save camden

Going to Camden for the first time as a child is a real rite of passage. If you're a kid growing up in the suburbs listening to rock music and feeling like you don't fit in then your first trip to Camden will be some sort of epiphany. "Finally, these are my people!"
Equally, if you are the best friend of a kid growing up in the suburbs who also listens to rock music but is pretty sheltered, scared of the outside world and finds rebellion a tiny bit embarrassing then your first trip to Camden is probably accompanied more akin to: "These people don't wash."

I'm was somewhere in the middle when I made my first trip to Camden market about 15 years ago but increasingly find myself swaying towards the latter. It's as if everyone who, when faced with a decision between forming a personality or wearing big boots with springs in the soles, went for the boots has moved there. In truth the fault is probably mine; I'm intimidated by the drug dealers and the crazy drunks and the walk between the underground station and the Etc Theatre, where I have been performing the last two weekends, is rarely a pleasant one. I noticed on a recent trip that, after running the gauntlet of pushers and lunatics outside the station, I walked past two Community Police officers standing a good 100 yards away from where the action was. I'd find it pretty intimidating attempting to accost any of the regular faces outside Camden tube station but that's the reason I'm not a Community Police Officer.

On Saturday, along with Tom and Ben from Pappy's, I took part in Andrew J. Lederer's Anthology: a true storytelling show at the Etc. It was loads of fun; Lederer, who we met last year in Edinburgh when he performed in the same venue as us, created a wonderful atmosphere and held the night together beautifully. The acts (Earl Okin, Terry Saunders, Steven Allen Greir and us) were able to relax into some genuinely lovely storytelling without having to chase laughs. Pappy's told the stories of Nottingham that you will have already read on this blog; in fact the blog really helped me with the shows I did with Andrew.

Anyhow, after the show I went to use the toilet and, preferring not to urinate in public view, went into the cubicle. The lock on the door was broken and so I held the door shut with my knee as I was pissing. I feel someone trying to push open the door so I push back, indicating that there was someone in there, but the pushing continues. This to and fro continues until I am finished; at which point I exit to find an angry looking bald security guard asking me what I'd been doing in there. When I told him that I was pissing he asked why I'd shut the door, stating that, "Only people doing drugs shut the door to the toilet." I stammered back that it wasn't just drug takers but those who didn't like to be watched when they were trying to go. I appreciate he was only trying to do his job but it's a depressing prospect when you see a closed door and immediately assume that something illegal is happening behind it. I suppose his over-zealous attention to his job is the total counterpoint to blind-eye turning of the police officers I'd seen earlier. Like my relationship with Camden as a 13 year old, isn't it possible to strike a happy medium?