Shopfronts of Camden High Street, London
Jake Davies
With its collection of bizarre and funky three dimensional facades, walking along the High Street of Camden in north London is like visiting a free, open-air Pop Art museum.
Camden has long been a popular destination for visitors to London as well as locals for shopping, eating, and nightlife. Alongside the canal, Camden Lock Market has plenty of stalls specializing in crafts, books, clothing, and jewelry.
Camden Lock Village caters mostly to clothes shoppers, as does the nearby Camden Market, Inverness Street Market still has a few vegetable stalls but mostly sells souvenirs, and Stables Market specializes is antiques, and household goods.
All these locations have plenty of eateries and street vendors selling food from all over the world. The area also has several drinking establishments as well as live music venues such as The Barfly, Koko and the Electric Ballroom. Then, of course, there is the High Street itself with its eye-catching signage.
Shop Signs
The use of visual signs to mark shops and establishments dates back thousands of years. For example, the Greeks and Romans both used stone and clay objects to indicate shops and workshops etc. A visual image was far more useful in communicating when the majority of the population was illiterate.
A classic example from England would be pub signs, whose origin date back to a law passed by Richard III in the late 14th Century. A painting of a ship and a castle or a fox being chased by hounds makes obvious the name of the pub or tavern.
As commerce expanded and towns in Britain grew in size a board cut into the shape of a cow silhouette would make clear the location of a butcher for instance, a giant tooth for a dentist, and, of course, the three golden spheres that indicates a pawn shop.
In the twentieth century consumerism rose to dizzying heights and the technology of signage grew to include such things as neon. The shopping streets of cities became a cacophony of signage, such as Piccadilly Circus in London, Times Square in New York, or the iconic streetscapes of Las Vegas or Tokyo. The art of the sign became less one of indicating what your premises sold, but rather simply standing out and being noticed.
3D Signs
The giant 3D signs of Camden High Street achieve both functions, indicating what the premises have to sell, but also simply standing out and drawing the eye.
The signs started to appear in the 1990's, around the time that the area started to become a mainstream shopping district. Until then it had very much been a center for counter culture, but many businesses from that time like tattoo studios and piercing parlours still exist.
Many of the frontages have been designed by one company.
Access - Getting There
Camden Town on the Northern Line is the closest Tube station to Camden High Street. Camden Road Station is on the North London Line and is 450 metres north east of the Tube station.
By bus the following buses stop outside or near the Tube station: 24, 27, 29, 168, 253, N5, N27, N28, N29, N31, N253 and N279.
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