There are two Camdens, and the question of what to do there has a different answer depending on which one you mean.
One is Camden Town: the market, the canal, the music venues, the hour on the high street that everyone photographs. The other is the London Borough of Camden, which runs from Holborn to Hampstead Heath and contains the British Library, Regent’s Park, London Zoo and most of Bloomsbury. They share a name and almost nothing else.
Search engines do not separate them either. On the day this page was written, the results for things to do in Camden included a page about Camden in South Carolina and a list published by a Camden glazing company. That is what happens to a query nobody has answered properly.
Here is the answer for both Camdens, with the market put in its place.
The market is the default answer and the worst hour of the day
Camden Market is the thing every list opens with, and it is worth going to. It is also the single most crowded stretch of pavement in north London between noon and four at a weekend, and most people spend their whole visit in it because they arrived without a second idea.
Go early or go late. The market is open every day of the year except Christmas Day, which is covered in detail on the Camden Market opening times page, so the day is rarely the constraint. The hour is. Before eleven the stalls are setting up and you can actually see them. After six the food traders are still going and the crowd has thinned to people who are staying for the evening, which is the right crowd.
What to eat there is a separate problem, because the market lists well over a hundred places to eat and several of them have almost the same name. That is handled on the Camden restaurants page.
What Camden actually is, which is a music town
The venues are the reason Camden has a reputation, and they are an evening rather than an afternoon. Nobody plans around them because the listings sites treat them as nightlife rather than as things to do, which is how people end up doing the market twice.
The Jazz Cafe
- Address
- 5 Parkway, Camden, NW1 7PG
- Nearest
- Camden Town, three minutes on foot
- Standing
- A Camden institution, and a restaurant as well as a room
How to get in
Live music and club nights, with a restaurant upstairs overlooking the floor, which is the part people do not know about and the reason to arrive early rather than at the door time. Programming runs well past jazz into soul, funk and hip hop, so read the night rather than the name. Book the table and the ticket separately.
KOKO
- Address
- 1a Camden High Street, NW1 7JE
- Nearest
- Mornington Crescent, directly outside
- Standing
- Open since 1901. A theatre, a music hall and a BBC studio before it was a venue
How to get in
The restored theatre is the most beautiful room to see a band in anywhere in north London, and the building now runs well beyond the main stage: a members' balcony, a late night jazz club called Ellen's hidden backstage, a cafe, art talks and supper clubs. Check what is on in the smaller spaces as well as the big one, because the small rooms are the interesting half.
The Roundhouse
- Address
- Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8EH
- Nearest
- Chalk Farm, one minute on foot
- Standing
- A Victorian railway engine shed, circular, now a concert hall
How to get in
A working arts venue in a round building that was built to turn steam locomotives. It programmes live music, circus, spoken word and theatre rather than one thing, and it runs a substantial creative programme for people aged 11 to 30, some of it at two pounds and some of it free with no booking. If you are under 30 look at that programme before you look at the ticketed shows.
Two more worth knowing by name. The Electric Ballroom on Camden High Street and the Dublin Castle on Parkway are both small, both long standing, and both cheap by the standards of London live music. Neither needs planning: look at what is on the night you are there.
The canal, which is the best hour in Camden
Almost everyone walks the towpath for ten minutes and turns back. The better version is to go the whole way by boat and not come back at all.
Regent's Canal by waterbus
- Address
- Boards at Camden Market or Little Venice
- Nearest
- Camden Town, or Warwick Avenue at the other end
- Price
- From £17
- Standing
- Forty five minutes each way, running in either direction
How to get in
A scheduled narrowboat service between Camden Market and Little Venice that takes about forty five minutes depending on traffic and waits at the tunnel. There is a choice of boat: a classic historic narrowboat with live commentary, or a wider cruiser with music, no tour and a bar. Take it one way and walk or take the tube back, because the return trip shows you the same water twice.
