Last week, when researching facts about the Somers Town Goods Yard as part of the item on design studio Brick Sixty being based in the gothic arches on Pancras Way, I happened upon a lovely local story I’d not been aware of before.

It involves the intricate wrought iron gates that once were a key feature of the handsome railway yard’s red brick perimeter walls - evidenced in the pic above.

Did you know that, despite the devilish aim of the Luftwaffe and the vision of 1960s town planners, some of the gates have been reclaimed, and are very much still to be seen in operation the area?

You can find one set at the foot of the steps up to St Pancras Station (directly opposite the King’s Cross forecourt), and the other marking the entrance to Camley Street Natural Park around the corner.

See photos of both, plus discover a lot more background about the ‘greatest forgotten wall in London’ - including the eco-friendly Amazon delivery hub it might have been - courtesy of salvage experts Lassco’s blog.

With loads of defunct railway, canal and industrial infrastructure all around here, much of it repurposed as settings to eat, drink, dance, shop and absorb culture, we thought we’d highlight a few more of the best…

🧱 11 More Repurposed London Treasures

(AND WHAT’S ON THERE THIS WEEKEND)

• 🪩 No prizes for guessing the filthy cargo that once used to be dropped from the viaducts at what is now the shiny entertainment and shopping district of Coal Drops Yard. The area also has a second historic use as an epicentre of 90s nightlife, so look out for the ‘secret’ DJ sets honouring those heady days as a soundtrack to the current season of late night shopping events, running until 9pm every Thursday until Xmas.

• 🕺🏽 Talking of nightclubs, over in Farringdon, Fabric’s three dancefloors rumble all weekend long deep underground in the former Metropolitan Cold Stores, where meat carcasses ready for nearby Smithfield Market once hung. Tonight you can celebrate 20 years of excellent vinyl emporium Phonica with TSHA, Elkka, Yazzus, Danielle and more.

• 🎤 Live music venue of legends, Camden’s Roundhouse was originally designed a turning shed for trains, but spent many more decades as a gin storage facility. You’ll find BBC DJ-turned-author Annie Mac there tonight and South African singer Gregory Alan Isakov next weekend - but tickets for both are now waiting list only.

• 🍷 The towering Gasholders remain very much a part of today’s KX skyline, despite having moved over the water to make way for Google and friends at the new Pancras Square. Today, underneath the very luxe flats up top, you can sip on a glass or two at actor Idris Elba’s wine bar Porte Noire. 

• 🌵 Head along the canal, just under the Eurostar lines, to find the former vaulted locomotive shed that’s now home to the lush Camden Garden Centre. Don’t forget the lovely brunch and bookstore pitstop Pritchard + Ure up on the mezzanine, too.

• 🍜 Covent Garden’s history as London’s fruit and veg hub belies the former use of street food haven Seven Dials Market, which is housed in a former banana ripening warehouse.

• 🎭 Next door’s Donmar Warehouse theatre is on the site of the old Woodyard Brewery dating as far back at 1740, and where you can currently catch hilarious and hopeful comedy play Clyde’s. Meanwhile, Guinness will be bringing microbrewing back to these same streets with the delayed arrival of the brand’s multi-million pound cultural experience, now due in early(ish) 2024.

• 🐺 The proposed park in the sky Camden High Line will one day transform a disused Victorian-era stretch of the Overground line running either side of Camden Road station. While we wait for them to find the first £50m to get the project going, head under the arches at Randolph St for a pint at Werewolf Brewery.

• 🐴 Drinks can also be procured up the curvaceous horse ramp that leads to the former equine hospital on Chalk Farm Rd. You’ll find rooftop bar Lucky Club currently in full-on winter après ski mode, or look out for the next production - details still TBC - at the Vanguard Theatre, based inside the upstairs stable blocks that also have a second history - as Sunday antiques markets in the 1970s Camden Lock heyday.

• ☕ The opening has been mysteriously delayed all year, but a recent lick of paint suggests locally-born coffee chain Black Sheep Coffee are finally about to open up in the Grade II-listed Lock Keeper’s Cottage by Hampstead Rd Lock, which will see the return of the Canal & River Trust’s mini Regent’s Canal visitor’s centre inside, too.

• 🔦 While the planned observation/Ferris wheel might be controversial, Camden Market’s wider development of their famous West Yard will see a big new public exhibition and events space open up in the atmospheric Dead Dog Basin, directly underneath the huge Interchange building. It’s where cargo used to be dropped into/hoisted from barges, and leads onwards into the out-of-bounds Camden Catacombs, which some plucky urban explorers ventured into recently to capture this intriguing clandestine video footage.

CAMDENIST LIVE

🎞️ More updates on Poster Sale! which kicks off for four days on Thursday night - and you can drop in anytime

New additions to the line-up at our Poster Sale! pop-up next weekend include an awards presentation and gala screening of shortlisted shorts in the Kentish Town Neighbourhood Forum Film Festival.

