Kentish Town
Kentish Town lies between Highgate to the North, Camden
Town to the South, Holloway to the East, and Hampstead to the West.
The name "Kentish Town" derives from the old English word Ken, meaning
River Bed, and the word Ditch. The river Fleet, which rises in Highgate
words and flows through Ken Wood, used to run down the main street through
the center of Kentish Town, and on down to the Thames,
near Fleet
Street and the Strand
(a strand is a beach).
Kentish town is very old. It used to be nearer Saint
Pancras, but was very marshy then, and mainly inhabited by vagrants
who would rob travellers on their way in and out of London. In those days,
around the 14th century, it lay a long way outside the original city, on
the roads to the North East. Then it moved to the North of Camden
town, and started to grow to be the busy residential and shopping area
it is now.
At its northmost tip, it reaches the edge of Parliament Hill Fields,
which stretch down from Parliament HIll to the highgate ponds. There is
an apocryphal story that Parliament HIll was so named after the event when
Guy Fawkes, and his fellow Catholic consipritos arranged to meet there
to wath the Houses of Parliament blow up in their vain attempt to change
the course of English History. Historians actually now believe that Guy
Fawkes and his fellows were framed, since the price of gunpoweder in those
days was so high that it is extremely unlikely that nay conspiracy could
have affored more than a very small barrel's worth!
Kentish town is populated by a large number of immigrant families from
Greek Cyprus and Ireland. This has led it and its neighbour Camden to have
a lot of good Greek Restaurents, and Irish Pubs.
Kentish Town is well served by buses 134 and 137, Tube, Northern line,
and overland train (the North London Line stops at two stations).
It also has two public swimming baths, the indoor Kentish Town Baths
(a victorian bathhouse where you can still get your washing done) anmd
the 1930s outdoor Lido, on the edge of the Heath.
An interesting place to go for a meal is the Algerian restaurent, Le
Petit Prince, which is a traditional Cous-cous restaurent. It is probably
the smallest restaurent in London, too.
Other attractions are the Forum on the Kentish Town Road, a long standing
famour venue for good music (jazz & rock), and the Fiddler's Elbow,
an Irish pub on the Prince of Wales road, that has friday and saturday
'Secions'.
Kentish Town is also used a Car Park by the 300,000 or so visitors
to Camden
Lock each weekend in summer:-)
