‘I’m not from London, I’m from Camden Town. But my home is gone now and I can’t go back at those prices’
“I was born just down the road. There are too many stories to share, I remember the first ‘silly boot’ hanging outside the shops, the Irish poets who drank with me in the pub at 14 and told me to change my name back to proper Irish. Friends made things and sold them at the market. Camden Lock was where we met friends and made new ones.
Thai food with hippies back from travels in the Stags Head (now flats) where Stella McCartney hung out and everybody drank on the pavement outside. The vegetarian bulldog and the man sleeping under the pool table. I remember Burger King was the first fast food chain and no one ever ate the KFC. I remember the cafe in an abandoned tube station and the antiques that made you dream of treasures yet unfound … I am not from London I would say, I am from Camden Town. Mostly I remember that this was my home, but it’s gone now and I can’t go back at those prices.” (Wicksey)
‘I fell in love. Other markets can’t begin to compare’
“In 1990, I was an exchange student from the US studying at Kingston Poly (now Uni). I was going to see the Sisters of Mercy at Wembley and went to Camden Market for the first time to buy my first leather biker jacket for the event. I fell in love. Camden Market was like nothing I’ve seen before or since. I’ve been to plenty of markets around the world, but none can even begin to compare. As I walked to the concert, I remember how the leather was so stiff it squeaked.
I still own the jacket, although it’s a bit tighter on me and the leather a lot softer. Every time I’m back in Blighty, no matter who I see or what else I do, I take an afternoon to roam around the stalls at Camden. Camden Market will always be one of my favourite places on Earth.” (jasonspeaking/GuardianWitness)
‘I bumped into Ice-T outside KFC, who was really nice’
“I moved to north London from Peterborough in the early Nineties and really enjoyed the buzz around Camden. I always found the people really friendly. Bumped into Ice-T outside KFC, who was really nice and Simon Pegg outside The Jazz Cafe, who wasn’t nice at all. My parents and younger sister came to visit one summer. I took them to the market where my father, a retired police officer, announced to the world he could smell marijuana. Oh, how I laughed!” (Dawksey)
‘Camden was a Mecca for me, I was hooked’
“I remember my stepmum showing me Camden Market when I was seventeen in 1997. She saw me growing up, wearing a lot of black, and listening to bands like The Sisters of Mercy and took me on a whirlwind tour of Carnaby Street, Kensington and Camden Markets. Camden was a mecca for me, I was hooked from that point. Whenever I could, I’d be down there exploring the shops, spending my money on CDs from Resurrection Records and going for a cider and black down the Devonshire Arms.
After I moved to Islington in 2003, Camden became my nexus. I would head down there on Sunday nights to be part of a safe place, surrounded by friends, and other like minded people, to drink and dance and laugh the night away. Sadly, slowly, things began to change. The number of tourists multiplied, and the corporate places and tourist shops began to move in. Now, the interesting shops have moved out. Things have changed, and not always for the better.” (ID7445598/GuardianWitness)
‘The 1992 Spiral Tribe squat rave in the abandoned Roundhouse was legendary’
“In 1992 the rave scene was kicking in and becoming increasingly popular. A rite of passage for many local teenagers was to get work at Camden market. When I was 17 I found myself working part time at a stall selling cheap electrical goods. When Spiral Tribe came to town and squatted the abandoned Roundhouse there wasn’t any place better to party.
There were plenty of squat parties all over Camden before and after, but none quite as legendary as this one. If I had been more carefree I would have hit the road with the tribe; alas home cooking and A levels won the day and I stayed to watch Camden Market grow ever more popular, homogenised and safe.” (MuttTheUnderdog/GuardianWitness)
‘I once sold a military jacket to Janet Jackson’
“I worked on a clothing stall in Camden Market in the 1980s. Once sold a military jacket to Janet Jackson. Wayne Hemingway of Red or Dead fame had the stall next door – he used to sell black canvas hockey boots with the rubber studs on them.” (smillsy)
‘I remember the dandy dressed guys on the bridge you paid for arguments’
“The stall I loved and miss the most was the bootleg tape stall in the covered ‘corridor’ that led down to the market south of the canal. They were so efficient that a gig on a Friday night was usually for sale on the Saturday. I also remember the dandy dressed guys who would stand on the canal road bridge and talk at length about any subject the customer suggested ... for cash. You could request to be talked at, or have a conversation/argument on your chosen subject. They were surprisingly knowledgeable, or perhaps just very good at blagging it!” (Simon Bleasdale/GuardianWitness)
‘In the late 70s everyone was doing their thing and living on practically nothing. Now the clothes come from sweatshops, not art schools’
“My mum was a hippie. She had a stall at the Lock Market selling espadrilles in the late 70s. I was a teenager, obsessed with punk and two tone. Being on Mum’s stall felt like being at the centre of the world. All the alternative subcultures of the time – punks, hippies, rastas, rude boys – existed side by side at the Lock. They had their own stalls, record shops and pubs, but there was a mutual respect.
Camden was a mecca for rebels, artists and dropouts from around the world. It was an incredibly creative place. Amazing bands played every night. Lots of brilliant young artists and fashion designers had stalls. Everyone was doing their thing and living on practically nothing. I still live up the road in Kentish Town. A semblance of old Camden remains, but the spirit’s gone. Pretty much everything on sale is a cheap import, the clothes come from sweatshops, not art schools. The development of the stables is an abomination. It should never have become a museum but it’s become a grim parody of its old self, which is a shame.” (nora9/GuardianWitness)
‘Memories? Mulled wine for breakfast and shouting at John-Paul Gaultier’
“I worked up at the Stables Market in the mid-Nineties. Some memories: always cold, dragging a tonne of tweed jackets up the cobbles in the rain on a clothes rail with one wheel missing; everyone was called Steve, Dave or Pete (Beardy Pete, Welsh Pete, etc); my pal shouting at John-Paul Gaultier “Discount, qu’est que c’est fucking discount?”; mulled wine for breakfast; Cissy Strut by the Meters being played all day long by the bootleg tape sellers; the Israeli bloke two stalls up telling us about juggling live grenades during national service; sitting on the radiator in a pub in Primrose Hill after work until I could feel my legs again.” (henrydog)
‘In the 80s Camden market was a dirty, eye-opening place and I loved it’
“Skint teenager, 1980s, freezing cold, damp Sunday afternoons in mid winter, all kinds of music playing and blending together, cheap second hand clothing, bootleg albums on cassette for £1, cosying up in caffs drinking tea for 50p, then the nearly 3 hour trip back to the ‘burbs because of a really crappy Sunday service. Camden market was a dirty, eye-opening place and I loved it. Haven’t been for years but I knew it was the beginning of the end when an Office and Monsoon opened nearby.” (Chazza74)
And, finally …
“The arches at the back of the stables were once used by trekkies for Star Trek reenactments – they used to turn up in latex Klingon masks and zap each other.” (cavecanem)
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