Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
3
If you carry on from Mornington Crescent, at the top of Eversholt Street, a point left in
Chapter One, you find yourself beyond Cobden's statue in Camden High Street, in the
centre of a rich and strange civilisation. Camden Town was laid out at the end of the eight-
eenth century, and I can never go there without thinking of that apocalyptic description
of the railway constructions in
Dombey and Son
. That Dickens did not exaggerate in the
least is proved by the drawings by J.C. Bourne made during the construction of the cut-
tings and embankments from Euston to Chalk Farm and beyond. Some of the houses, then
only recently built, are shown on the edge of the earthworks, and there are hordes of men
and horses, masses of wood and metal and confusion everywhere - exactly as described
by Dickens. Camden Town, like Rome, has its catacombs; an extensive area underlying the
Camden goods yard is honeycombed with them. The goods yard lies west of Camden Town
in Chalk Farm Road, and is of unique interest as, besides the tunnels, there is a remarkable
memorial to the early railway age in the shape of the Round House. The tunnels belong to
the early railway period. Glistening damp steals down the walls. Going through the pas-
sages, as can be imagined from the illustration, is an uncanny experience; it is like walking
into a drawing by Piranesi. Near by are the old stables, used by Gilbeys; only a few railway
horses are left here. The tunnels were used for moving the horses to and from their quar-
ters, and ancient notices remain at the entrance. One reads: 'Horses passing through this
tunnel must be led by the person in charge of them. Any person neglecting this rule will
be discharged.' Another, more sinister, reads: 'Any person found committing a nuisance
near the entrance door of the bonded stores or in any part of this tunnel will be prosecuted.
By order.' I like that delightful phrase, 'committing a nuisance', and also the more direct,
if ungrammatical, version which simply says, 'Commit no nuisance'. The latter is a threat
frequently painted on old walls and alleyways in the dock area. But who, I wonder, would
want to commit a nuisance
near the entrance door
of a bonded store, and why qualify it by
'near'?
