Camden Town

This is an account of my visit to zany Camden town, in August 2007, that was published in The New Indian Express's supplement Expresso sometime in June 2008. Good days those. Please excuse the goody-goody tone. Earnestness has bad side effects. Although I must say I quite like this piece.

Entry into Camden Town, London is a bit of a personality test. If you are the kind that is game for experimentation, enjoys alternative genres and has a taste for the bizarre, smile, as Camden Town welcomes you with its tattooed arms wide open. Alternately, if you are squeamish about boldly dressed people, punk and Goth cultures and can’t appreciate anything out of the ordinary, run! Camden Town is definitely not for the faint hearted.

After a visit to the very prim, proper, posh and upmarket locality of Wimbledon, we traveled to Camden Town, located at the other end of London—literally and figuratively. This is your Alternative paradise. Streets here are populated by tattoo parlours; it has people dressed in bizarre clothes, sells food and tribal art from across the world and throws you firmly out of your comfort zone

We saw a performer dressed as a native American beating tribal drums outside the tube station to catch the attention of passersby. It was a sight that requited photographic importance. We took out our cameras to click a quick picture and got a loud “Oye” of protest—a term, the semblance of which, you hardly hear in overtly civilized England. “You’ve got to pay me one pound for every picture you take.” He explained “I’m working here!” This is roughly the customer-satisfaction diktat that dominates Camden Town. If there were such a rule, it would be “We can’t care less”.

I have to admit, I was bewildered and took the advice of a Hindi speaking Pakistani gentleman, who manned a nearby shack selling junk jewelry, to not bother paying up. A little shop further ahead sold some more junk jewelry and traditional London souvenirs which included little Big Bens and coffee mugs sporting the names of famous areas in London. The next shock-and-recover maneuver occurred on seeing a box of candies labeled ‘Cannabis Lollies’ on the shelf in a store. I was relieved to know that these were harmless sugar confectionary which had nevertheless raised quite a storm among concerned parents in the UK. Like the pattern goes, everything at Camden Town is meant to amuse, if not always scandalize.

People that pompously wear their profaneness on their sleeves may find some assistance in the cause with T-shirt stores at Camden. The most popular T-shirts in London are ones with the ‘Mind The Gap’ motifs, derived from the London Underground safety announcement.

Meant to caution people about the gap between train and platform, the phrase has gained attention otherwise in pop culture puns. Among the many zany and quirky Tees, we found one with a picture of Pope Joseph Ratzinger and ‘Papa-Ratzi’ written under it. Wicked or witty? Categorise as you will.

The world famous Camden Market is a busy complex filled with stores that showcase and sell cultural artistry from around the world. Shops here sell clothes as diverse as Oriental and African to all that can be described as Bohemian. Food counters offer Thai and Chinese food at very reasonable prices, and if your food options are narrowed down to vegan, you could still get lucky in this haven for all things unusual. A little bit of exploration will lead you to ingenious miniature tribal musical instruments, masks, art, books and what have you. And if you spot a couple entangled in a passionate embrace right in the middle of the market, remember, it is rude to stare.

A houseboat ride through Regent’s Canal is another option you could take into the colourful high street. If you were on the lookout for more interesting encounters, walk right up to the self-anointed evangelists lodged at street corners and talk to them about why the world is headed to damnation. Be assured, Camden Town will never be short of interesting sights or people.