Cottage. The Lock Keepers Cottage for Hampstead Road Locks. Originally built in 1815 and enlarged in 1972, it was converted in 1985/6 as a Regent's Canal Information Centre. It has since been taken over by a large coffee shop chain and a dispute has arisen as the information centre work. Camden was the middle of three horse-changing stages between Limehouse and Paddington and thus facilities were provided.
Bridge wharf and basin. This was used transfer of bricks, etc. In the early 20th it was owned by the London and Provincial Ballast Co. Ltd.
Chalk Farm Road Bridge. This was built in brick in 1815 but the current iron bridge dates from 1876. The Keystone of the original bridge is in the brickwork near the bottom of the slope. At the corner of the bridge next to the towpath is a vertical iron roller, which prevented the ropes from cutting grooves in the stonework. Under the bridge are cut the names of Parish Officers who dealt with roads and bridges.
Jenny Wren cruises. Canal boat company running cruises down to Little Venice and back. Based at what was Walkers Purfleet Wharf which had opened in 1816. The facility was opened in 1969 by Sir Alan Herbert.
Canal side walls of the MTV building plus TV AM’s egg cups, fronting on to Hawley Crescent.
Hawley Lock. Like the other locks between here and Limehouse, the second chamber has been converted into a weir.
River Fleet. The two branches of the Upper Fleet are said to join north of the lock and the canal then follows the route of the river until it reaches Camden Road.
Kentish Town Lock. Beside it on the left was once a pumping station which pumped water back past the "Hampstead Road 3", as they were called by boatmen, to above Hampstead Road Top Lock
Kentish Town Road Bridge. This is a white bridge and there is access to the canal by steps.
Castlehaven Road
The road was renamed around the time of the Second World War from a name taken at random from a gravestone at St.Pancras Old Church. From Chalk Farm Road to Hawley Road was once Grange Road, and the rest Victoria Road
Candida Court. Monumental local authority flats by Hamilton and Chalmers in 1947 and has one of the names connected to Bernard Shaw's plays, along with some other flats in the area. Its wings are named after places in Devon. The Fleet flows under the green in front of it.
21 Castlehaven Community Association. This was established in 1985 by concerned residents and opened for business in 1986. It is now the lessees of a 4 acre community campus
23 Haven Youth Cafe. This was the Old Piano Warehouse where the Castlehaven Community Centre began.
Castlehaven Open Space. Ball courts and strip of open land. This was a bomb site, empty for many years and used by travellers. It was improved as a sports area in 2003.
20 Scar. The premises include arches 12 to 14 and have hosted a creative industry incubator since the 1990s. There is a workshop for wrought iron.
Rail bridge. There are two rail bridges taking the two lines which diverge at Kentish Town Junction. To the south is the 1851 line to what was Hampstead Road and to the north the 1860 line to Old Oak Junction.
Hawley Arms. 19th pub once a hells angel hangs out but more recently full of left field show biz people. Burnt down inn 2008 and rebuilt sharpish.
Chalk Farm Road
Pancras Vale was an older name of this area. There are lots of claims for the site of the original Chalk Farm.
Railway bridge painted with a 'trompe l'oeil' image which has since become an icon for Camden Lock. In 2007 25 arches were changed as part of developments in Stables Yard. At the same time they were shortened from the south and the cross arches were closed to create linear retail outlets.
7-8 Caernarvon Castle Pub. Demolished.
36 -37 are the premises of pawnbrokers, who were established here in 1837
35 Camden Lock Tavern. 19th pub tarted up as a music venue.
Brick wall on the west side –developments here were gradually removed after the railway arrived to be replaced by the stables behind this blank wall. It was built in 1854-6 to retain the fill deposited to raise the level of the Camden Goods Depot. There were houses here until the 1850s in what was called Pancras Vale. R.B. Dockray, who designed the Round House, lived in one of them.
Four blocks of brick stabling, built 1855-1870 as part of the London and North-Western Railway Company's Camden Goods Yard with later additions. A tunnel south of the railway connects the complex with other railway buildings and the Canal. 19th railway goods depots required large numbers of horses for the transfer of goods and shunting of wagons and, around 700-800 horses were used at the here. Stabling for 50 horses was in the vaults below the sidings. Only a small part of the first phase of 1839 survives under the North London Railway at what is now the Horse Tunnel Market. Some of the vaults built under the original goods sidings can be seen at the far end of the easternmost arches and in the shops on the west side of the bridge under the railway which that connects Horse Tunnel and Stables Markets. Part of the buttress walls can be seen in the northern part of Horse Tunnel Market. By 1849 427 horses were employed here. In 1846-7 four stable blocks for 168 horses, were built and others were stabled below the Construction Shop and Pickford’s warehouse. In 1854-6 the original stables were demolished and the present buildings erected. The four blocks stabled 162 horses and was linked to the rest of the depot by the Eastern Horse Tunnel.
