According to Enid Wistrich, who was a member of Hampstead Council at the time, the name "Camden" was the idea of Alderman Room, the Leader of Hampstead Council, and Mr Wilson, the Town Clerk, while travelling in a taxi through Camden Town. The name "Fleet" had also been suggested, after the underground river that flowed through the three boroughs, but that was rejected as the river was little more than a sewer. Other suggestions included "Penhamborn", 'Bornhamcras" and "Hohampion". Government guidelines for the naming of the new boroughs suggested that the chosen name should be short and simple, and ideally one that was generally associated with the centre of the new Borough. The name "Camden" met those criteria.[6]
The name "Camden Town" was derived from Camden Place, the seat of Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden who had owned and developed land in the area in the 1790s.[7][8]
The transcribed diaries of William Copeland Astbury, recently made available, describe Camden and the surrounding areas in great detail from 1829 to 1848.[9][10]
The borough was formed in 1965 by the merger of the metropolitan boroughs of St Pancras, Hampstead and Holborn. The first two of these had their origins in medieval Ancient Parishes of the same name, while Holborn was formed by a union of much smaller units.
The economy and land uses of the West End[13][14][15] and other southern parts of the borough reflect their more central location. Camden has the seventh largest economy in the UK[11] with a number of major companies headquartered in the borough; Google is in the process of completing a major headquarter building in King's Cross.[16]Camden Town Brewery is among the newer businesses that have thrived in the borough.
Camden Town Hall is located in Judd Street in St Pancras. Camden London Borough Council was controlled by the Labour Party continuously from 1971 until the 2006 election, when the Liberal Democrats became the largest party. In 2006, two Green Cllrs, Maya de Souza and Adrian Oliver, were elected (to Highgate Ward) and were the first Green Party councillors in Camden. In 1985 when the borough was rate-capped, the Labour leadership joined the rebellion in which it declared its inability to set a budget in an unsuccessful attempt to force the Government to allow higher spending. Camden was the fourth to last council to drop out of the campaign, doing so in the early hours of 6 June.
Between 2006 and 2010 Labour lost two seats to the Liberal Democrats through by-elections, in Kentish Town and Haverstock wards. A Labour Councillor in Haverstock ward also defected to the Liberal Democrats in February 2009. The Conservatives also lost two seats, one to the Liberal Democrats in Hampstead, and one to the Green Party, Alexander Goodman, in Highgate, taking the total number of Green Party Councillors to three. At the local elections on 6 May 2010 the Labour party regained full control of Camden council.
The organisation's staff are led by the Chief Executive who is currently Jenny Rowlands. The organisation is divided into three directorates:
Supporting People
Supporting Communities
Corporate Services
The directorates are headed by an Executive Director who reports directly to the Chief Executive. Each directorate is divided into a number of divisions headed by a Director. They, in turn, are divided into groups which are themselves divided into services. This is a similar model to most local government in London.
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough were already developed and had a total population of 96,795. This continued to rise swiftly throughout the 19th century as the district became built up, reaching 270,197 in the middle of the century. When the railways arrived the rate of population growth slowed, for while many people were drawn in by new employment, others were made homeless by the new central London termini and construction of lines through the district. The population peaked at 376,500 in the 1890s, after which official efforts began to clear the overcrowded slums around St Pancras and Holborn.
After World War II, further suburban public housing was built to rehouse the many Londoners made homeless in the Blitz, and there was an exodus from London towards the new towns under the Abercrombie Plan for London (1944). As industry declined during the 1970s the population continued to decline, falling to 161,100 at the start of the 1980s. It has now begun to rise again with new housing developments on brownfield sites and the release of railway and gas work lands around Kings Cross. A 2017 study found that the eviction rate of 6 per 1,000 renting households in Camden is the lowest rate in London.[20]
Population pyramid of the Borough of Camden in 2021
The 2001 census gave Camden a population of 198,000, an undercount that was later revised to 202,600.[21] The latest ONS projection puts the 2019 population at 270,000.[22]
On 20 May 1999, the Camden New Journal newspaper documented 'Two Camdens' syndrome as a high-profile phenomenon differentiating the characteristics of education services in its constituencies. In 2006, Dame Julia Neuberger's book reported similar variation as a characteristic of Camden's children's health services. Her insider's view was corroboration – in addition to the 2001 "Inequalities" report by Director of Public Health Maggie Barker of "stark contrasts in" health and education opportunities – of earlier similar Audit Commission findings and a verification/update of the 1999 CNJ report.[23]
Ethnicity
The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents in the 2001 and 2011 census in Camden.
