Day 22 - London Camden Town

I remembered we had visited this area many years ago and the canal with the locks stood out in my mind. The area has become extremely trendy and cool. We got ourselves a day pass for the tube at 5 pounds 60 and headed to Camden Town.

This bustling area is the centre of all things weird and wonderful. From punks to Visigoths, you can see every flavour of style oddity in this mecca of madness. From the original Camden Market to e very corner of the High Street from Camden Town tube, to Chalk Farm tube is packed with market stalls. The area is renowned for the vibrant shop fronts, many with frescos of the brand sculpted above the entrance. Even a furniture store has a huge white chair hanging from its sign. Every major funky shoe store can be found here. Souvenir shops abound.

The Stable Market is home to every kind of fast food, from falafel to curry, at crazy cheap prices. These food stalls all look and smell delicious with everyone handing you samples. The food is fresh looking and decoratively arranged. It also contains many ethnic bazaars, and various antique shops built into the railway arches. There is even a hookah lounge.

\

There are clothes shops with items from the 60’s and 70’s, as well as a multitude of modern merchandise for the younger tourist.

No trip should be taken without venturing into Cyberdog, the ultimate in tekno club clobber, the shop is worth a visit for its design alone, never mind the sales staff who match their environment.

Now that we have a sense of direction from taking the subway we could probably have easily walked to some other areas as suggested below.

If you want to make a day of it walk up past Stables market to Chalk Farm tube station and follow the signs for Primrose Hill - a great little park with a view over London, merging into the huge Regent's Park (almost as large as the whole City of London). You can walk down through Regent's Park, past the Mosque to Madame Tussaud's (and vice versa) and beyond to the Wallace Collection Gallery in Manchester Square and finish up with an early meal in St Christopher's Place, just north of Oxford Street. You can also walk along the canal into Regent's park and along as far as Little Venice if the fancy takes you, which on a Saturday connects into Portobello Road Market.

Next time!!