For the second in our summer series of Guest Editors, we hand things over to the leading expert on Camden’s fascinating industrial heritage, the legacy of which still very much defines where we live today.

Intriguingly, his brand new history book, Chalk Farm Railway Lands: A Guided Tour 1830-2030, is as much about the future as the past, since it includes a detailed vision for opening up the neighbourhood's vast subterranean engine winding vaults and a network of long-abandoned tunnels.

One day, these architectural marvels could host performance venues, cocktail bars, art galleries, a museum and more, making this project another fine addition to this newsletter’s rolling Camdenist Culture Campaign.

Expect more updates and gentle pressure exerted judiciously on key powers that be in upcoming editions…

This Week’s Guest Editor: Peter Darley

Founder, Camden Railway Heritage Trust

“The Chalk Farm Railway Lands that embrace both Camden Town and Primrose Hill are rich in hidden heritage. My aim is getting people excited about their secrets – features they likely won’t have dreamed even existed.

Some of these, like the Primrose Hill Tunnel East Portals, are above ground and just need to become publicly accessible. Others lie beneath the tracks, like the Stationary Winding Engine House, one of the most remarkable survivors from the1830s.

These Grade II* listed cathedral-like vaults were built to house steam engines and machinery used to haul trains up the incline from Euston by rope in the early years. 

This lost network of subterranean vaults and horse tunnel passages includes extensive Wine and Beer Vaults that acted as warehouses both for Burton on Trent’s famous export beer, India Pale Ale, and for the wines and spirits of the area’s once globally dominant distillers and vintners, W. A. Gilbey.

The Wine and Beer Vaults are the last part of the former Catacombs complex that hasn’t been transformed into retail spaces for Camden Market. The aim of my new book, and indeed the goal of the Camden Railway Heritage Trust (CRHT) is to open up these incredible places, which are little known to the general public, to be enjoyed in new ways in the future by all.

But first, how did we even get here? And why Camden Town? It is a story that begins with the area becoming central to the movement of all kinds of goods between the North of England, the Midlands, then London, the docks and onwards to or from overseas in the era of Empire.

Camden was already on one of the main horse-drawn arteries out of London, the Hampstead Road, which made this a natural place for goods interchange and all its infrastructure. The arrival of the Regent’s Canal in 1816 and then the London and Birmingham Railway in 1837 placed Camden Town firmly in the centre of goods movement and trans-shipment between transport modes.

To counter the competitive threat of the railway, the Regent’s Canal Company insisted that the railway Goods Yard be situated north of the canal, ensuring the waterway continued to transport goods to and from the docks. This monopoly ended with the building of the North London Railway with its iconic bridge over the main road at Camden Lock.

Opening up the hidden sections today is a tricky business due to the number of stakeholders who will need to be involved, but my book sets out a vision of what could be achieved if we all work together.

This includes an area in the current redevelopment site of Camden Goods Yard that CRHT and the local authority have safeguarded. This area should one day host a visitor’s centre for access to the Winding Vaults and a statue of Robert Stephenson, the engineer behind these marvels.

The Winding Vaults would be accessed from the towpath end of Stephenson’s Walk, a proposed pedestrian and cycle way running along the mainline railway from the Regent’s Canal towpath to the former Primrose Hill station.

They consist of five longitudinal vaults below the railway four of which are wide enough for people to be seated at tables. The former engine room spans the head of these vaults, a large underground space that could easily be used as a venue as noise down there would not disturb the neighbours. This could restore what was lost by the Roundhouse decades ago, after people objected.

If Network Rail removed at least some of their train wash sidings, this could create both new housing and new service access onto the Primrose Hill side of the Winding Vaults from three historic Primrose Hill railway pubs: the Pembroke Castle, Dumpton Place alongside the Landsdowne and a large gate opposite The Engineer.

Opening up Camden’s hidden railway treasures would be a win-win situation for everyone, as they will add a unique lustre to what stakeholders are doing now, from selling properties to attracting visitors. I’m calling on all stakeholders and interested parties to fully embrace this heritage now and commit to its protection and reinstatement.

My book finishes in the future, with a chapter dedicated to what I hope will be the experience of visiting all this in 2030. Camden’s railway heritage might be nearly 200 years old, but its story is hopefully far from over.”

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FESTIVALS

🥳 Late summer is busy - but a big local festi has just been cancelled

The promise of seeing The Jacksons, Paul Oakenfold, The Brand New Heavies and loads more play for free in a blocked-off Camden High Street in a couple of weeks time have been scuppered at the last minute, with the cancellation of the Camden Music Festival 2024.

In a statement that hints towards the imposition of additional costs to ensure safety ‘in the current climate’, the organisers at Camden Music Walk of Fame have decided the focus on delivering a bigger and better event for 2025.

It’s unclear whether that means no additional blue stones will be added to the pavements of Camden Town this year, but it’s not the first time this ambitious project has been hit by setbacks.

After the initial stones were laid successfully, honouring huge-if-a-little-bit-obvious names in UK music, the expansion of the walk was delayed by the arrival of Covid.

Last year, despite our initial scepticism, we were ultimately won over by an intimate audience with Eddy Grant at The Forge and the lively takeover of the streets by the festival that accompanied a flurry of further unveilings.

So while bigger and better things are again promised, we’ll have to wait until 2025 for this particular big free local street party…

🎪 It's the second annual Bartholomew Road Street Fair in NW5 tomorrow (Sat 31st August), with all the neighbours out to provided arts and craft stalls, food and drinks plus a strong line-up of live music from the likes of Pushy Pushy Pushy, Whiskey Mick & Friends, Klank Monster plus masses more.

💡Over at Holborn’s Conway Hall, all this weekend sees the Freethought History Festival, an event dedicated to exploring the evolution and impact of freethought through insightful discussions and presentations. It opens tonight with a keynote and panel discussion, then there’s a programme of discussion and celebration of humanism, secularism, atheism and the ethical movement past and present on Saturday, with a free day of family-friendly activities on Sunday 1st.

FOOD + DRINK

🍖 Bodean’s BBQ comes to Chalk Farm

In a culinary 180 degree about turn, former vegan restaurant Powerplant - which shut unceremoniously a few months ago with the collapse of the Selina Hotel chain upstairs - is about to reopen as an extremely carnivorous joint indeed.

Opening on Monday 2nd Sept, it will be the latest site of Bodean’s BBQ, the authentic Kansas-style slow-cooked smokehouse, specialising in juicy pulled pork, sauce-slathered ribs and signature smoked brisket.

Having been for a bit of a lads BBQ and beers blowout at the Covent Garden branch a few months back, I can attest that theirs is a seriously meaty menu - delicious and purposefully overwhelming in equal lip-smackin’ Americana-level measure.

Although all is not lost for the plant-based, as Bodean’s do accommodatingly have a couple of veg and vegan options on the menu - if you can face the flesh-fest chow down at tables all around.

🏠 Also just about to open is Home Kitchen, the exciting social impact-meets-fine-dining restaurant in the former Odette’s on Regent’s Park Rd. You can support their work tackling homelessness and social vulnerability through jobs in hospitality, while enjoying what looks like a very good menu, too, from 11th September.

🎶 STAGE AND MUSIC SECTIONS WILL RETURN NEXT WEEK 🎭

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