When we first moved to London, Camden Town was a place where we went to see people with piercings and multicoloured mohawks. We wandered around, buying junk at the colourful stalls, eating street food and trying on 'vintage' clothes. We went there for Halloween costumes and to hear music. We ate at the Green Note, a vegetarian restaurant featuring, among other good music, a bluegrass band from Hastings. We wandered through en route to Whole Market and bought fairy lights and rag rugs for our first baby. We dangled our feet off the bridge over the canal and skirted around vomit and other unsightly things left on the ground. Camden is not a clean place. Camden is not a kind place...and now Camden is a place where we take our kids.
On our last day before school started again and the coldest day of the year so far, we took the tube to Camden for a visit to Camden Market with friends. Camden Market is pretty much the opposite of Selfridge's. It answers Selfridge's unattainable luxury with pretty much all the crap you can ever imagine crammed into maze-like stalls that go above and underground. Where at Selfridge's the attendants are cool and aloof, in Camden Market, everyone, from the enthusiastic sellers of Chinese food to the guy who really wants to convince you that the inappropriate belly shirt is perfectly appropriate for your seven year old, hustles.
We started our Camden visit off with lunch at a New York Style bagel place, which luckily had a glassed off, separate space where the kids could conduct their lunch in chaos. The adults, above, enjoyed our bagels and coffee while pretending that we couldn't hear our offspring causing havoc down below us. The 'everything' bagels were divine and the staff were not American in any way, shape or form, which I found kind of funny, considering their schtick was the New York bagel. But they were nice and tolerant of our hyper children, for which we were grateful.
There really is only so long you can keep five kids confined in a bagel cafe, so we headed out into the cold weather to let them burn off some of their cream cheese induced energy. The original idea was to tour the Camden street art, but we got distracted by the call of Camden Market and that really never happened. Here is the only picture of street art that I actually took:
It doesn't have to be summer to lounge in lawn chairs in Camden Market.
(photo by Aviva Raichelson)
And you don't have to eat overpriced, imported cereal to stick your head through the Cereal Killer Cafe sign either:
Dancing outside a Vintage Shop is absolutely acceptable as long as you don't touch the display (or expect anyone to smile or think you're cute):
Horse butts are hilarious (especially when their genitals are anatomically correct):
And if you're more into dogs than you are into horses, there is a plastic St. Bernard to cuddle outside of a bar set up to resemble those you would find on the slopes in the Alps.
There are secret messages written in the handmade clothing:
Really, with all this in Camden Market, who needs to go skiing, to visit real horses or to contemplate your relationship?! You can also get hippy clothes, rave accessories, overpriced, but worn out overalls, wigs, piercings, old books, 'antiques,' tiny balls that grow with water, incense, jewellery, tee-shirts, candles, art, essential oils, alcoholic beverages, doughnuts, drugs*, lemonade (in January), lights, furniture, interesting, if not particularly happy looking people....and pretty much anything else that may or may not be your heart's desire.
Eventually, we got overstimulated and just had to leave. But not before we met Muthy at the Hammer Silver (https://www.facebook.com/thehammersilver/). Friendly and talented, he made us a handmade necklace for a friend while we stood there, patiently answered all our questions, happily let the girls help themselves to far more small bags than they needed and cheerfully offered to let us come and watch him at work anytime. I spotted more than a few of his pieces that I am lusting after, so another Camden Market visit is in my future soon!
Until next time...
*for the record, no one associated with this blog has ever bought or been offered drugs in Camden Market....
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