The route passes the back of London Zoo, which is the cheapest look at it you will get, and the whole thing is the only part of a Camden day that is quiet.
The other Camden, which is the borough
If you searched for Camden and meant the borough rather than the high street, this is your half, and it is the better one on a first visit.
Primrose Hill
- Address
- Primrose Hill, NW1
- Nearest
- Chalk Farm, about eight minutes on foot
- Price
- Free
- Standing
- Sixty three metres, and a protected view across the whole city
How to get in
The best free view in north London and the one Londoners actually use. The summit looks south across Regent's Park to the City and the protected sightline means nothing has been allowed to grow in front of it. Ten minutes uphill from Camden and a completely different atmosphere at the top, which is the point. Go at dusk.
London Zoo
- Address
- Outer Circle, Regent's Park, NW1 4RY
- Nearest
- Camden Town, about twenty minutes on foot, or the waterbus
- Standing
- Opened 1828. Part of ZSL, a conservation charity
How to get in
The ticketing is the thing to get right. In their own words the best value tickets are always online and booked in advance, and there is no VAT on admission because of the charity status. Prices at the gate, and online after 10am on the day, are higher than booking ahead. If your dates are loose, the flexible ticket is sold at a discount and is valid for twelve months.
Beyond those, the borough holds Regent’s Park itself, the northern half of Bloomsbury, the British Library at St Pancras and the whole of Hampstead Heath. None of those is a Camden Town day out, and all of them are legitimately things to do in Camden if the borough is what you meant.
Camden bars, and the one that runs to three in the morning
Camden keeps later hours than almost anywhere else in north London, and the figures are published rather than rumoured.
The Blues Kitchen on Camden High Street runs to 2.30am on a Friday and 3am on a Saturday, opening at 11am on both weekend days. Monday and Tuesday it is midday to midnight, Wednesday and Thursday to 1am, Sunday 11am to 1am. It is a bar, a restaurant, a live music room and a karaoke room in one building, which is why the hours stretch.
The Hawley Arms takes bookings by telephone only. Not a form, not an app: their own site says bookings only by phone, on 020 7428 5979. It is at 2 Castlehaven Road, NW1 8QU, and runs midday to midnight Sunday to Thursday and midday to 1am on Friday and Saturday.
The Lock Tavern at 35 Chalk Farm Road, across the road from the market, has been a McMullen’s pub since 2024. It has a heated beer garden with a fire pit, an all weather roof terrace and a weekly quiz. Midday to 11pm most nights, midnight on Thursday and 1am on Friday and Saturday, with the kitchen stopping at 9pm, or 8pm on Mondays and Sundays.
Note the pattern across all three: the kitchen shuts long before the bar does. If you want to eat, Camden is an early evening. If you want to drink, it is one of the later parts of London. Our guide to London after dark covers how unusual that is.
A day that works
Morning. Be at the market before eleven, when you can see the stalls rather than the backs of people. Give it an hour and a half and eat there.
Afternoon. Take the waterbus to Little Venice, or walk the towpath as far as the zoo. This is the part of the day everyone skips and it is the part you will remember.
Dusk. Primrose Hill. Free, ten minutes uphill, and the reason to have planned the day in this order.
Evening. Whatever is on at KOKO, the Jazz Cafe or the Roundhouse. Book this first and build the rest of the day backwards from it, because the market will still be there and the band will not.
That is one direction through Camden rather than the usual two hours in a crowd. The mistake almost everyone makes is treating the market as the destination instead of the opening.
Where to go next
London Zoo is a short walk from Camden Town, and its page has what a ticket really costs and the winter hours.
For the market itself, Camden Market opening times and which day to go covers the hours and how it compares with Portobello. For eating, Camden restaurants sorts the stalls from the tables. If you want the rest of north London, unusual and unique things to do in London includes several places within a short ride, and free things to do in London covers everything that costs nothing.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 171 in the guide.
Last checked 2 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
