camden market

Our study of London’s market continues. The feature this week: Camden Market. Camden Market is actually four (or five or six) markets in one. It’s in north London, by the canal system. There are two satellite markets away from the main action, one on Buck Street and the other on Inverness Street. You’ll know you’re in the area when you feel this sudden sensation of not being able to control where you go, since you’ve been absorbed by the massive mob of people walking on the street. Ride the tide that will carry you across a bridge over the canal and into Camden Lock Market. You won’t miss it – the location is marked very prominently by a massive sign painted across a bridge. This market is, as the name suggests, a market that is set up right next to the lock system that allows boats to traverse the canal system. On the weekend, you’ll likely see a few narrowboats going through the locks.

When you first walk into Camden Lock Market, you think ‘Is this it??’ because it really doesn’t look like much. We seriously thought that we’d be done in 15 minutes and were wondering what all the fuss was about. But then we made a turn and then a few more stalls popped up. Then we made another turn and went into a building that housed even more stalls. This in turn passed into another section in an adjacent building with still more stalls, including one that sold this really cool sand that ripples when you burn a candle in it – the shopkeeper had filled peppers and pineapples with it – and another one that sold cufflinks and other jewellery made out of computer parts. Then we were met with a sign saying there were more shops downstairs. Downstairs? This place has a downstairs? Camden Lock Market definitely has more than meets the eye.

When we got downstairs, we were greeted with the delicious aromas wafting up and realised we had reached the ‘food court’ of the market. As with the other markets, there is a diversity of different cultures represented. This food market eventually gives way to other sections of the market, aptly called the Catacombs, as you feel like you are walking into a tunnel. The stalls in this section are mainly peddling clothing, of the Goth, punk, and vintage genres. Among the other oddities, we noticed two giant robot statues and a store run by an elderly and very british lady that sold sweets and, oddly, dvds of anime series (including Samurai Champloo!). There were a series of food stalls that started off as Mexican, then Chinese, then Indian, Moroccan, Thai and Indonesian, all apparently run by the same Chinese family – there were no breaks behind the counters and every stall seemed to sell some version of chow mein!

The market then turns into the section known as the Stables – aptly named since the stalls are set up in...um...stalls that used to house horses. The whole area used to be a horse hospital and the stables housed horses undergoing rehabilitation and other treatments. The whole area was very cool and lots of antiques and exotic imports like furniture and home furnishings were on display. Not to mention the many and sometimes giant bronze statues of horses.

Camden Market is not very easy to navigate through, and you’ll often find yourself backtracking or realising that you’ve just (unintentionally) walked in a complete circle. At one point, we felt like we were in one of those visual illusion drawings because we went down a ramp only to end up on the same level we had started at. I suppose we just didn’t realise that we were steadily walking up a ramp. Despite all that, Camden Market is quite good fun, as getting lost can sometimes be.

Unfortunately, the brownie entry from Camden Market was not up to the high standard set by the other markets. Now if we can only convince Flour Power to trade at Camden then we’d have an untouchable winner for our favourite place in London!