A gathering of Camden Town Centre residents

Primarily to monitor and document the living environment in the Camden Town Centre area

Taking in home workers and community conscious businesses in the area

Camden Planning Guidance | Town centres and retail

Camden Town is a vibrant centre, internationally renowned as a tourist destination, famous for its extensive range of markets, its wealth of independent retailers and creative industries, as well as legendary music and entertainment venues including the Roundhouse and Koko. It is also home to many residents and to numerous businesses, small and large, notably media, cultural and creative industries, attracted by the area’s unique atmosphere. Camden Town is the borough’s biggest centre with the largest range of shops and services, and is designated as a Major Centre in the London Plan. Parts of Camden Town have historic importance and have been designated as the Camden Town Conservation Area.

Camden Town Camden Town has a good diversity of uses, including food, non-food, and services uses. It has a low level of vacancy and strong demand for retail space. Camden Town has an important leisure offer, with eating, drinking, and cultural activities all attracting people to the centre. It has a good range of chain stores, independent retailers, and the markets. A key strength of the centre is that over three quarters of the units are operated by independent retailers. Camden Town serves as both a retail and leisure destination for local residents and also as a visitor and tourist destination. A cluster of creative industries in the areas around Camden High Street also adds to the centre’s vibrancy. The centre does not have a single character but broadly contains three parts: • The commercial heart in the markets and around Camden Town tube station, • The southern section which provides more traditional ‘high street’ shopping and serves a more local role, and • Chalk Farm Road to the north with its mixed street frontage of restaurants, bars and specialist shops. The Council wants to build on Camden Town’s success and strong identity in order to develop a unique, vibrant, safe, and diverse centre, which offers something for everyone throughout the day and evening, whilst also creating an environment which provides a high standard of amenity for residents. Camden Town will also grow as a centre of employment, particularly for the cultural and creative industries. The large number of food, drink, and entertainment uses such as pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants and the activity these uses bring are an asset to Camden Town however they can also have impacts including noise, crime and anti-social behaviour, litter, and traffic congestion. The Council will control the location, number, and management of these uses to avoid these negative impacts. What uses are acceptable in Camden Town? To plan for uses in Camden Town we have defined four street frontages types where particular considerations apply. These are: • Primary shopping frontages (north and south); • Secondary frontages; and • Sensitive frontages. Guidance on these frontages are set out below. In addition to the thresholds decribed below the Council will seek a range of other town centre uses within the centre as a whole, and in individual frontages.

Primary shopping frontages The primary shopping frontages cover the main shopping streets within Camden Town, which includes Camden High Street and Chalk Farm Road. This area is the retail heart of Camden Town and the Council’s main objective in this location is to preserve and enhance the character, function, vitality and viability of the centre, particularly its shopping function. The Council will protect a stock of premises suitable for retail use in the Town Centre to maintain the retail function and character of the centre. The primary frontages are divided into two parts in Camden Town to reflect their different roles and levels of retail development. In the primary shopping frontages south (south of the junction of Jamestown Road, Hawley Crescent and Camden High Street) the Council will not grant planning permission for development which results in the number of ground floor premises in retail use falling below 75%. In the primary shopping frontages north (north of the junction of Jamestown Road, Hawley Crescent and Camden High Street) the Council will not grant planning permission for development which results in the number of ground floor premises in retail falling below 50% within these frontages Where the number of retail premises in these frontages is already less than the minimum requirement of 75% or 50%, no further loss of retail will be permitted. Food, drink, and entertainment and the night time economy Camden Town is a highly accessible location and is considered suitable for evening activities which will provide a diversity of jobs and keep the centre vibrant and attractive. A careful balance needs to be struck that allows for food, drink and entertainment uses in central locations but does not cause harm to the shopping function. New food, drink and entertainment uses may be acceptable up to a maximum of 20% of each street frontage. This allows for some expansion of food, drink, and entertainment uses. However, for frontages which already have more food, drink and entertainment than the threshold level, no further increase in these uses will be permitted. To avoid excessive fragmentation of the centre, no more than two consecutive non-retail uses (including restaurants) will be permitted. Most of Camden Town Town Centre is covered by a cumulative impact policy area in Camden’s Statement of Licensing Policy 2017-2022. This means that there is a presumption that the Council will normally refuse an application for a new premises licence or a variation of an existing licence which is likely to add to the cumulative impact of licenced venues in the area. Secondary frontages and areas The secondary frontages and areas have a varied character and a range of uses. They include the side streets of the town centre, the employment and market areas adjacent to the Regent’s Canal and the Roundhouse. These areas have a relatively limited number of residential properties and are generally well-served by public transport facilities. The Council will generally resist proposals that will result in less than 50% of the premises in Secondary Frontages being in retail use. It is important to note that there are some residential uses in or near these locations and that food, drink and entertainment uses could cause harm to the amenity of people living nearby. The Council will take particular care to ensure that proposals do not harm residential amenity and will not grant consent for proposals that it considers would do so. Sensitive frontages The sensitive frontages are: • streets on the edge of the town centre with commercial activities on the ground floor and homes above; and • town centre frontages that are opposite frontages that contain of significant amounts of housing. It is in these streets that there is likely to be the greatest conflict between latenight activities and the amenity of local residents. Some of the sensitive frontages already have significant numbers of food, drink and entertainment uses. The Council will aim to maintain a balance of uses in these frontages, allowing some flexibility for change in the future while protecting retail and other facilities. A maximum of 30% of premises in each of these frontage may be food, drink and entertainment uses. New and expanded food, drink and entertainment uses must be small in scale with a maximum gross floor area (GFA) of 100m2 to ensure residential amenity is protected. Exceptions will only be made where it can be demonstrated that larger uses will not create harmful impacts or undermine the character of the area. Opening hours granted through planning consents for food, drink and entertainment uses in this area are likely to be more restricted than those for similar activities within the primary and secondary shopping frontages because of the proximity of residential properties. Markets Camden Town is home to five markets: Camden Lock, Stables, Canal, Inverness Street and Camden (Buck Street) markets. These markets are an important attraction bringing people to the area, a tourist attraction, and are significant to the success and vitality of Camden Town. In accordance with Local Plan Policy TC6 the Council will promote and protecting these markets.