The London Borough of Camden () is a borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former metropolitan boroughs of Holborn, St Pancras and Hampstead.
To the south it shares with the City of Westminster parts of the West End, where it also borders the City of London. The cultural and commercial land uses in the south contrast with the bustling mixed-use districts such as Camden Town and Kentish Town in the centre and leafy residential areas around Hampstead Heath in the north. Well-known attractions include The British Museum, The British Library, the famous views from Parliament Hill, the London Zoo, the BT Tower, the converted Roundhouse entertainment venue, and Camden Market. As of 2021 it has a population of 210,136. Politically, its local authority is Camden London Borough Council.
History
The area of the modern borough had historically been part of the county of Middlesex. From 1856 the area was governed by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which was established to provide services across the metropolis of London.Metropolis Management Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c. 120) In 1889 the Metropolitan Board of Works' area was made the County of London.
From 1856 until 1900 the lower tier of local government within the metropolis comprised various parish vestries and district boards. The ancient parishes of Hampstead and St Pancras were each governed by their vestry. The various smaller parishes and territories to the south were grouped into the St Giles District and Holborn District, each governed by a district board. In 1900 the lower tier was reorganised into metropolitan boroughs, including the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead, the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras (each covering the parish of the same name) and the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn, covering the combined area of the former St Giles District and Holborn District (subject to some boundary adjustments with neighbours on its south-eastern edges).London Government Act 1899 (62 & 63 Vict. c. 14)
The London Borough of Camden was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963. It covered the combined area of the three metropolitan boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St Pancras, which were all abolished.Vision of Britain – Camden LB The initial Herbert Commission report recommended that the new borough consist of St Pancras and Hampstead, but Holborn was later added.
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.
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.Mills, A., Oxford Dictionary of London Place Names, (2001)
The transcribed diaries of William Copeland Astbury describe Camden and the surrounding areas in great detail from 1829 to 1848. The originals of the Astbury Diary are held in the Cheshunt Collection at Westminster College, Cambridge
There are 183 English Heritage blue plaques in the borough of Camden representing the many diverse personalities that have lived there.
Geography and economy
The area of the old parish and borough of Hampstead in the north-west includes Belsize Park and part of Kilburn. The old parish and borough of St Pancras, which occupies most of the modern borough, includes Camden Town, Kentish Town, Gospel Oak, Somers Town, King's Cross, Chalk Farm, Dartmouth Park, the core area of Fitzrovia and a part of Highgate.
In the south, the old Borough of Holborn was formed from the combined parish of Bloomsbury and St Giles, and most of the parish of Holborn (with the remaining part in the ancient Farringdon Without ward of the City of London).
The economy and land uses of the West EndAtkins, 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. and other southern parts of the borough reflect their more central location. Camden has the seventh largest economy in the UK 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. Camden Town Brewery is among the newer businesses that have thrived in the borough.
In the far south of the borough, Lincoln's Inn Fields is within 500 metres of the Thames. The northern part of the borough includes the less densely developed areas of Hampstead, Hampstead Heath and Kentish Town. There are a number of Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Camden. Neighbouring boroughs are the City of Westminster and the City of London to the south, Brent to the west of the originally Roman Watling Street (now the A5 Road), Barnet and Haringey to the north and Islington to the east. It covers all or part of the N1, N6, N7, N19, NW1, NW2, NW3, NW5, NW6, NW8, EC1, WC1, WC2, W1 and W9 postcode areas.
For planning policy purposes, the London Plan places Camden in the 'Central London' group of boroughs.
Governance and politics
The local authority is Camden Council, which meets at Camden Town Hall (formerly St Pancras Town Hall) in Judd Street in St Pancras, and has its headquarters at 5 Panrcas Square.
Borough councillors are elected every four years. Since May 2022 the electoral wards in Camden are:
Belsize Bloomsbury Camden Square Fortune Green Frognal Gospel Oak Hampstead Town Haverstock Highgate Holborn and Covent Garden Kentish Town North Kentish Town South Kilburn King's Cross Primrose Hill Regent's Park St Pancras and Somers Town West Hampstead South Hampstead Ward, formerly Swiss Cottage Ward
Greater London representation Since 2000, Camden forms part of the Barnet and Camden London Assembly constituency, represented by Anne Clarke of the Labour Party.
UK Parliament There are two parliamentary constituencies covering Camden: Hampstead and Highgate in the north, represented by Labour's Tulip Siddiq, and Holborn and St Pancras in the south, represented by Keir Starmer, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Demographics
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.
Following 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.
The 2001 census gave Camden a population of 198,000, an undercount that was later revised to 202,600.Camden Council – Camden Key Facts 2001–2016 The latest ONS projection puts the 2019 population at 270,000.
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.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.
Ethnicity The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents in the 2001 and 2011 census in Camden.
Ethnic groupYear2001 census2011 census2021 censusNumber%Number%Number% White: Total 144,896 73.17% 146,055 66.29%125,06459.6% White: British 104,390 52.72% 96,937 43.99%74,34835.4% White: Irish 9,149 4.62% 7,053 3.20%5,3252.5% White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller – – 167 0.08%1280.1%White: Roma––––9780.5% White: Other 31,357 15.84% 41,898 19.02%44,28521.1% Asian or Asian British: Total 24,021 12.13% 35,446 16.09%38,04218.1% Asian or Asian British: Indian 4,574 2.31% 6,083 2.76%6,9523.3% Asian or Asian British: Pakistani 1,250 0.63% 1,489 0.68%1,6100.8% Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi 12,569 6.35% 12,503 5.67%14,3566.8% Asian or Asian British: Chinese 3,470 1.75% 6,493 2.95%6,7283.2% Asian or Asian British: Other Asian 2,158 1.09% 8,878 4.03%8,3964.0% Black or Black British: Total 16,374 8.27% 18,060 8.20%18,8929.1% Black or Black British: African 11,795 5.96% 10,802 4.90%14,1916.8% Black or Black British: Caribbean 3,635 1.84% 3,496 1.59%2,7031.3% Black or Black British: Other Black 944 0.48% 3,762 1.71%1,9981.0% Mixed or British Mixed: Total 7,429 3.75% 12,322 5.59%13,9386.6% Mixed: White and Black Caribbean 1,654 0.84% 2,494 1.13%2,5581.2% Mixed: White and Black African 1,224 0.62% 1,800 0.82%2,0591.0% Mixed: White and Asian 1,983 1.00% 3,880 1.76%4,2432.0% Mixed: Other Mixed 2,568 1.30% 4,148 1.88%5,0782.4% Other: Total 5,300 2.68% 8,455 3.84%14,2006.8% Other: Arab – – 3,432 1.56%4,4172.1% Other: Any other ethnic group – – 5,023 2.28%9,7834.7% Ethnic minority: Total 53,124 26.83% 74,283 33.71%85,07240.4% Total 198,020 100% 220,338 100%210,136100%