Camden Catacombs, LON - Aug and Oct 2009

The Camden Catacombs were originally built as subterranean network of corridors and basements to allow the movement of goods around the once extensive array of Victorian warehouses based at the large Camden LMS goods rail depot. They also provided stabling for the many horses that were used to haul the rail wagons around the goods yard. They once extended much, much further than the small portion we explored but unfortunately much of it was demolished during extensive redevelopment in the early 1980's.

After a few tense moments rowing into the murk we alighted at our access point and began our wonder into the vaults themselves. Due to the extensive redevelopment work that was happening at 30 Oval Road most of the remaining vaults under the building have been demolished leaving only the comparatively small section linking the canal basin to 30 Oval Road. There were still some Victorian relics down there, like the odd stable door, but mostly it's just full of builders detritus. Some short sections of the horse tunnels still exist but have been breezblocked off after a short distance. My guess is it will all soon be refurbished in any case so it was good to see the last of these vaults in their (almost) original state. We were able to climb to roof of 30 Oval Road and take a couple of high views of Camden and it's environs before paddling back. For any history-o-philes out there, in the film "The London Nobody Knows", a tiny snipit shows the catacombs before they were closed. In a later visit I covered the Western Horse Tunnels and "Rat Hole".