Camden Lock on a Sunday afternoon...
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:24 pm
On Sunday afternoon I visited Camden in north London, a few miles from where I live and an area I've known all my life. As everyone will know the markets there on a Sunday attract vast numbers of people and there is always a vibrant atmosphere. Apparently it is the fourth biggest tourist attraction in London, the first three are places to do with our heritage, so Camden is the biggest commercial tourist attraction in London. I walked along the canal and for hundreds of meters in both directions going away from Camden Lock there were countless people sitting by the canal, eating, chatting and many smoking joints. I have no issue with this, most big attractions in London are full of that - the Notting Hill Carnival is one big weed-spree, you smell cannabis everywhere.
What troubled me slightly were the number of drug dealers that I saw today, they were everywhere. About every 20 or 30 metres along the canal towpaths, and also around Camden High Street, there were guys selling drugs. Some were very menacing, a group of them together, talking very loudly and some had huge dogs aswell. There was not one Police officer anywhere. People would go up, be handed some stuff as they handed over the cash, and be on their way. I was offered it many times, and I don't think they were just selling weed either. I saw lots of really wasted people, the kind you used to see in nearby Kings Cross but have now largely disappeared from that area after the authorities did a big clean up.
I bought some thai food and lent against a wall by the canal to eat it. Hundreds of people were sitting on the edge of the towpaths, feet dangling over the side, and every so often you'd see a wasted guy with a can of beer in his hand, wearing nothing but some tatty tracksuit bottoms, talking gibberish very loudly to people walking past. I saw a red-faced woman, off her head, mumbling to herself and she looked very upset about something. I enjoyed my visit but I wouldn't want to be around Camden Lock after the sun went down, the tourists would have left by then but all the menacing-looking drug dealers, and their huge dogs, would likely still be there.
I had a nice afternoon, but was glad to get home. Camden can be ok for a night out if you stick to the main roads and don't venture down backstreets - I know someone who got mugged in a backstreet there once, late at night. The Camden Lock area, specifically, is a place to definitely avoid after dark though.
Two points about all this: do people think it's a good thing to clean up nearby Kings Cross and for the authorities to just let the problems of that area migrate to Camden next door, rather than trying to eliminate the problem itself? And do people think it's peculiar that in Camden on a sunny Sunday afternoon, where many thousands of people go, that there is not even ONE Police officer anywhere? They would know about the drug-dealing and the wasted people in the area, yet they don't put ANY coppers on duty in the whole district. I think both these things are odd.
What troubled me slightly were the number of drug dealers that I saw today, they were everywhere. About every 20 or 30 metres along the canal towpaths, and also around Camden High Street, there were guys selling drugs. Some were very menacing, a group of them together, talking very loudly and some had huge dogs aswell. There was not one Police officer anywhere. People would go up, be handed some stuff as they handed over the cash, and be on their way. I was offered it many times, and I don't think they were just selling weed either. I saw lots of really wasted people, the kind you used to see in nearby Kings Cross but have now largely disappeared from that area after the authorities did a big clean up.
I bought some thai food and lent against a wall by the canal to eat it. Hundreds of people were sitting on the edge of the towpaths, feet dangling over the side, and every so often you'd see a wasted guy with a can of beer in his hand, wearing nothing but some tatty tracksuit bottoms, talking gibberish very loudly to people walking past. I saw a red-faced woman, off her head, mumbling to herself and she looked very upset about something. I enjoyed my visit but I wouldn't want to be around Camden Lock after the sun went down, the tourists would have left by then but all the menacing-looking drug dealers, and their huge dogs, would likely still be there.
I had a nice afternoon, but was glad to get home. Camden can be ok for a night out if you stick to the main roads and don't venture down backstreets - I know someone who got mugged in a backstreet there once, late at night. The Camden Lock area, specifically, is a place to definitely avoid after dark though.
Two points about all this: do people think it's a good thing to clean up nearby Kings Cross and for the authorities to just let the problems of that area migrate to Camden next door, rather than trying to eliminate the problem itself? And do people think it's peculiar that in Camden on a sunny Sunday afternoon, where many thousands of people go, that there is not even ONE Police officer anywhere? They would know about the drug-dealing and the wasted people in the area, yet they don't put ANY coppers on duty in the whole district. I think both these things are odd.