Together with

From the exhausting drumbeat of global disorder to the cost-of-living squeeze on culture and hospitality (and our poor wallets), this year has been a financial and psychological slog for many of us, right?

So, it’s nice to be seeing genuine optimism on Camden’s high streets in terms of what exactly comes next, as we tip into 2026.

A ribbon-cutting photo op (and loads of free breakfasts) yesterday morning marked the arrival of one such venture, brimming with refreshing retail ambition: the all-new premium convenience shop, STORRD, on Jamestown Rd.

At first glance, it may appear quite foolhardy to be opening such an outlet on this particular strip, which has seen various retail and dining concepts come, and then go, over recent years. But the thinking behind this launch – the first of ten more stores to follow in the year ahead – is genuinely interesting.

For this week’s edition of Camdenist, we’ve partnered with STORRD, which demonstrates exactly the kind of collaborative, mutually-supportive approach to promoting the local ecosystem that I so often go on about. Do go check them out.

The partnership also facilitates taking a deep dive into their concept, including why they selected Camden Town for their first store, and how they are going to make the time-honoured act of popping in to pick up the groceries something innovative and fit for the modern era.

“We wanted to choose somewhere we knew we’d be close to lots of different types of potential customers,” Managing Director, Rachel Andre, tells me of how they landed in the neighborhood first. “This part of Camden Town is perfect for testing our concepts to see what works and what doesn’t. We’ve got a large residential community on one side, all the tourists flowing by on the other, we’re underneath an office building and have coworking spaces all around, and there are also loads of restaurant staff and construction workers here, too.”

The store looks slick and impressive, with racks of intriguing challenger brands and organic fruit and veg alongside the more universal corner store convenience classics, plus a New York-style hot deli counter serving all-day meals to grab and go.

You’ll quicky spot the dynamic price labels everywhere, something that’s common in countries like France, but I’ve yet to see adopted much here in the UK. They’re basically little Kindle-style screens below every product, which can be centrally changed to show special offers and promotions, or reflect the market rate of that new box of avocados without the need to chalk it up each day.

“These labels are great,” enthuses Rachel, “not only from a sales perspective, but from an operational one, too. We want our staff to be able to spend time with customers, not updating labels on shelves for hours on end.”

Using the latest technologies to support a better real life in-store experience (rather than simply look to replace it all via app) is where the STORRD concept gets interesting. Their second opening will also be a Borough of Camden-based one, this time down in the office worker maelstrom of Holborn, and members of their core team have come from roles in tech as well as from retail, and are looking at how to cater to the diverse and changing needs of customers in these differing locations.

“In the new year, we're going to launch WhatsApp-based click and collect, and home deliveries,” Rachel continues. “Apps can be great, and we’ll obviously have one at some point in the future, but where people are is on WhatsApp. So, they can start a conversation with us on there: ‘I’m five minutes away, can you make me my usual coffee’, and we can reply with info on the pastries we’ve got that day, or some great spinach that’s just arrived, and have everything ready to pick up on their arrival.”

It feels to me like that focus on tech-assisted – rather than superseded – quality customer service could well be what wins people over to shopping at STORRD over all the other ways to buy groceries in the capital right now.

There are also plenty of products on the shelves that will intrigue and delight foodies, and those in need of a decent bottle of wine. At the opening, Commercial Director Will Bridges-Webb whisked me around on a tour of the aisles, pointing out things like the cactus-infused Cacto canned drinks, small batch organic cheddar from Herd, 100% fruit snacks from The Giving Tree and Pukpip frozen bananas dipped in dark chocolate.

He highlighted the Toss salad dressing, saying “we met the two founders a trade show a few months ago. The dressings have no preservatives or thickeners, just really good healthy ingredients. We actually use them to top our hot food, so we’re trying to offer a way for customers to try things and then perhaps pick up a jar to take home, too.”

The same will soon be the case with coffee, with month-long guest residencies from top roasters, selling their beans directly alongside daily cups of the good stuff.

I think STORRD is potentially hitting all the right zeitgeist notes here, and it will be fascinating to see how their ambitious rollout develops from this first Camden Town retail petri dish.

