AT home in Brissie, if you wanted a night out on the town you would hit either ‘The City’ or ‘The Valley’ and nevermind which you chose, you knew you had a huge number of pubs, clubs and bars in one central location. There are pockets of these strips in London, which means there is never a shortage of places to explore. As a south west Londoner who dreads hours in the early morning on endless night buses, I hadn’t yet spent much time up north in Camden so I was looking forward to checking out ‘The Scene’.
Most of my experience of going out in Camden was that of Koko. The club is located closer to Mornington Crescent Tube Station and is the perfect place to go see a DJ gig or a club night. For a friend’s birthday recently, we decided to go to ‘Guilty Pleasures’ – which is basically a night full of trashy pop music and power ballads. With a summer theme we rocked up in hula skirts and spent the night singing and dancing to all the good ol’ favourites – including ‘Mmmbop’ by Hanson.
It was probably the complete opposite of the punk or rock scene that Camden is famous for and unfortunately I am yet to have the opportunity to visit one of the live music venues on offer.
Instead I decided the best way to tick off #81 on my London Top 100 List and ‘Sample the Camden Scene’ would be to participate in the Camden Pub Crawl. For a £12 entry ticket you get to visit five pubs or clubs in the area with a shot at each and entry fees included. It was a bit of a bargain considering what you get and left all the hassle of working out where to go to someone else.
Starting in a low key pub not far from the station the group of eight of us had our first shot and a few other drinks while we chatted to other people on the pub crawl. There were plenty of backpackers and tourists as well as London locals all there for the same reason – get a bit silly and check out a few different places.
From there it was onto Belushi’s, which are always fun and full of cheap drinks, backpackers and great music. Unfortunately between the next two we got caught in a torrential downpour so when we arrived at Proud we were very soggy and very cold. Only way to fix that was to grab a drink and have a bit of a dance. This was the first nightclub that we had visited and it didn’t disappoint in venue. There were plenty of nooks and crannies to sit and hang out as well as a big dance floor. Unluckily – the music playing was less than average (in my humble opinion) but that’s the best thing about pub crawls – you are only there for an hour!
We went on to another pub not far from Proud that played music only from movie soundtracks. This place was great not only for the cheesy music taste but because they had a few pool tables and booths where you could sit and rest before moving on to the last club. By this stage we had had too many of the inclusive Sambuca shots (plus the drinks in-between) so the rest of the night is pretty hazy and I couldn’t tell you where we ended up. I can tell you it was a great night and definitely a fun way to sample the nightlife in Camden.