Camden Town has a long, if not particularly well-documented, history of resident monsters – from slithery little ones to the big, hairy kind.
In fact, it was once a global epicentre for their creation, when Jim Henson’s Creature Shop made its home in abandoned railway offices and stables right alongside the canal. Read the full history of the shop, as it gave birth to critters such as Star Wars’ Yoda and Neverending Story’s Falcor the Luckdragon in the early days of the creative craft workshops that evolved to become Camden Lock Market.
The image above, featuring a Henson team Wild Thing, would have been our hastily mocked-up entry in the recent contest to design a Lock Ness Monster for the Camden Create Festival – had we actually submitted it on time.
The actual winning eight-metre long design will appear in the canal next week, and is currently being constructed by Big Stuff Design, the guys responsible for bringing to life some of Camden’s most iconic monsters, from the huge dragon above Max Orient to the giant bosoms of the King’s Cross mermaid.
But Camden Town’s bestial heritage is not just about supplying Hollywood movie-makers with fanged fiends or high street tattoo ‘n’ piercing parlours with angels astride an oversized Prince Albert ring: real sighting of unusual creatures have also been regular occurrence in the area.
Snakes are reported to live in burrows along the canal banks, with speculation that they may have originally snuck out from the cages at the legendary Palmer’s Pets emporium (now Yumchaa) on Parkway.
And London Zoo has inevitably had its fair share of escapees over the decades. The biggest break-out was during WWII, when it was hit by several bombs: on one occasion a wild ass, her foal and a zebra all took flight before the dust had cleared. The zebra wasn’t rounded up until it had reached Camden Town.
What with elephants rampaging through Kentish Town, and – only last year – a wallaby causing chaos on the very same streets, it looks like a vision of Nessie in the drink by the Lock next week won’t be quite as unusual for the neighbourhood as it may at first sound.
Win an amazing Camden Create experience
As festival media partners, we’ve teamed up with Camden Create to offer a money-can’t-buy prize package including the following:
- 2 x nights for 2 in the penthouse suite at Holliday Inn Camden (with a direct view of Nessie from your rooftop terrace)
- 2 x 3-day passes to the Camden Create Festival
- Design your own leather bag (worth £200) c/o long-standing market craftsman Jalal, world famous for his handmade belts, satchels, saddle bags and more.
- An artisan experience at Camden Lock Market
- Meal for 2 at Honest Burgers Camden
- Total prize value: over £800!
To be entered into the draw (which takes place on Friday 9th May), simply answer the following question:
Which bunch of fury monsters is Jim Henson most famous for creating?
Email your answer to events@kentishtowner.co.uk, quick!
And don’t forget, if you aren’t the winner, Kentishtowner readers can still get 25% off when buying any of the festival tickets by using the promo code KTTICKET at the checkout.