KTNF invited local filmmakers of all ages to submit 3-minute films about, or shot in, Kentish Town, and received dozens of high quality entries ranging from established directors to aspiring young filmmakers still at school.

A selection of the best films will be shown at 4pm on Sunday 26th Nov, with free entry for all (limited capacity, so first come first in).

Presenting the awards will be BAFTA award-winning documentary film maker Sheila Hayman, who’s lived in Camden for twenty-four years.

Her latest film, ‘Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn’ is in cinemas now.

Meanwhile, Saturday 25th sees Poster Sale! among the attractions at the big annual Kentish Town Road Xmas lights switch-on, featuring live music, carols, a festive bazaar and all these discounts at local shops.

And do remember to join us for drinks at the free private view launch event on Thursday (23rd) - we look forward to seeing lots of Camdenist subscribers there 😃

MORE GOSSIP & THINGS TO DO

Celebrating Women In Revolt! - the latest public art to be found under the arches

• Tate Britain have been at it again in Camden, with their latest exhibition of feminist art Women In Revolt!, being thoroughly celebrated under Hawley Wharf’s canalside arches. It features the work of six emerging London-based creatives, and will be around to go see until the end of the show, in April.

• 🥩 Chalk Farm’s American-meets-Middle Eastern diner Epicurus have thrown down the gauntlet and are offering a feasting showdown that challenges you to eat through a vast 2.5kg platter of delicious meats and more in under 30 minutes. Achieve that and the platter is free, and so is a t-shirt and place on their coveted wall of fame.

• 🪔 Love Camden have put a call out for artists who'd like to lead lantern-making workshops in a special project to Light Up Kilburn in Feb 2024. It’s a festival that will bring light-based art and illuminations to the whole neighbourhood.

• 🍛 Camdenist journalist Jess Furseth has written an in-depth look at our local South Asian foodie hotspot Drummond Street for Time Out, revealing the area’s rich history restaurant, which is struggling like never before in the face of the much-delayed HS2 upheavals.

• 🙏🏻 New wellness studio Self-Retreat has opened in one of the railway arches at Hawley Wharf, specialising in the spiritual awakening practice of KAP - Kundalini Activation Process, alongside reiki and yoga classes.

• 🍞 Locally-founded high street bakery sensation Gail's has just opened it’s shiny new head office, training kitchen and second Camden Town branch complete with seating in a secluded courtyard, just off Castlehaven Rd at Dockray Place.

MUSIC

Live gigs to liven up local life this week

• 🪕 Playing bluegrass classics and their own compositions, London-based group The Vanguards are playing their high lonesome three-part harmonies at The Green Note tomorrow (Sat 18th)

• 🎷 Check out powerful 10-piece band Ubunye as part of the ongoing EFG London Jazz Festival with vocalists from South Africa’s Kwa Zulu Natal region combined with a dynamic rhythm section and horn players from Leeds and Manchester, at Pizza Express Live Holborn tomorrow (18th).

• 🎤 Lafayette plays host to film composer David Arnold this Sunday (19th), a man best known for scoring five James Bond films, Stargate, Independence Day, and the television series Little Britain.

• 🔊 Australian musician Dub FX brings his conscious lyrics, live looping, beatboxing and dub influences to King’s Cross Scala for a special show this Weds (22nd).

Gig highlights in association with Halibuts.com

CAMDEN DIARY

The Electric Ballroom changed my life

The weekly Camdenist column: observations and frustrations from living, working and playing in the borough…

SATURDAY: Back in my formative years of the, er, late 80s and early 90s, Saturday nights meant one thing only: the Electric Ballroom. A group of us - Ellis and Burghley boys united - would excitedly, religiously, make certain to be in there before 11pm (when the door charge went up). We’d share pints of snakebite ‘n black and single fags, attempt to meet girls and occasionally end up in ill-advised dance-offs in a big circle with besuited jazz dancer troupes. Proto-superstar DJ Jay Strongman educated us in funk, rare groove and boogie, and would let us stash our jackets with his record boxes to avoid the cloakroom fee - and its dreaded queue on the way out. It was the pinnacle of fun for our 18-year-old selves, week in, week out, and formed a perfect gateway to the wider London clubbing scene that was getting busy exploding all around.

House, jungle and techno parties eventually took over our Saturdays (and Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays…plus occasional midweekers too) and writing about nightlife became my career, but it all began at the Ballroom. So taking my not-quite-16-so-can’t-go-unaccompanied-yet daughter and friends to a gig there on a 2023 Saturday was a bit of a full circle moment. Packed dancefloors always give me a warm embrace of familiarity, like a homecoming, and though this was a live gig (Scots band Vistas, if you’re asking), I could still feel the same excitement of those many club nights spent jumping about on this very same floor. Celebrated performances here from the likes of The Clash and Prince may have secured the Ballroom’s legendary status, but it’s the simple shared chaos of the regular classic big night out in Camden that has ensured it’s been such an important totem for many thousands more people over the years - and the place that set the course of my own future. Electric indeed.

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