The Camden Democracy Walk
A self-guided walk from Camden Town Hall to 5 Pancras Square
Produced by Camden Tour Guides Association on behalf of Camden Council June 2015
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CONTENT
Map
1. Camden Town Hall
2. 12 Mebledon Place
3. Statue of John Cartwright
4. Tiger House
5. The Place
6. New Hospital For Women
7. The Leather Works
8. Somers Town Coffee House
9. The Cock Tavern
10. Somers Town Community Sports Centre
11. Regent High School
12. Unity Mews
13. St. Pancras Gardens
14. Camley Street Nature Park
15. Granary Square
16. 5 Pancras Square
Thanks and acknowledgements
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This walk celebrates the 50th years of the London Borough of Camden -born in 1965 as a
result of the merger of three previous Metropolitan Borough Councils (St Pancras,
Hampstead and Holborn).
Directions are given in italics. Sights are in bold.
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The walk starts at Camden Town Hall in Judd Street, close to Kings Cross Underground
Station. This walk should take about an hour and a half to complete.
1. Camden Town Hall, for a better view cross Judd Street and view
from the other side of the road.
Camden Town Hall was completed in 1937 for St Pancras (the Coat of Arms above the
door is that of the old St Pancras Borough) and is built in Neo-Palladian style by architect
A J Thomas who worked with Sir Edwin Lutyens.
The building is the centre of Democracy in Camden, where Camden’s Mayor presides over
Council Meetings, and where Camden’s Cabinet and other committee meetings take
place. The public can attend the meetings to observe democracy in action.
The building has experienced many demonstrations, protests and the Red Flag was first
flown over the Town Hall by John Lawrence, St Pancras Labour Leader on May Day in
1958. One notable occupation was by homeless Bangladeshi families in 1984.
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2. 12 Mabledon Place continue by turning and walking East along
Bidborough Street, and turn left into Mabledon Place. Stop opposite
the small white house.
This used to be The Skinner’s Estate Office. Most of the
land on this side of the Euston Road is part of the private
Skinners Estate (originally there was a gate to prevent
access from the Euston Road). Before Councils emerged,
landowners like the Skinners controlled much of Camden.
The large houses we see in the next part of the walk were
built by James Burton for the Skinner’s Livery Company
from 1809-1820 on land left by Sir Andrew Judd in 1558 for
the maintenance of Tonbridge School in Kent.
Looking to the right the large building on the other
side of the Euston Road is the Hotel Pullman St
Pancras building. This was built by Camden Council
as a combination Library and Theatre named after
George Bernard Shaw who was elected an
independent councillor in the first St Pancras
Metropolitan Borough Council in 1900. The Shaw
Theatre still remains in use behind the hotel, and
used to be the base of the National Youth Theatre
(or NYT). Many famous names are associated with
the company including Daniel Craig, Daniel DayLewis, Helen Mirren and Tom Hollander.
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3. Statue of John Cartwright. Continue to walk down Mabledon
Place as it becomes Cartwright Gardens, and stop in front of the
statue of John Cartwright.
John Cartwright (1750-1824) was a Captain in the
Royal Navy, and a Major of the Nottingham Militia.
He lived and died at 37 Cartwright Gardens, and is
sometimes called the “Father of Reform”. Even
though a member of the establishment, he
campaigned for the Democratic rights we take for
granted, at a considerable personal risk (many of
his colleagues were imprisoned). His thinking was
fundamental for the Chartist movement which
sought six objectives (universal male suffrage,
secret ballots, removal of property qualifications for
MPs, payment of MPs, equal constituencies, and
regular elections).
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4. Tiger House. Walk down Cartwright Gardens, and then follow
the curve around the gardens and turn left into Burton Place. Turn
right into Burton Street and stop opposite at 39 Burton Street, also
called Tiger House.
This entrance to Tiger House is the site of the Burton
Street Hall built as a Baptist Church in 1811, and
demolished in 1937. It was used by social reformer Robert
Owen who held the first meeting of the London
Cooperative Society here. Although best known for
founding the Cooperative Society movement, Robert Owen
was also an educational reformer - promoting the novel
idea of educating infants.