“We do believe that high streets are beginning to boom again,” Rachel tells me, as the queue for the community event breakfasts snake around the aisles. “We want to be one of the players that helps drive that. A lot of the tech focus of recent years has been on software innovation, and we want to now see that reinvigorate high street shopping.”

It’s true that a tired and old fashioned fridge-cold soggy sandwich business model and a disruptive, Silicon Valley-driven tech land grab have not left the convenience store – let alone any kind of in-person retail – in a very good place of late.

This opening may be a hint at how the tide might turn, and as you’ll see when you read on below, the same kind of experience-based thinking is happening in the worlds of music, books, drinking and more.

STORRD is now open at 10 Jamestown Rd. Find out more on their website and follow them on Instagram for the latest offers

🍺 Also brand new on Jamestown Rd, Brunch & Grapes is the latest concept for the tricky but lovely corner pub spot that’s been known variously as Fifty Five, All About Eve, Cushla and The Corner Lock over recent years. This new venture looks to be an honest boozer serving decent food and hosting regular live music, and with the construction of student housing taking place at pace right next door, may yet prove to be the one that sticks around as the fortunes of this strip off the main Camden drag seem to be looking up.

📚 New bookshop-cum-coffee house, Fable & Falcon, is due to open imminently on Chalk Farm Rd, offering a divine-looking hangout where you can be both caffeinated and intellectually inspired in fabulous surrounds. It was due to open today, but this has just been pushed back to Monday. Well worth a little nose around when it is open, and joins Camden Town Books just down the road and the iconic Walden Books on nearby Harmood St to complete a literary triangle that fully celebrates print media in a way that can only delight day trippers and locals alike.

🎵 Following similar openings in New York, Madrid and Tokyo, global music label Universal Music opened its first UMusic retail concept in the UK this week in the heart of Camden Market. The vast space includes loads of limited edition merch to browse, alongside a dedicated vinyl lounge for crate diggers and coffee ‘n cake seekers alike to while away some hours. There’s also a sound studio and a performance stage, all set for surprise appearances from big names and upcoming artists, plus in-house content creation.

Having paid it a quick visit, the UMusic Shop feels like the natural evolution of Camden Market’s move towards experiences and celebrating the area’s long music heritage, while also satisfying Universal’s need to bring their artists and music out of the confines of apps and headphones and back into the real world.

We already have some ideas for potential event collaborations in the space with a Camdenist twist, so this is yet another optimistic new local arrival that (I hope) points towards 2026 being a turning point in the local high street retail story. It’s looking up out there…

MUSIC: 🔊 Camden musical royalty Soul II Soul play a special festive one-off live show at KOKO tonight, Fri 19th Dec, and there are still a few tickets left if you don’t have plans, so act now to get down with Jazzie B and full crew.

MARKET:🎄Head over to King’s Cross today and all this weekend (until Sun 21st Dec) to catch the Shōtengai Christmas Market, which reliably transforms the atmospheric Lower Stable Street into a vibrant traditional Japanese street market. You’ll find pan-Asian homewares, gifts and food from small indie businesses.

MUSIC: 🎸 The mighty Public Image LTD bring their This Is Not The Last Tour for a big Xmas season London date at the 02 Forum Kentish Town over twixtmas, on Sat 27th Dec, with John Lydon and co still able to raise the roof despite their post-punk vintage.

DRINK: 🍸 Hot on the heels of the big Guinness Brewery opening in Seven Dials last week, news lands that January will see a hot new NYC-styled cocktail bar name Cato opening up on Mercer Street. Dry Jan be damned…

STAGE: 🧚🏻Finchley Rd’s JW3 Centre has brought back its sell-out panto Cinderella and the Matzo Ball, which is performed daily - including a show on Christmas Day, if you’re looking for something that’s actually open to do - and through to 4th Jan.

DANCE: 🩰 With a family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) coming in at just £45, The Place’s festive show - Luca Silvestrini’s highly anticipated new dance-theatre adaptation of Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute, from award-winning company Protein Dance - is also a great way to take the while fam out for an affordable live show this year.

CABARET: 😂 I always feel that a cheeky variety show is one of the best ways to get into the festive spirit, and Phoenix Arts Club is going all out with a series of All I Want For Christmas is Cabaret, running on key dates through to 30th Dec. Expect a multi-line-up of cabaret royalty doing drag, burlesque, musical theatre, comedy and more.