Hot & Sunny Camden
On the hottest day of the year, at around 33ºC, I ended up in Camden. Oddly enough, it wasn't as crowded as expected. I even thought that had been an incident when I originally arrived. I haven't used the actual Camden Town tube station in years. Rather I approached on foot from the Tufnell Park end and noticed the Camden High Street had been blocked off for vehicles, effectively pedestrianising it.
I also didn't notice any buskers in front of the tube station as there usually would be. Buskers, or someone preaching, about some religion or the other, with very loud speakers. The guy usually playing music on a boom box next to the station was also mssing.
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It turns out that there was some kind of festival going on. When I looked it up quickly online, it said there was some kind of "festival of colours" happening. IRL though, I didn't see any such indication. I mean, Camden is already colourful so any additional colour would have gone unnoticed.
There was a read carpet and a stage. I watched for about 5 minutes to see what was going on. I saw a couple of men that I suppose I should have recognised, but didn't. They had that used-to-be-famous look to them, like if you were to bump into a member of Boney M or Kris Kross today. Actually that did happen to me about a decade ago, and I had the exact same experience.
It was blazing hot. That may have contributed to the relatively low crowds. Don't get me wrong, it was still crowded compared to normal places, but for Camden standards, I'd say there were only about a quarter of the usual foot traffic. It also appeared as though I was there a little earlier than other people. Many of the food halls in the newly refurbished part hadn't opened yet. Even some of the ground floor food stalls were just opening as well. I don't know why, it was past midday. I'm sure I've been to Camden a lot earlier than that before and everything was wide open. Perhaps it was special rules for the event.
There was a part of Camden Market that burnt down some years ago. It had been cordoned off for a while and rebuilt. It was my first time going to that part after it re-opened even though I'd been to Camden Market several times since. I just never ventured to that part of the market. I have to say, it does look different and a little too modern and compartmentalised for my liking. I prefer the old Camden Market. Shame about the fire.
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I don't know if it was the hot weather, and people's lack of respect for the sun, but I saw quite a few people passed out on the floor for whatever reason. One particular one was being attended to by fellow punk friends hopefully waiting for actual paramedics. It may have been drugs though - you never know. A more gruesome one happened outside the Sainsbury's supermarket near Camden. A scuffle broke out between two men and one of them hit the other one on the head with a glass bottle, leaving him in agony on the floor. His blood spattered everywhere and had to bee hurriedly cleaned by Sainsbury's staff while waiting for the emergency services to arrive.
I struck up a conversation with two men in front of the supermarket that were there seeking charity donations for the homeless. We bemoaned how things have gone down the drain in London, but noted that, ironically, the whole Camden to Kings Cross area had actually improved significantly. "Back in the day" it would have been crowded with pimps, hookers and drug dealers and drug takers alike. The aforementioned scuffle would have been a common sight in the area decades ago.
As I headed away from the area I heard the siren of a police car as it arrived and a singular police woman jumped out. Ironically enough, when I had passed by the same supermarket earlier on my way to Camden, and stopped to grab a bottle of cold water, there were five police vans parked there with a few of them gathered around it. I hope they injured fella go the help he needed. He really looked in a bad way.
Peace & Love,
Adé