Chalk Farm

Chalk Farm
Junction of Adelaide Road and Haverstock Hill, outside Chalk Farm Underground station
Chalk Farm Chalk Farm shown within Greater London
Population	24,977 Informal tube-named district: maximal two-ward definition based on 2011 census[1]
OS grid reference	TQ2884
London borough	Camden
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	NW1, NW3, NW5
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Holborn and St Pancras
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden

Chalk Farm is a small urban district of northwest London, England immediately north of Camden Town and currently split equally between the electoral wards of Camden Town and Primrose Hill in the south and Haverstock in the north.

Geography

The land slopes upwards more steeply to the north-west and abruptly to form a knoll to the south-west which is Primrose Hill. Chalk Farm Underground station is the closest underground network station to all parts if that is the defining criterion. The same is true of much of the upmarket western residential definition and green (Regents Park definition) of Primrose Hill that is more associated with Chalk Hill. The south of the area has regular residents on its broadest definition, which is capable of including Jude Law, Sadie Frost and Sienna Miller among the highest-grossing early 21st century 'Camden set' of writers, artists and actors, but equally, parts of both wards have some stubborn poverty and a significant minority of their housing is social housing.

History

Its name was formerly Chalcot when it was a hamlet of the once vast Hornsey parish (centred on a village of the same name). Before the post-1791 development of Camden Town, the residents of Primrose Hill who did not live on the green hill were divided between Hornsey and St Pancras villages. It is in this vein that many residents of Primrose Hill seek alternatives to being considered part of Camden, however under the London Government Act 1963, Camden became the overall name for the borough and a convenient, neutrally loaded term for all inchoate and non-historic districts by being of carefully planned late Georgian origin rather than named after the London Underground network which has seen various changes to station names and debatable associations with stations.^[2]

Economy

Chalk Farm equates to the northern neighbourhood of Camden Town and features many lively pubs, live music venues, and restaurants.

Within immediate reach of the tube station is The Roundhouse, a former circular railway engine turntable shed converted to 360° arts and performance use.

Chalk Farm contains Haverstock School Business & Enterprise College (formerly Haverstock Comprehensive School).

Camden College of English was in Chalk Farm

For over 70 years major bus routes were operated from Chalk Farm bus garage, in Harmood Street, now long gone. Today the long-established route 27 and the newer route 393 both terminate at Chalk Farm. These buses reach opposite destinations outside central London: Chiswick Business Park and Clapton respectively.

Walden Books is a long-established secondhand bookshop located just off Chalk Farm Road.

Demography

Being a convenient division ('district') with no formal definition, the maximal definition of Chalk Farm takes in the bulk of two current electoral wards which are set out below, with relevant land use and home ownership statistics from the 2011 census.

Transport

References