The grand houses in Burton Street built by James Burton
look well cared for today. But the houses were under
threat of demolition in 1973. Camden Council bought the
houses, and for a number of years the council allowed the
Shortterm Community Housing company to let
accommodation to students, artists and musicians.
Members of the Pogues and the Sex Pistols lived here
during this time. We’re also standing outside the back of
Tavistock House now owned by the BMA - but built on the
site of a large house where the author and social reformer
Charles Dickens lived from 1851 to 1860.
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5. The Place. Continue walking up Burton Street, then left into
Dukes Road, and follow Dukes Road around to the right. Stop
opposite the red building
As you enter Dukes Place we leave The Skinners Estate, and move into the Duke of
Bedford’s land.
You passed Woburn Walk which was built by Thomas Cubitt for the Duke of Bedford in
1822, and can claim to be one of the first “shopping malls” in the world.
The Place (originally the drill hall of The Artists
Rifles built by Robert Edis in 1889) is the entrance
to one of Camden’s many arts venues - in this
case, a centre for Dance which includes a Dance
Theatre and The Contemporary Dance School.
The Artists Rifles was the equivalent to a modern
territorial army unit. The members included famous
artists like William Morris, Holman Hunt, John
Everett Millais, John Nash and Noel Coward and
have fought in many engagements, winning 8 VCs
since their creation.
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6. New Hospital for Women. Walk up Dukes Road to the main
Euston Road. Cross over the road using the traffic lights on the left
hand side of the junction. Please be careful crossing the road, as
there is no pedestrian light here. Move a little down Church Way,
and stop to look back across the road at St Pancras Parish Church.
The St Pancras Parish Church is the Civic Church for
Camden. The parish church in Greek Revival style was
completed in 1822, to the designs of father and son
builders, William and Henry Inwood who went on to
build most of the Parish Churches in the borough of St
Pancras. Note the unusual Tribunes with caryatids
based on those on the Erechtheum in Athens, holding
extinguished torches and empty jugs (as this was the
entrance to the burial vault – today an interesting art
gallery). Well before the creation of Borough Councils, Democracy in Camden started with
the Parish Vestries, where from 1831 ratepayers voted for representatives to manage local
services. In 2015 the church was the venue for a Labour Party Primary election where
Keir Starmer was selected as the Labour party candidate.
If you now look over Church way you can see a large red building on the corner. This was
the New Hospital for Women, later renamed the Elizabeth
Garrett Anderson Hospital after the founder, the first Woman
to qualify as a Doctor in England. It moved here in 1890 and
is built in “Wrennaissance style” to the designs of architect
John Brydon. It was sited here because of the appalling
levels of child mortality in Somers Town, where nearly 1 in 5
babies died before their first birthday. Health is still a major
issue for the borough today, Men in the more deprived areas
of the borough live for 11 years less than those in the most
affluent areas. Today this building is part of the Unison
Headquarters building and contains a small museum that is
well worth visiting. Unison has strong links with the Council,
as it has over 3000 members in Camden, and about 75% are
employed by the council or subcontractors of the council.
Unison is one of many Trade Unions that are based in this
area
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7. The Leather Works. Continue walking down Church Way on the
left hand side, carefully crossing Grafton Place on the corner, and
crossing Church Way to stand by The Leather Works Gate.
The Leather Works gate is now the
entrance to rented offices, but this is where
the famous Connolly Leather Factory used to
operate from. They provided Leather to
provide the seats for the House of Commons
and the House of Lords, and also the Leather
for Rolls Royces, Bentleys and many other
car makers.
The Churchway Estate consists of three large
blocks of red brick flats built in arts and craft style,
Wellesley House, Seymour House and Winsham
House by the London County Council (led by W E
Riley) and completed in 1901. Somers Town was
very crowded, and the building of the Midland
Railway to St Pancras led to the destruction of a
large number of houses. People displaced by the
railway tended to move in with neighbours, and by
1900 Somers Town was overcrowded with very poor
housing.
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8. Somers Town Coffee House. Continue down Church Way,
cross over, and turn down the narrow passageway on the right also
called Church Way. Turn left down Chalton Street, and stop
opposite the Somers Town Coffee House.
