BOOKS
Insults - Old,new,borrowed,blue.
ARTICLES - PEOPLE
Henry
Andrews
Thomas
Clarkson
Flanders & Swann
Sir Alec
Guinness
Jerome
K Jerome
Charles
Macintosh
Joseph
Pujol
George
Robey
Leslie
Welch
Wicked
Lady
ARTICLES - PLACES
Braughing
Folly
Island
Hampstead
Hertford
Highgate
Markets
ARTICLES - SOCIAL
Brewing
in Herts
Eccentric
clergy
Origins
of Easter
Round the
Horne
St Bruno
Spurs
'Double' side.
CONTACT
Start at Goodge Street station on the Northern Line. Fitzroy Street runs parallel to Tottenham Court Road to the left going north. This was home to a group of painters called the Camden Town Group. Amongst its members was Walter Sickert (now suspected of being Jack the Ripper following an interview on CBS given my the author, Patricia Cornwell). He painted a famous scene at the Bedford Music Hall (see later). Augustus John and Spencer Gore were amongst the others in this group.
As you walk north you come into Fitzroy Square which was the home of George Bernard Shaw. There is a plaque at number 29. GBS sat on St Pancras Council and was a member of the now defunct London County Council.
Turn right into Euston Road. The area on the left pst the station, between it and St Pancras Station - itself a monument to neo-Gothic architecture (see right) - is called Somers Town and was one of the worst slums in London. It was the setting for many of Dickens novels and many of the Ealing Comedies of the 1950's were shot on location here.
Turn left along Pancras Road, past Kings Cross Station, underneath the grim railway arches in the shadow of the derelict gasometers and you find St Pancras Church. This contains one of the first altars to be established in Christian Britain and named after one of its earliest Saints - who has given his name to the area. I was a page boy here when 4 or 5 and the photographs still hurt. Somewhere in the graveyard is the tomb of the last man out of the Black Hole of Calcutta - a less savoury episode in Britsh history.
Follow the road round and on the left is Goldington
Buildings, a landmark housing development and
home to Ethel le Neve. She was the mistress
of Dr Crippen who was hanged for the murder
of his wife, and who often appeared on the stage
of the Bedford. Crippen achieved notoriety for
being the first person apprehended as a result
of radio. His house is in Hilldrop Crescent,
close to Holloway Women's prison in Camden Road.
Shortly after his execution the houses were
re-numbered so no-one is now sure exactly where
he lived.
If you stand at Mornington Crescent tube station you can see the huge white building (below) that was the Carrera's factory built in 1928. It offered work for hundreds of Camden women and was always known as the Black Cat, after the cigarettes that were produced there - and most probably still is by older residents.
Halfway along Camden High Street is a small passage above which is Bedford House. This is all that remains of the Bedford Music Hall. All the greats performed here - Gracie Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Marie Lloyd and George Robey. It escaped terminal damage in the war but after an attempt to rescue it, it fell into disrepair and was finally demolished in 1969 (for a fuller account of this place see my page on The Old Bedford Music Hall.
Turn left at the lights by Woolworths and you come into Delancey Streey which winds round to Parkway from where you can see Cecil Sharp House, home of the English Folk Singing and Dance society. The main line to Kings Cross runs underneath here and at the end lived Dylan Thomas from 1934 to 1938. He hated Camden and Delancey Street. He lived in a basement flat and most of the time worked in a caravan that was parked at the end of the garden. The last time I enquired it was still there at 54 Delancey Street, as is the caravan.
Turn right down Parkway and on your left is
Arlington Road, where is situated Arlington
House; always known as the local doss house.
It was an acquired address for all the tramps,
drunks and vagrants who regularly appeared before
the magistrates and admitted to having 'no fixed
abode'.
Left along Camden High Street and you find Inverness Street which is home to a daily market - mostly fruit and veg but also The Good Mixer. Local legend has it that when the pub was commissioned it was to be called something ordinary like the Kings Arms but when the workmen came to complete the cellar they used a concrete mixer. When the work was finished they couldn't get the mixer out of the cellar and it was left there. Still there today for all I know - at the Good Mixer.
Double back to Camden Road and walk north. On the right past the railway bridge is Murray Street where you will find the Irish Centre - built in 1955 for the rescue of the many Irish builders that flooded into Camden looking for work. It sits on the corner of Camden Square.
Along the south side lived Alan Sillitoe who features Camden in Gog but is more remembered for the working class classic Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. On the west side lived Dudley Moore for a time and set in motion the gentrification of the area as others followed him to discover the benefits of living so close to the centre of London's West End.
St Pancras ends at the boundary of Camden Road and Brecknock Road. The site is famous for being the place of the last fatal duel in England. A suitable place to end.
Alternatively instead of walking up Camden Road carry on along to Camden Lock.
Anyone interested in this part of London may have heard of the Camden Town Murder of 1907. It has received renewed interest following an interview on US TV with Patricia Cornwell. An overview of my forthcoming book on the subject can be read on my page at The Camden Town Murder.
This is a long, arduous walk which follows the track of the Northern Line. Ease the journey by using tube or buses by buying one of the many offers that are avaliable on London Transport and then you can hop on or off buses and trains at will.