Photos from the last days of Camden Lock Market

Camden Lock Market has become a popular destination for lovers of urban art over the past few years. One by one the sheds were painted outside of opening hours with a variety of street artists from around the world creating what became a unique outdoor gallery.

Now times have changed at Camden Lock Market. The once bustling market sheds have been emptied as the area is prepared for a large scale redevelopment of the lock district. It’s certainly something that will transform the area and you can see why such a development would be popular, it would be bang next door to Camden Lock.

Public Art at Camden Lock Market

Of course there are still public art murals to be seen on the outskirts of the former market area particularly around the Water Lane and Hawley Road areas although the latter in particular is also undergoing redevelopment at the moment and the art in much of the area is now being demolished along with the buildings. The street art has come into this area as a precursor to the transformation that is to come.

Wandering around Camden Lock Market as the traders were packing up was a strange experience. Always so bustling, most of the sheds were now empty and the ones that weren’t were being packed up. Piles of debris were piled up at various intervals. Some of the merchandise that would have been sold to tourists which was clearly not worth the effort of even bothering to take away.

Street Art Sheds

We’ve already covered the whole journey of the street art sheds of Camden here on Inspiring City. A project backed by ‘The Real Art of Street Art‘ who managed to convince the owners of the market that street art was a perfect antidote to the otherwise bland wooden sheds. Not only that but they managed to attract some of the Worlds best street art talent to the area.

Now though the next stage of this areas history is about to take shape with Camden Lock Market likely to change for good. In terms of the work already done to establish street art in the area this is something which will continue and it will be great to see how the place continues to evolve.

Camden Lock Sheds Gallery

Camden Lock market was visited on 18 January 2015 as the traders were beginning to move out. Inspiring City has visited the market a few times capturing the different art appearing. For some of the articles check out:

A Whistle Stop Street Art Tour around Camden Town
Street Art Sheds of Camden – North Londons Funkiest art project
Water Lane in Camden Gets a Street Art Makover
Street Artists turn Camden into a massive outdoor gallery