As you pass down the passageway you pass the
Mosjid or Islamic Cultural & Education Centre, a
Bangladeshi Mosque. This area has been the home
of many different waves of migration. One of the
most recent is the Bengali families who were
housed here by Camden Council in the 1980s.
Opposite you can see the Somers Town Coffee House which was rebuilt in 1928, but is
close to the site of the original Coffee House. This was established in the early 1800s
when this area saw the first wave of migration as a result of the French Revolution. Many
french exiles moved into Somers Town and built institutions including a school and a
church (which are still functioning today). They were joined by Spanish exiles in the
1840s, and then by Irish who first came to build the canals and railways.
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9. The Cock Tavern. Continue travelling up Chalton Street, to the
corner with Phoenix Road. Find a place just in left in Phoenix Road
where you can see the Cock Tavern.
The Cock Tavern is the last survivor of the many pubs
that used to line Chalton Street, and is important to the
community - both as a local, but also because the
room upstairs has been used for many years for
community meetings, trade union meetings and for
many protest and left-wing causes. The pub has
recently been under threat of conversion into housing,
but community action led to the pub being declared an
Asset of Community Value by the Council which gives
some protection against change of use.
Alongside Phoenix Road you can see Oakshott
Court. This is one of the 47 different housing
schemes throughout the borough initiated by Camden
Council between its formation in 1965 and 1973.
Camden’s Chief Architect was Sydney Cook, and he
led a team of young architects (in this case Peter
Tabori) sometimes called ‘The Camden Crew’.
Sydney Cook didn’t like tower blocks, and the team
developed a very distinctive style of housing which can
be seen throughout the borough, low rise, often
stepped, larger rooms, and each unit provided with separate front doors to the street, and
schemes set in areas that have plenty of green space. Oakeshott Court is named after
local councillor Bill Oakshott, and was one of the last of the schemes to be completed in
1976. Council house building in Camden has recently restarted as a result of the
Community Investment Programme - an innovative 25 year plan that involved building new
houses, redeveloping schools and community assets, funded by selling off surplus land.
This site is also the site of The Polgyon a very unusual housing development by Jacob
Leroux in 1791. This was a set of 16 pairs of houses set in a polygon shape with a garden
in the middle. Originally destined as upmarket housing, it was the home of Philosopher
William Godwin and his wife Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary was an author and political
thinker, famous for the “Vindication of the Rights of Women” which could be said to have
started the fight for female emancipation. Tragically Mary died here in 1797, giving birth to
her second daughter Mary. Mary, later Mary Shelley is best known as the author of
Frankenstein. .
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10. Somers Town Community Sports Centre. Continue by
crossing Phoenix Road, and continue down Charlton Street. Cross
Polygon Road, and Aldenham Street, and stop outside St
Anthony’s Flats, opposite the building labelled STSCS
Somers Town has a strong community, perhaps partly
due to the community facilities supported by the
council. On your left you can see the Somers Town
Youth Centre (STYC) which is a state of the art centre
including gym, art room, snooker and pool tables,
badminton courts and a cafe and internet room. One
the right you can see the Somers Town Community
Sports Centre, recently refurbished in collaboration
with UCL, and providing indoor courts for 5 a side
football, basketball, table tennis, martial arts, and a
studio for dance and gymnastics. This centre is used by the community, the local school
and students from UCL. A third community organisation the Somers Town Community
Association is in nearby Ossulton Street, and includes nursery provision, community cafe
with lunch club for elder people, plus training and meeting rooms.
Turning around you can admire St Anthony’s Flats
completed in 1938 - one of the many housing
developments in the area created by the St Pancras
Housing Association (SPHA) which was established
by Father Basil Jellicoe, a curate who came to this
area in the 1920s, was horrified by the standard of
housing in Somers Town and campaigned to built
decent housing. The SPHA flats are large and airy,
and were decorated by artists - even the washing
lines had pottery finals on the tops (not visible here but the British Library has some on display in the public areas
Father Basil Jellicoe also took over and ran various
pubs in the area as community centres including The
Anchor pub on the other side of the road, now
converted to housing. He banned spirits, and laid on
cheap dinners to attract families. Prince George, the
future King visited the pub in 1930,
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11. Regent High School. Continue walking down Chalton Street,
cross Bridgeway Street and Cranleigh Street and stop opposite the
School buildings.