Block on Chalk Farm Road built 1855 and 1895. There was stabling on the ground floor and there is an open balcony on the first floor with concrete horse troughs and a bridge going to the next block.
Block north of the North London railway. The ground floor built 1868 was the provender store. There is a bridge to the other block
Blocks between the others, built 1868 and also a provender store. There is a horse ramp on the north side connecting to another block.
Block to the west of the others. Built 1868, upper with brick chimneys. Inside is timber benching and some harness hooks and said to have been the Tack Room. It used to be connected by a bridge to the others.
Horse Hospital. This is built to the north-west of the stables in 1882-3. It held 92 horses with 40 more later. It is now shops with a music venue on the upper floor.
Bonded Warehouse. Remains of a four-storey building built on the 1880s for Gilbey's. This was their No.2. bond and was mostly demolished in 1985 apart from a small section called The Gin House.
Clarence Way
Built on part of the grounds of the Castle Pub it was laid out in 1837 as Clarence Road.. The east end has some massive post war council blocks which replacing 19th streets. This was built 1947 by Hamilton and Chalmers. To the west are terraces which are pre 1849. The street lighting is gas standards converted to electricity.
Most Holy Trinity Church. The design for was exhibited in the Royal Academy, by Thomas Henry Wyatt and David Brandon. It was built 1849-50 of Kentish ragstone and had a west tower with spire. It largely funded by Rev David Laing. The spire was destroyed during World War II.
Holy Trinity and St Silas Primary School. The origins of the school lie with the local church with which it is still associated.
41 Victory 19th public house where the barmaid was murdered in 1880. Closed in 1993 and now flats.
Ellen Terry Court - named after the actress associated with Shaw
Lorraine Court. Built by St. Pancras Council in 1952. Built on the site of Clarence Grove which had become a very poor area when CPOed after the Second World War.
Torbay Court - the centrepiece of the Clarence Way Estate designed in 1947 by Hamilton and Chambers
Collard Place
Posh, gated, housing on the site of Chalk Farm bus depot.
Farrier Street
The road was renamed in 1961 and had previously been part of Clarence Way
Clusters of brick houses and flats; built 1980-1 by Michael Brown Partnership.
Gilbeys Yard
Site of Gilbey's Gin Bottling plant and Warehouse which extended from the edge of the canal basin and then along the main canal. Now flats and houses.
Harmood Grove
Modern innovative office complex with sculpture of windblown person on the wall. Gates and fence by Alex Relph
Carville. Harmood Grove Works. The firm who are, specialists in Perspex and acrylic applications had a factory here from 1928-1966 when they moved to Dorking.
Harmood Street
Called after the family which owned the field it was built in.
1-2 Mohawk Garage. In 1922 this was the base of the Mohawk Motor Cab Co. and then, in 1923, a private bus company. Originally it had been a coach building works for C.Dodson and then a garage. Demolished.
59 Harmood Arms. Now closed and converted to housing.
Chalk Farm bus garage. This opened in 1916 a previous site in Albany Street having been requisitioned by the War Department. Closed in 1993. The site is now housing – gated housing behind a terrace with ‘AJ 1995’ on the gable.
Chalcot School. The buildings date from 1896 and has been extended since. It was originally Harmood Street School, then Harmood Street Boys Secondary. It was renamed as Chalcot School in the 1960s and is currently school a special school for secondary boys. The original stone ‘Girls’ entrance remains.
Hartland Road
Camden Plants Centre
57 Royal Exchange Pub, Renamed as "Fake Club" in 2007, and as "1949 Bar" in c2012.
The Arches. Network Rail industrial units in railway arches
Haven Street
Camden Canal Market. Offices manage about 150 stalls and shop units selling fashion accessories, etc
Passage under the railway to canal side markets
Murals and street art by Dale Grimshaw
Lion – bronze lion in the street, surrounded by lion designs in street art
Car – street art car.