The Borough of Camden is home to a large number of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. Over recent years, a number of significant institutions have moved into the borough or are planning to do so. The included Central Saint Martins, the Francis Crick Institute, as well as the planned move by Moorfields Eye Hospital, recently unveiled as Project Oriel.[33]
Camden is policed by the Metropolitan Police Service. There are two police stations across the borough, situated at Holborn and Kentish Town. There are various other contact points around the borough including West Hampstead, Greenland Road, Highgate Road, Station House (Swiss Cottage), West End Lane, Hampstead Town Hall and Kingsway College. All locations have varying opening hours with Kentish Town Police Station open to the public on a 24-hour basis.
Hampstead Heath, situated within the London Borough of Camden and managed by the City of London Corporation, has its own Constabulary who deal with everyday incidents on the Heath, however, all serious criminal offences are passed to the Metropolitan Police to investigate.
With a large London Underground network and major railway stations such as King's Cross, St Pancras and Euston, Camden also has a much larger presence of British Transport Police (BTP) than many other London boroughs. BTP are responsible for policing Great Britain's railway network.
London Fire Brigade
The area has three fire stations: Euston, Kentish Town and West Hampstead and they are operated by London Fire Brigade in the borough of Camden. None of these fire stations are home to any specialist units; only pumping appliances and a rescue tender.[34][35]
Public libraries
Camden is the home of the British Library. In addition, Camden has numerous libraries which include:
As well as a number of community libraries including Keats community library.
Transport
View of the railway bridge over Camden High St. which carries the North London LineSt Pancras International – home to Eurostar trainsKing's Cross St Pancras tube station served by the most tube lines on the network
There are no motorways in the borough, and few stretches of dual carriageway road, but the borough has great strategic transport significance to London, due to presence of three of the capital's most important rail termini, which are lined up along the Euston Road.
The position of the railway termini on Euston Road, rather than in a more central position further south, is a result of the influential recommendations of the 1846 Royal Commission on Metropolitan Railway Termini that sought to protect the West End districts a short distance south of the road.[36]
Since 14 November 2007 when St Pancras International became the new terminus of Eurostar, a major regeneration of the area has occurred with the King's Cross Central development happening behind the station.
Thameslink route services serve St Pancras, Kentish Town and West Hampstead Thameslink stations. Currently the Thameslink network is undergoing a major expansion project called the Thameslink Programme. This will link more places in Southern England to the borough and to the East of England. While some services on the Great Northern network, which currently terminate at King's Cross will be diverted onto the Thameslink network, all work is due to be complete by 2016.[37]
Underground
The London Borough of Camden is served by 18 London Underground stations and 8 of the 11 lines.
The proposed High Speed 2 railway line to northern England is intended to terminate at Euston Station.[38] The proposed Crossrail 2 line, (originally referred to as the Chelsea–Hackney line) would serve Euston and Tottenham Court Road underground stations. The increase in passengers at Euston as a result of the proposed High Speed 2 services is a major driver of the proposals.[39]
All bus services are operated by Transport for London. Buses serve every suburb in the borough.
Statistics
The 2011 census found that the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: underground, metro, light rail, tram, 21.5% of all residents aged 16–74; on foot, 9.2%; bus, minibus or coach, 9.2%; driving a car or van, 6.3%; work mainly at or from home, 5.2%; train, 4.1%; bicycle, 4.1%.[41]
The census also found that 61% of households had no car, 32% had one car and 7% of households had 2 or more cars. There were an estimated 46,000 cars belonging to Camden residents."Camden Borough Profile"(PDF).
Speed limit
From 16 December 2013, Camden Council introduced a borough-wide speed limit of 20 miles per hour (32 km/h), except on Transport for Londonred routes.[42][43] This is to make roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
^Wistrich, Enid (1972). Local government reorganisation – the first years of Camden;. London: London Borough of Camden. pp. 30–32. ISBN0901389137.
^Mills, A., Oxford Dictionary of London Place Names, (2001)
^Walford, E. (1878). "Camden Town and Kentish Town". Old and New London. Vol. 5. pp. 309–324.
^Orchard, Stephen (ed.). The diary of William Copeland Astbury (1783–1868). The originals of the Astbury Diary are held in the Cheshunt Collection at Westminster College, Cambridge
^Atkins, Peter J. "How the West End was won: the struggle to remove street barriers in Victorian London." Journal of Historical Geography 19.3 (1993): 265.
^How the West End was won: the struggle to remove street barriers in Victorian London. Atkins, P J. Journal of Historical Geography; London Vol. 19, Iss. 3, (Jul 1, 1993): 265.
^see the DFES Children Act report (2000); The Health Divide by Voluntary Action Camden; Health Inequalities in Camden Maggie Barker, a public Health Report; "Seen But Not Heard" an Audit Commission report based on research carried out mainly in Camden; and The Moral State We're In by Dame Julia Neuberger, former chair of Camden Community Health Services NHS Trust, et al.
^"Religion - 2021 census". Office of National Statistics. 29 November 2022. Archived from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
^"Camden Borough Profile"(PDF). London Fire Brigade. 2007. Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 October 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2008. London Fire Brigade – Camden Profile
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