The Regent High School is a
Camden Council school, and recently
completed a major redevelopment
costing £25m including the provision
of new areas, a theatre, drama
workshops and studios, a large library
and new science facilities. There are
800 pupils, and partnerships with
UCL, Rothschilds, and The Francis
Crick Institute. About 3/4 of the
school intake is eligible for the pupil
premium. Nasir Ali, OBE attended this
school when it was called the South Camden Community School, and when elected Mayor
of Camden in 2003 became the UK’s youngest Mayor, and also the first Bangladeshi and
Muslim Mayor.
The older frontages of the school include the LSB monogram for the London School Board
- a body that built schools all over London. They built Medburn School here in 1877
(named after a now vanished road). The current school can be traced back to this earlier
building. Camden as an authority has only been responsible for primary and secondary
education since the abolition of the London School Board’s successor the Inner London
Education Authorities in 1990.
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12. Unity Mews. Walk to the end of Chalton Street, and turn right
down the passageway (also called Chalton Street), cross
Charrington Street and stop just before Unity Mews.
Unity Mews is a block of modern
housing (built by the SPHA), on the site
of The Unity Theatre. The converted
chapel opened in 1937 was renown for
over 40 years as a centre for left-wing
drama. Many really famous actors
started in this theatre including Michael
Gambon, Bob Hoskins and Warren
Mitchell. Lionel Bart directed his first
musical here, an agitprop version of
Cinderella. Paul Robeson the well
known American singer and civil rights
champion appeared here as an unpaid member of the cast in 1938. Camden still has
many theatres. and the council has a unit which promotes Art and Entertainment in the
area.
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13. St Pancras Gardens. Continue ahead, cross Goldington
Crescent, and turn left until you get to Crowndale Road. Cross
Crowndale Road, Royal College Street and St Pancras Way using
the pedestrian crossings, and continue down Pancras Road until
you get to St Pancras Gardens. Turn left into the first entrance,
bear left past the large monument (keeping it to you right). You
come to a circle of pathways - take the one that aims at the back
entrance to the Gardens. Stop before Mary Woolstonecraft’s tomb
which is the nearest of a group of two tombs standing alone on the
left hand side of the path.
As we crossed Crowndale Road we passed Goldington
Buildings. This was built as housing for the “working
class” by the St Pancras Metropolitan Borough and
completed in 1902. The playwright George Bernard Shaw
was one of the first elected members of the Council and is
said to have lobbied for these flats. It is now managed by
the Origin Housing Association.
St Pancras Gardens was created in 1877 from two burial
grounds which closed in 1855. You can see the church of
Old St Pancras through the trees - this is a very early
church built on the shores of the River Fleet (now under
the road running past the gardens), and may date back as
a religious site to the C6th.
The burial grounds covered a larger area, truncated by the railway which cut
through the graveyard in 1863. Thomas Hardy the author, at that time
training to be an architect was given the job of supervising the removal and
reburial of the bodies. Many famous people were buried in the graveyard
(tours of the churchyard can be provided - ask at the church). Mary
Wollstonecraft who we met at the Polygon earlier in the walk is
commemorated in the Godwin family vault (she was initially buried here
when she died in 1797, but her body was moved to Bournemouth in 1851).
Her daughter Mary Godwin courted Percy Bysshe Shelley by walking
through the gardens, and they came to a mutual understanding over her
mother’s gave.
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Now continue the path around to the left, and stop in front of the St
Pancras Coroner’s Court.
The St Pancras Coroners Court was built in 1886 by
architect Frederick Eggar, (it is said he owned a brick
business and wanted to show off his wares) and is erected
on higher ground originally used for the reburial of bodies
exhumed when the railway cut through the burial grounds.
The local Coroner investigates deaths across North East
London, not just in Camden. But many high profile deaths
have been covered here including the 31 Kings Cross
Underground fire victims who died in 1987. It took 16 years
of work to finally identify the last unknown victim.