Hawley Crescent
TV-am Breakfast Television Centre. This was designed by Terry Farrell in 1981 on the site of 1920s Henley Garage, itself on the site of much of Camden Brewery. It had large “T. V. A. M” lettering and a large archway. Inside the atrium was said to match the sun’s travels from East to West i.e. a Japanese Pavilion which was TV-AM’s Green Room represented the East and the staircase was the Middle East. The journey was said to continue through temple like forms. There were also two studios and the Good Morning Britain set. 12 enormous eggcups were on the roof and could be seen from the canal. In 1993 the TV-am building was sold to MTV Europe who have made some radical changes and major rebuilding.
Elephant House. These are the buildings of Camden Brewery Co Ltd. Founded in 1859. In 1889 they acquired Whitaker, Grimwood and Co with 84 public houses. It was acquired by Courage & Co Ltd in 1923 with 78 tied houses and Brewing ended in 1925. Over an entrance door is a large stone panel with a central roundel and an elephant's head - the brewery's trademark. There is a similar image, in Kentish Town Road.
Walls from the brewery alongside the canal were retained
Henley's Garage warehouse. This large building was reconfigured for TV AM.
Hawley Road
One of the earliest roads laid out by members of the Hawley family in the 1830s on what was previously meadow land.
Fleet River. Until the 19th this area was covered by the pleasure grounds of the Castle Inn, alongside the Fleet River. The confluence of the two bits of the Fleet from Highgate and from Hampstead was at the junction with Kentish Town Road. The river here was 65' wide
1 House dating from 1837. The brick addition was a meeting room for the Plymouth Brethren
1-11 Open University – this is their London base.
Hawley Crescent Primary School - this was the junior department of Hawley Infant School. The building was damaged in Second World War bombing and became unsafe and so was demolished.
New Harmood Estate of 1978-81, arranged around landscaped courts
Atunbi House. on the site of artisans dwellings.
4-6 Bradfield Court on the site of St.Paul’s church and lecture room. This had been a meeting house of the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connection opened in 1842 which had fallen into disuse and was taken over in 1851 by a charismatic Congregationalist, Edward White, under whom it became successful. In 1918 it joined the Kelly Street Congregational Church and is later shown on mid 20th maps as ‘Holy Trinity Memorial Hall’. A block of flats now stands on the site
35 Stags's Head pub this is now flats – Stag Apartments
Railway arches – used for businesses including Victory Motorcycle and classic Citroen car specialist
Clarence Way Tenants and Residents Hall. This is behind other buildings at the north eastern end of the road, It is used for meetings, young people's clubs, etc. It is on the site of a building shown as a Unitarian Church in the 1870s. This was the Free Christian Church founded in 1855 by William Forster who had been a Congregational pastor but had changed his ideas. A Gospel Hall and Milton Hall, used by the 19th temperance movement is also in this area. These may be separate buildings, or indeed this one. Milton Hall was said to stand on the site of an old cricket ground.
Jamestown Road
Was Upper James Street and later called James Street
Gilbey House. The distillery opened in 1879 is now part of Gilbey House, formerly the Bottle Warehouse built by William Hucks in 1896. It also includes the W. &A. Gilbey Stores which is now flats.
Kentish Town Road
The River Fleet crossed the road north of the junction with Camden Road. Thus the lower end of the road was once called Water Lane and liable to flood. The River here could spread to 65 feet wide at flood, as in 1826. It now runs deep below the road in pipes.
Hobgoblin. This was previously the Devonshire Arms
Bridge over the Regents Canal
Sainsburys – entrance to the store in Camden Road
41 Camden Brewery offices, with an elephant's head above the door.
Bridge Wharf Garage, used as a garage for private buses in the 1920s
Railway bridge and Viaduct. The North London Line divides slightly to the west of the road. Built in the early 1850s for the East and West India Docks and Birmingham Junction Railway. While under construction in 1849 seven arches collapsed onto the road. In 1962 two goods trains crashed and five wagons fell onto the road.
57-63 remains of Moreton Villas built in 1837.
65 Quins. Irish pub which was previously called The Moreton Arms. Built in 1842, renamed Duck in 1988 and Quinns in 1994.
99 Police, base for the Cantelowes Safer Neighbourhood Team. This was once the Clarence Arms, renamed Dillons in 1999 and closed in 2003. Most of the building is now flats and has been rebuilt within the original walls.
