The container complex going up in Buck Street in 2019

A DEAL for Buck Street Market could help fund long-awaited upgrades to overcrowded Camden Town underground station, it was claimed this week.

The site was sold to Transport for London late last year and is now set to undergo a massive refit as new managers Box Park take on the site.

Box Park run shipping container-based entertainment and shopping complexes and has branches in Wembley, Croydon, Shoreditch, the City and also in Bristol, Liverpool and Birmingham. It promotes itself as the number one place to catch football on big screens, and runs specially themed parties for international tournaments – although the company said it was still drawing up plans for Buck Street and has yet to reveal its vision.

TfL said that income from rent will help boost funding towards the multi-million-pound bill looming to improve the congested conditions at Camden Town tube.

The Buck Street area had been taken on in 2019 by Lab Tech, the firm behind the wider redevelopment of Camden’s market sites and the owner of the Stables and Hawley Wharf. It demolished the old warren of second-hand stalls and replaced it with a three-storey crate complex mainly serving street food.

Lab Tech sold the site to TfL in October, it has now been revealed, but had a six-month deal to continue running it. A spokeswoman for Lab Tech declined to comment on the reasons behind the sale.

TfL added in a statement: “The acquisition of Buck Street Market delivers on two key objectives, by generating sustainable income, to pay back into the transport network, and the ability to support operational enhance­ments in the future once sufficient funding is identified.” It took over management in April with a significant overhaul ahead.

A Box Park spokesman said: “Box Park has assumed operational management of the site this month and plans a comprehensive renovation to inject a new lease of life into the location.

“The current site will undergo a major refurbishment in the coming months to revitalise the space and support over 40 independent food operators and retailers. “As a brand, Box Park has always harnessed the ethos of championing independents, and with Shoreditch being one of the early pioneers of street food, the group is in a strong position to make Buck Street Market a successful destination.”

The old market in Buck Street

There have been failed attempts to redevelop Camden Town tube going back decades.

In 2004, London Underground’s plans to seize the market land and the Electric Ballroom nightclub using compulsory purchase order to build a seven-storey complex of shops ­above a new station were spiked by the then deputy prime minister John Prescott after a long planning inquiry.

More recently there have been plans to shift the tube’s entrance and exit to the site once home to Hawley Infants School in Buck Street but after drawing up the plans, TfL said it did not have the budget to build it. Plans to improve congestion at Holborn tube station were also put on the back burner.

Why is Kentish Town tube still closedA?

MAYOR of London Sadiq Khan said there would be “no blank cheque” for London from Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves if Labour wins the general election.

We asked him on Thursday night whether residents in Camden Town could finally see work on the congested tube station, and less disruption like the ongoing closure at the Northern line stop at Kentish Town.

“I do know that with a Labour government, there won’t be daily obstacles in our way,” Mr Khan said. “There will be long-term budgets. You know, the next prime minister could be a north Londoner. There will be north London residents in that government whether its Tulip [Siddiq], Georgia [Gould], Keir, Ed Miliband and so forth and they understand that: yes we’re a capital city but you don’t make a country more equal by making London poorer.”

He added: “The fact that that station [Kentish Town] is still closed due to maintenance work is because this government took away our operating grant.”