Camden Road Railway Station

Camden Road railway station in the London Borough of Camden, north London, is operated by London Overground. It is on the North London line and in Travelcard Zone 2.

The first Camden Road station was opened by the North London Railway in 1850 on the east side of what is now St. Pancras Way. It was renamed Camden Town on 1 July 1870, but closed on 5 December the same year when it was replaced by the current station, a short distance to the west.

The station is at the corner of Royal College Street and Camden Road. Designed by Edwin Henry Horne, it opened as Camden Town by the North London Railway on 5 December 1870, but was renamed Camden Road on 25 September 1950 to avoid confusion with the London Underground Northern line which had opened in 1907. Thus, between 1907 and 1950, there were two stations called Camden Town. It remains Horne's only station still operating as such.

The present Camden Town London Underground station is 450 metres to the southwest of this station. It is one of the few railway stations in England in which there is a police station.

In addition to the frequent local passenger service, the station is a busy location for freight traffic due to its proximity to the junctions linking the North London line to both the West Coast Main Line at Camden Junction (via the now closed station at ) and the East Coast Main Line at Copenhagen Junction. The former is particularly well used by container trains from the deep water ports at Felixstowe and Tilbury to various terminals in the Midlands and North West of England; it also carried a passenger service (between and Broad Street/Liverpool Street) until 1992.

To allow four-car trains to run on the London Overground network, the North London line between and closed in February 2010, and reopened on 1 June that year, in order to install a new signalling system and to extend 30 platforms. After the reopening the work continued until May 2011 with a reduced service and none on Sundays.

Services

The typical weekday service in trains per hour is:
* 4 westbound to via
* 4 westbound to Clapham Junction also via Willesden Junction
* 8 eastbound to via .

There is now no normal passenger service on the line from Camden Road to Willesden Junction Low Level via Queens Park, though the route can be (and is) used if the line via Hampstead Heath is blocked for any reason.

Connections

London Buses routes 29, 46, 253 and 274 and night routes N29, N253 and N279 serve the station.

There is also an official out of station interchange with Northern Line services at the nearby Camden Town underground station.

Camden Highline

In the future there may be a walking connection to and from King's Cross. The Camden Highline is a proposed public park and garden walk transforming a disused section of the North London Line between the two stations.

A community group of the same name is proposing to bring back the 0.75-mile-long (1.21 km) railway into public use as an elevated linear park and greenway.

The project was envisioned by a geographer, Oliver O'Brien, in 2015 and promoted by Camden Town Unlimited.

In 2017 a crowdfunding campaign raised £64k using the Spacehive platform and received 314 donations including the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan who said: "This innovative project has the potential to become a real asset for Camden and is a great example of a local community taking an idea and garnering support in order to make it a reality. I look forward to seeing it develop."

The project started fundraising the construction costs in August 2019.

In 2020 an international competition was held to find a design team and 76 bids were received. Entrants included Adjaye Associates, AL_A, AHMM, Asif Khan, Coffey Architects, Cullinan Studio, CZWG, David Kohn, Grant Associates, Hawkins\Brown, Jamie Fobert Architects, LDA, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, Migrants Bureau, Weston Williamson, and Zaha Hadid Architects. International submissions were also lodged by BIG, Snøhetta. West 8, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The competition shortlist included the 2019 RIBA Stirling Prize contenders Feilden Fowles Architects; London-based Benedetti Architects; Southwark's We Made That with Hassell, Agence Ter of Paris; and US-based James Corner Field Operations, which led the team behind New York's High Line.

Potential reinstatement of platform 3

In a London Rail Freight Strategy released by Network Rail in May 2021, proposed reinstatement of platform 3 as a through platform, with platform 2 becoming a turn back for a potential peak hour service from Camden Road to with potential to continue these during the off peak. London Rail Freight Strategy Summary Report
Network Rail, May 2021 p.14

References

External links

{{London Overground navbox, Serving=y, NLL=y

Railway stations in the London Borough of Camden
Former North London Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1850
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1870
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1870
Railway stations served by London Overground
Camden Town