Camden Gardens

• I AM a friend of Camden Gardens and I love the change of seasons.

If other people can’t see the attraction, I’m sorry. The trees are magnificent, particularly the willows, and the plants are attractive. Daffodils, hellebores, euphorbia, and chard and other edible plants in the planters.

The grass was mown recently and the rubbish is minimal. I applaud and thank whoever is carrying out this maintenance.

I have seen plenty of people there as I walk through on a daily basis or wait for the bus. They are not all drinking, urinating or taking drugs. There are groups of people having lunch, dog walkers and students examining the railway architecture and brickwork.

I did recently see a young boy urinate behind the bushes but men urinate in Buck Street (opposite the highline office) and in Prowse Place, under the tunnel and up against my wall, all the time. Better in the bushes, I say.

The scaffolding signs and painted wooden seats are an eyesore, as is the defaced notice board. The corrugated metal sheeting is attractive but it is not an ideal material for planters, and the corners are a bit sharp and potentially hazardous.

However, it doesn’t matter because it can all be ripped out, taken away and recycled at absolutely no cost to anybody (?) when the next phase of “non”sense gets going… the Camden Highline.

Until then we will have to content ourselves with HS2, which is presently the most devastating show in the borough.

The bus journey from Camden Gardens to the Euston Road now takes up to 30 minutes instead of 10 and so you’ll have plenty of time to survey the effects from the top deck. What a shame all the HS2 funds weren’t directed primarily to where they were really needed, up north.

Infrastructure projects always involve big changes and are necessarily contentious but some have real, long-term, benefits for the whole country. The highline does not.

FIONA TRIER
Ivor Street, NW1