Camden on fire

A newsflash caught my attention today, which is increasingly difficult in a world where everything is apparently breaking news. This one unfortunately deserved it: Camden was on fire.

From what I’ve heard, parts of Canal Market are gone, while Lock Market and Stables Market seem to have escaped relatively intact. Reports vary wildly, as they tend to do when smoke, television cameras and journalists are involved. But some claim as much as a third of the markets fell prey to the flames.

Camden market many years ago.

Camden has always been one of London’s more gloriously disreputable corners. Alternative shops, pubs, questionable food, questionable fashion and enough weird little establishments to keep you happily wandering for hours. I’ve spent far too much time there over the years, and considerably more money than good judgement would recommend. I also have friends in the area, which makes seeing it burn rather more personal.

These days Camden is hardly an undiscovered outpost of the counterculture. The tourists arrived long ago, cameras ready, hunting for something authentically alternative to take home in a plastic bag. But beneath all that, it still has something. It’s a swirling stew of overpriced vintage leather, knockoff band T-shirts, pierced teenagers, tattoo parlors, battered pubs and the mingled aromas of incense and cheap curry fighting for territorial supremacy in the damp London air.

Camden market many years ago.

It’s messy, commercialized, overcrowded and occasionally ridiculous. Which is precisely why I like it. It’s been a few years since my last visit. Looking at the pictures today, I suspect the Camden I eventually return to will be a little different. Cities change. Markets burn. Developers arrive. Someone inevitably puts up luxury apartments. And another wonderfully strange corner of the world becomes just a little less strange.