The appalling state of degradation and squalor to be seen on Camden High Street

• THE other day I watched the so called “golden doners” lights being put up by “Festive Lighting Installers” on the lamp-posts in Camden Town.

According to your April 7 report (‘Golden doners’ return to Camden Town lampposts), Camden Town Unlimited said that they were a way of keeping NW1 “sparkling” for much longer in the early part of the year.

That same day I decided to walk down Camden High Street, my local shopping area, specifically to see if I could spot and enjoy some of this “sparkling”.

I took my camera with me, picture above…

To put up these “golden doners” seems to me perverse in the extreme and a gesture of supreme denial about the current appalling state of degradation and squalor to be seen on Camden High Street and many of the surrounding streets.

Keeping NW1 sparkling? Filth. Neglect. Ugliness. That is what Camden Town currently offers. Was it always thus?

I have lived in Camden Town for more than 22 years and having spent much of my life since the 1970s here I can say that, although the area has always had its problems, it is currently in an alarming downward spiral and which has been going on for some years.

It is bad. Really bad. And much of what once made the area so special has now been lost.

GONE is the much loved Delancey Street café.

GONE is the much loved local pub Crown & Goose and the historic snooker hall.

GONE is Palmers pet shop.

GONE the dry cleaners.

GONE is the much loved and highly efficient post office.

GONE is Central Stationers.

GONE are the bookshops.

GONE are the small galleries.

GONE are the individual shops.

GONE is policing.

GONE is a council that acts on behalf of the interests of local residents by listening to their concerns, complying with the true results of local consultations and protecting the integrity of Camden’s individual character by preventing it from being plundered by developers and multinational chains.

So HELLO “golden doners”.

HELLO Taco Bell.

HELLO Wendy’s.

HELLO TJ Maxx.

HELLO Premier Inn.

HELLO pop-up bargain shops.

HELLO closed shops.

HELLO drug dealers.

HELLO anti-social behaviour.

HELLO homelessness.

HELLO hopelessness.

HELLO want.

HELLO squalor.

HELLO despair.

If one-time Camden resident Charles Dickens took one of his walks down Camden High Street today, he would go straight home and rage about it in his latest novel.

Residents are not asking for gentrification. They are not asking for Marylebone High Street, but hey! Kentish Town High Road sure looks like Bond Street from here.

It’s all gone horribly wrong. But at least we’ve got those “golden doners” lights to keep the old sparkle going.

RUSSELL GRANT
Delancey Street, NW1