The Borough is also responsible for the operation of the next
door recently modernised St Pancras Public Mortuary was
built in 2015 by PaulMurphyArchitects. The Mortuary stores
bodies and undertakes autopsies. It handles around 600
bodies each year - including people who die in the City of
London.
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14. Camley Street Nature Park. Cut through between the Corners
Court and the Morgue and take the steps down to Camley Street.
Cross the road carefully using the traffic island to your left and then
turn right and go under the bridge. Stop outside the gates of
Camley Street Natural Park. Alternatively, if you are unable to use
stairs, then return through the Gardens to the entrance, and turn
left. The road bears left under the railway bridge. Travel under the
bridge (this is still Pancras Road), and turn left into Camley Street.
Cross Camley Street, turn left, to reach the entrance to Camley
Street Natural Park.
Note after you pass under the bridge the St Pancras Cruising Club founded in 1958 on
the Regents Canal and using an old British Waterways Board workshop building. There is
a dry dock, and the club is very popular with Narrow Boat owners, and home to about 50
boats.
The Camley Street Natural Park is another example of local democracy. The site was
acquired by the Greater London Council with the intention of creating a coach park here.
The local residents persuaded the Greater London Council (and Ken Livingstone, the exCamden Councillor who by then was the Leader of the GLC) to convert it into a nature
park. The park is a delightful supporting many plants, birds and animals, including
Kingfishers.
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15. Granary Square. Continue down Camley Street, and turn left
into Goods Way. Pass the Green wall on your left, and stop where
you have a good view of the canal and the steps leading up to
Granary Square.
As you turn into Goods Way, we are entering the Kings Cross Central
development. The land in the area is owned by a consortium of
property companies and has been developed and is managed by
Argent. The site is 67 acres in size, and when completed will have 50
new buildings, around 2,000 new homes, 20 new streets and 10 new
public squares. The plan (developed in conjunction with Camden’s
Planning Department) has provided lots of public space, and the
Green Wall you are passing is a good example of the effort to promote
different species of plants and animals, and provide very high levels of
sustainability across the site.
If you look at Granary Square you can also see
how the development has maintained the industrial
heritage of the area. The Granary Building was
completed in 1852 by Lewis Cubitt the same
builder who later built Kings Cross Railway station.
This was part of a complex of buildings that made
up the main goods station served by road, rail and
canal services. It worked seven days a week, 24
hours a day, bringing food, grain and coal into
London, and shipping other products North. The
main building is now the home of the University of
the Arts. If you have the time, do visit the Visitors Centre which is sited to the left hand
side of the building.
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16. 5 Pancras Square. Cross Goods Way, turn right down King’s
Boulevard, and take the first turning on the right which leads
through a passageway into Pancras Square. Stop where you can
see 5 Pancras Square.
The walk ends at 5 Pancras Square. This is now home to
the majority of Council employees. The building designed
by Bennetts Associations opened in 2014, with the aim of
reducing money by centralising the staff in a low operating
cost building built to the highest environmental standards.
The cost of the building is covered by selling the vacated
council premises. Note the Mark Titchner light box
installation at the top of the building - the motto “not for self
but for all” is a translation of the latin motto on the Borough
Coat of Arms. By the door you also have a good example
of the logo for Camden adopted in 1965 and designed by
Main Wolff & Partners. The four pairs of hands represent
voting, giving, receiving and unity.
If the building is open then you can visit to check out the cafe, the library and sports
facilities and there are also toilets available as well. If not, continue to the bottom of
Pancras Square, where there is an entrance to Kings Cross Underground, and you can
also access the facilities available around the station.
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If you have enjoyed this self-guided walk, you might like to visit camdenguides.com and
check out the guided walks that are available in the Camden area.
Many thanks to the London Borough of Camden for commissioning this walk, the Camden
History Society for the two books “Streets of St Pancras, Somers Town and Railway
Lands” edited by Steven Denford and Peter Woodford, 2002 and “Streets East of
Bloomsbury” edited by Steven Denford and David A Hayes, 2008. The maps and plans
are based on OpenStreetMap mapping provided under the Open Database License.
Images are (c) by members of Camden Tour Guides Association.
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