Things you didn't know about... Camden Town

Camden Town is only 200 years old, and is close to Kent
Camden Town didn't exist until the 1790s, when Charles Pratt, the Earl of Camden, leased out land for building 1,400 houses. He was titled Earl of Camden after the family seat of Camden Place in Chislehurst, Kent.

Famous French poets lived in Camden Town
The great French poets and lovers, Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine stayed in Royal College Street, Camden Town, in 1873. Later that year, in Brussels, Verlaine injured Rimbaud with a revolver shot and they never met again.

Mother of Frankenstein started life in Camden Town
Mary Shelley, author of the Gothic horror story Frankenstein and the wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, was born in Camden Town.

Dickens and Orwell were Camden Town residents
Charles Dickens' family moved to Camden when he was 10. South Camden featured in Oliver Twist, and in A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit's family live in Camden Town. George Orwell, journalist and author of 1984 and Animal Farm, lived in Camden in the 1930s.

Camden Town has a serious rock 'n' roll heritage
Camden has been a centre for rock 'n' roll fans since 1966, when Pink Floyd appeared in front of 2,000 people. Camden Town was the birthplace of Britpop, with bands such as Blur, Pulp, and Oasis all having links there.

Camden Lock Market is the largest street market in the UK
Camden Lock Market, which opened in 1972, is now the largest street market in the UK, attracting some 500,000 visitors a week. The market sits on Regents Canal, which opened in 1820. Until 1971 it was the site of TE Dingwall's Timber Yard, which took wood from larger river boats and distributed it around the country on the canals.

Top music venue is former train turntable
The Grade II listed Roundhouse was originally built in 1846 as a steam engine turntable, but after only two decades it became too small for the growing size of locomotives.

The Ripper of Camden Town?
Between 1905 and 1913 in Camden Town, Walter Sickert painted his famous series of female nudes, including The Camden Town Murder, which shocked the British art establishment with its bleak subject matter. It's one reason some have claimed that Sickert was actually Jack the Ripper.

Camden Town was once awash with gin
After Walter and Alfred Gilbey established themselves as London wine merchants in 1851, they built a gin distillery in Camden Town.