Camden Town history

Camden Town. It always seems to me like somewhere you’re going through on the way to somewhere else. What is it with Camden Town, and Kentish Town?  It strikes me as a bit affected to start calling areas ‘Town’ is if you really have to make sure people realise it’s not just an extension of London’s housing sprawl, which is what it really is.  It seems like the locals were always trying to sound a lot grander than they really were. Royal College Street sounds very grand, but actually it was named after the local veterinary college.

In the 18th century the area was owned by the Earls of Camden, hence the name. The construction of Regent’s Canal through the area brought industry and destroyed the previous rural nature of the place. There was some house building, but the real development was the construction of yards and tracks for the London & Birmingham and the Midland Railways.