London Guide
Camden Town
Until the canal arrived, Camden Town wasn't even a village, but by Victorian times it had become a notorious slum area, an image that it took most of the past century to shed. In the meantime, it has attracted its fair share of artists, most famously the Camden Town Group formed in 1911 by Walter Sickert, later joined by the likes of Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. These days, you're more likely to bump into young foreign tourists heading for the market, and as-yet-unknown bands on the lookout for members of the local music industry.
For all the gentrification of the last thirty years, Camden retains a gritty aspect, compounded by the various railway lines that plough through the area, the canal and the large shelter for the homeless on Arlington Road. Its proximity to three main-line stations has also made it an obvious point of immigration over the years, particularly for the Irish, but also for Greek Cypriots during the 1950s. The market, however, gives the area a positive lift, especially at weekends, and is now the district's best-known attribute.