It was opened on June 22, 1907
The station gets particularly busy at weekends with tourists going to Camden markets, in fact on Sunday afternoons you can exit at Camden Town station but not enter to prevent the platforms from becoming too full
Under the station there is a real air raid shelter. Many stations were used as shelters during WWII, but only 8 stations have actual shelters
When the line was built it had to pass exactly under the streets, otherwise they would have had to pay for access to the owners of the land on which the various houses stood. The streets here are narrow so the Northern Line around here has one platform directly above the other, to take up less space.
The name Camden comes from William Camden who was a famous historian and teacher in Queen Elizabeth’s time. He had a cottage in Surrey which was bought years later by a family called the Pratts.
One of the Pratts rose to prominence and was made a baron, he decided to take the name of Lord Camden after the name of the house where he lived.
Lord Camden had land north of London, in what was then still open countryside. In 1791 he had 1400 houses built and the district was immediately called Camden Town.
Initially the Camden Town station it was part of the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway which later became the Northern Line
Here the Northern Line splits in two, one part (passing under the Chalk Farm Road) going to Edgware, the other continuing on to High Barnet and passing under the Kentish Town Road. To the south it divides into two parts: one passing through Bank and one passing Charing Cross. For this reason Camden Town is one of the most complex stations on the London Underground.
There has been talk of rebuilding the station for years unfortunately to do so London Underground believed it was necessary to demolish the current Camden station and all the nearby buildings including Camden Market, the legendary Electric Ballroom and even a church.
Clearly this idea is not very welcome, in fact modern style buildings would spoil the atmosphere a lot. This plan had been cancelled, but we are in the process of rebuilding, but they assure us that this time they won’t tear down half of Camden to do it. Just a little.
Very close to Camden Town Station is Kentish Town Station, which has been closed for a long time. You can still see it if you pay attention while travelling on the line.
