Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Camden Lock Market:
This huge, trendy arts-and-crafts festival is divided into three
areas, each with its own vibe (but all of them fresh and funky). The whole complex sprawls
around an old-fashioned, still-functioning lock (used mostly for leisure boats) and its retro-
chic, yellow-brick industrial buildings. The main market, set alongside the picturesque
canal, features a mix of shops and stalls selling boutique crafts and artisanal foods. The
market on the opposite side of Chalk Farm Road is edgier, with cheap ethnic food stalls,
lots of canalside seating, and punk crafts. The Stables, a sprawling, incense-scented com-
plex, is decorated with fun statues of horses and squeezed into tunnels under the old rail
bridge just behind the main market. It's a little lowbrow and wildly creative, with cheap
clothes, junk jewelry, and loud music (daily 10:00-18:00, busiest on weekends, Tube:
Chalk Farm, bus #24 heads from Pimlico to Victoria Station to Trafalgar Square and then
straight up to Camden—before continuing on to Hampstead Heath, tel. 020/7485-7963,
Avoid the tacky, crowded area between the market and the Camden Town Tube station
(which bills itself as “The Camden Market,” but lacks the real one's canalside charm) by
getting off at the Chalk Farm stop; better yet, consider arriving via a scenic waterbus ride
from Little Venice (tel. 020/7482-2660,
www.londonwaterbus.com
)
.
