How the outside of the tube station looks in March 2026

A BUSINESS in Camden High Street has said that plans to spend £300,000 on public realm works outside Camden Town Station are “excessive” and have put the priorities completely in the wrong place.

The Make An Entrance Project , funded by Camden Town Unlimited (CTU) and the Mayor of London’s Office, is a public realm project aimed to “reimagine” public space outside Camden Town Underground Station.

The project was first approved in 2023 with the idea to “transform the experience of arriving in Camden Town”.

Changes brought forward in the project include a new “Welcome to Camden” sign sitting directly outside the underground station as well as lighting, greening and public art.

CTU is a Business Improvement District (BID), a partnership between local businesses that adds an additional levy on top of their standard business rates.

The £300,00 budget for the project is funded by the BID and the Mayor’s Office, and will cover the building and design costs, as well as stakeholder engagement meetings.

Discussions between the BID and local businesses are currently ongoing.

The consul­ta­tions are expected to be made public in April 2026.

Finn Brewster Doherty, the owner of Camden Open Air Gallery in Camden High Street, sat in on the steering meeting for the project, and said that the funding was “excessive” and the wrong use of local business money.

He told the New Journal: “We don’t need a big sign outside Camden Town Station. Because regardless of whether it looks nice or not, unless they fix issues like overcrowding and queues outside the station, causing it to close on the weekends, then what is the point? To be clear, my issue isn’t with investment in the public realm. Camden should absolutely be investing in the high street.

“The problem is the scale of the spending by the BID and the Mayor’s Office. £300,000 for something like this feels excessive, it’s throwing money down the drain.

“There’s a multitude of different funding sources involved here, but at the end of the day it’s the local businesses paying for it.”

Finn Brewster Doherty

Last summer, the New Journal reported that the Camden High Street pedestrianisation project and subsequent music events were reducing trade and forcing venues to shut up shop.

Mr Brewster Doherty said that while he supported the pedestrian­isation project initially, he estimated his business had lost £60,000 in revenue as a result of the changes to the high street and constant public events there.

He added that indepen­dent businesses on the High Street were getting “hit from all angles” by the pedestrian­isation and rising business rates.

He told the New Journal that his business rates had more than doubled over the past two years.

A CTU spokesperson said: “This project was devised by the BID in response to feedback from businesses and community members that this entrance to Camden Town feels unsafe, unattractive and chaotic. The Mayor’s Healthy Streets fund has since boosted the budget, and funding of this kind is tied to specific conditions and cannot simply be spent elsewhere.

“We are still in early consultation and there are no proposals yet, but the project remit includes lighting, greening, public art and other improvements.

“Engagement remains open throughout – our door is always open. This is a critical public space that currently isn’t working, and getting it right will benefit our local business and resident communities.”

20 year drive to make Camden Town look better

The maypole idea in 2007

BUSINESS group Camden Town Unlimited and its leader Lord Simon Pitkeathley have spent more than two decades trying to improve the space which greets visitors to the area outside the underground station.

The first thing most people see now is a Wendy’s burger outlet and a Popeye’s chicken shop, or on the other side The World’s End pub. Attempts to relocate the station’s entrance and exit to Buck Street have been mothballed by Transport for London due to a lack of funding. Camden Town Unlimited helped remove the railings and widened the pavement and is supportive of the pedestrianisation trial.

In 2007 even suggested a multi-coloured maypole structure. It never got built, however, and was an interesting case of what could have been.