Camden

See the Borough highlighted in red above

Comparisons

Compare Camden's overall performance against other boroughs

Camden is highlighted particularly in the relevant indicators listed on the right. In addition, data for all boroughs feature in the indicators below:

Borough profile

Camden is an inner London borough, lying just northwest of the centre and bordered by the City of Westminster and the City of London to the south, Brent to the west, Barnet and Haringey to the north and Islington to the east.

While the borough was created in 1965 out of an amalgamation of the three metropolitan boroughs of Hampstead, St. Pancras and Holborn, the area’s history stretches back far further than this. Starting from a population of 97,000 in 1801, Camden saw growth throughout the 19th century to a peak of 376,500 persons in 1891. Although the construction of the railways brought jobs into the area, Camden’s residents suffered mass displacement as lines were built through their homes. Government efforts to clear the slums around St. Pancras and Holborn in the 1890s, the mass exodus out to suburban development in the 1940s-1950s following the devastation of the Blitz and industrial decline in the 1970s all played a part in further depressing Camden’s population so that the 1981 census recorded a population of only 161,100.

Today, after years of regeneration, Camden’s population is creeping back, with 2007 estimates putting the figure at around 231,900. What Camden is most notable for today is its diverse character, with the borough’s 22 square miles containing everything from bustling business centres such as Holborn, Euston and Tottenham Court, the famous market at Camden Town, to the leafy suburbs of Hampstead and Highgate and green spaces such as Hampstead Heath and Primrose Hill. While there is a geographical skew towards suburban land use in the North/Northwest and urban land use as the borough moves South/SouthEast towards the centre, commercial and residential buildings are often in close proximity, with the majority of residential accommodation in the borough in purpose-built flats.

Camden has a young population, with a high proportion of residents working in the so-called “knowledge economy” and the highest proportion of full-time students in London, with many of the University of London buildings within the borough.

While average incomes in Camden are more than double the national average, this is also a borough which faces serious deprivation. Eight of Camden’s “Lower Super Output Areas”: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/census_geog.asp#oa (LSOAs) are in the 10% most deprived in England (two each from the Gospel Oak and Camden Town and Primrose Hill wards, one each from Haverstock, Regent’s Park, Kings Cross and St Pancras & Somers Town wards), with all LSOAs in Kilburn and St Pancras & Somers Town in the 30% most deprived in the Index of Multiple Deprivation for England.

Interestingly, considering the high levels of average prosperity alongside serious deprivation in the borough, Camden is not particularly polarised with regards to the difference between those areas with the most and those with the the least deprivation. This is because while there is some concentration of disadvantage, the distribution of deprivation is relatively diffuse and every area in the borough contains both the affluent and the poor.

LB Camden website

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