101-107 part of Providence Place – in the early 19th this was the name of the houses between what was then Clarence Road (now Clarence Way) to Castle Road
Lewis Road
A turning off the road went to the backs of houses in Hartland Road. This housed Hemingway and Thomas piano factory and later that of Keith Prowse. It then became the St.Pancras Reform Club frm 1912 to 1970.
Leybourne Road
Light industry and motor trade businesses in railway arches
Oval Road
Southampton Bridge
Gilbey site. This was the site of Gilbey’s distillery. It replaced buildings of Camden Flour Mills and the Stanhope Arms. The firm of W. and A Gilbey Ltd, was set up in 1857 to import wine from South Africa was a major employer in the area as well as the largest drinks firm in the world. Its premises here had a floor area of 20 acres with the bottle and bonded warehouses capable of storing 800,000 gallons. Daily a train - the Gilbeys Special - left for the docks for export. They set up a a gin distillery in 1879 opposite on the Flour Mills site and In 1895 built three tunnels under Oval Road to connect to“A” Shed.
30 The Henson Building. This is on the site of the former railway offices. Some of their façades have been retained and modified in this development. Ventilation grilles from the vaults have been replaced by brickwork.
Eastern Horse Tunnel an entrance has been incorporated into the social housing entrance of the Henson House development.
35 Lock House. This block of flats was built in 2008 and replaced a building of 1977. That replace Gilbey’s A Shed used for storing and processing wines
Academic House. On the site of the Stanhope Arms bought by Gilbeys in 1890s. In 1937 rebuilt as Gilbey’s Head office by Serge Chermayeff.
Vaults and tunnels. These were built around 1855-6 on the west side of the Interchange Basin for Allsopp’s Ales, under the forecourt of the present Interchange Warehouse and under 30 Oval Road. They were later taken over by Gilbeys as their No. 1 Bonded Stores. Until the redevelopment of the former railway offices at 30 Oval Road they had survived, but now only some remain,
Pavement – there are a number of goods yard remains, including granite setts, rail lines, granite bollards, ventilation grilles to the horse tunnel below, a turntable and the frames of two
Railway
Kentish Town Junction. At the west end the North London Railway's four tracks come together and branch out to the Chalk Farm and Hampstead Junction
The reversing spur to the interchange basin is marked today by a skew arch under the North London Railway viaduct.
Signal Box. This was a North London Railway design and was between the bridges over Kentish Town Road and Camden Street. It was opened in 1896 and replaced an earlier box. It was renamed Camden Road when the station to the east was renamed and to avoid confusion with a box on the main line out of Euston. It closed in 2011 when signalling was transferred to Upminster.
Torbay Street
Originally laid out in the 1840s by a local builder, Edward Oughten. Part of it was originally called Exeter Street.
Camden Road Coal Depot opened in the railway arches here and used by local coal merchants Locket and Judkins, taken over by Charringtons in 1922 and closed in 1940. Now in use mainly by the motor trade.
Sources
Aldous, London Villages
Allinson and Thornton. London’s contemporary architecture
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British Listed Buildings. Web site
Camden History Review
Camden History Society, Primrose Hill to Euston Road.
Camden Railway Heritage Trust. Web site
Canal Walks
Castlehaven Community Association. Web site
Cinema Theatres Association Newsletter
Clunn. The Face of London
Connor. Forgotten stations,
Davies. Troughs and Drinking Foundations
Day. London Underground
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Essex Lopresti. Regents Canal
Field. London Place Names
Glazier. London Transport Garages
GLIAS Newsletter
GLIAS Walk 7
Great Eastern Journal
Hillman. London Under London
London Borough of Camden. Web site
Lucas. London
Mitchell and Smith. North London Line
Nairn. Modern Buildings
Peaty. Brewery Railways
Pevsner and Cherry. London North
Pirate Castle. Web site.
Robins. The North London Railway
Scar. Web site
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TV AM. Web site.
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Comments
"1-11 Open University": the Open University is in fact at 1-11 Hawley CRESCENT.
"Hawley Crescent Primary School": this was in Hawley CRESCENT between No. 11 (now the eastern end of the Open University building) and the Devonshire Arms pub. The school site ran from Hawley Crescent through to Buck Street; the existing Hawley Infants School building in Buck Street was the infant building of the Hawley Crescent Primary School. In September, 2017, Hawley Infants School will move to new buildings in Hawley Road on a site which includes the early 19th c house at 1 Hawley Road (mentioned in the blog) and will become Hawley Primary School.