Britpop Camden

London, United Kingdom

(25)

Walking Tour

60 mins

2.2mi

About the Tour

Join me on a nostalgia-fuelled jaunt around Britpop lalaland circa 1995. Aren't I a lucky 40 something to be able to relive my youth like this!

I had the honour of living and loving here that year. It was the height of Britpop and I was living in its epicentre; what a great place to be a music fan. By chance I'd found a lovely double room to rent in Primrose Hill. I had the best of both worlds. Rough, riotous Camden Town and gentile, pretty Primrose Hill.

I was a student at the time but my eyes were on the future - I wanted to make websites for popstars. I struggled to learn HTML, preferring to spend my evenings chatting up boys in Fred Perry shirts. I did end up working with My Life Story and some of my personal anecdotes about them will be shared en route.

You can download a Spotify playlist to listen to which is a nice accompaniment to this walk. I recommend you listen to it before the walk to get you in the mood!

https://play.spotify.com/user/115030806/playlist/15uPkNHeQpKaWow4lr3GVp

Tour Producer

Miranda Diboll

I'm an audio producer based in Sussex who's been waiting for some technically savvy bod to come along and invent something like VoiceMap. I'm excited by Geolocation, I'm a Geocacher so something like this combines my passion for immersive audio and GPS! All I need to do now is come up with some great Voice Maps.

How VoiceMap Works

Focus on your surroundings, not the screen

VoiceMap’s audio tour app uses GPS to play audio automatically, at the right time and place. Just install it, then download your tour and go to the starting point to begin your walk, drive, cycle, train trip or even boat ride.

Follow a route with turn-by-turn-directions

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Just select Virtual mode in the VoiceMap app to listen to tours at home – or anywhere else. You’ll see the option after you download the tour. You can also listen to the whole tour at voicemap.me.

Buy for less on voicemap.me and sync

Once you’ve purchased a tour, it’s added to your VoiceMap library. If you sign into the app using the same method you used on the website, you’ll have access to your full library of tours in both places.

Use VoiceMap offline

The VoiceMap app works entirely offline if there’s no data connection, so you don’t have to pay roaming fees. Just download the tour over WiFi before you get started.

Map

Major Landmarks

The Dublin Castle

Directions to Starting Point

The walk starts from Caffe 43 in Pratt Street, five minute walk from Camden Town tube station.

Show Directions

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

There are pubs en route. The Good Mixer in Inverness Street is a must visit to capture the spirit of 95. There's a jukebox...you know what to do! Not far from the pub is 'Out On The Floor', a record shop that was here back in the mid 90s and probably earlier. I used to pick up all my music form here in those pre download days.

The tour finishes at The Dublin Castle pub. Soak up some beer, soak up the atmosphere.

Best time of day

Daylight hours recommended as there's a fair amount of canal side walking. I used to walk home in the dead of night along these waterways, you don't have to :-)

Precautions

Traffic. Loads of it so look where you're putting your feet.
Pickpockets. A few of them around so watch you stuff. The canal tow paths. Don't fall in!

Comments

Thank you for showing me around :)
The tour was beautiful, informative, accurate and fun! Loved Camden!!!

Posted by Anonymous Explorer , 4 months ago

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it and Camden.

Posted by Miranda , 4 months ago

Feedback always welcome, especially how the play points work as the tour is 6 years old now and things change rapidly in London. Thank you :-)

Posted by Miranda , 4 months ago

Enjoyable walk. Great personal, informative commentary easy to follow. I’d recommend the Spotify playlist. The tracks and bands are mentioned in the commentary. Great trip down memory lane.

Posted by Anonymous Explorer , 4 months ago

Thanks for your review. I'm glad you enjoyed the tour and you found it easy to follow. I'm hoping to do another tour down in Brighton soon, this time not Britpop related though.

Posted by Miranda , 4 months ago

I thought this was really interesting, and it showed me a different Camden to the one I thought I knew. I did download the Spotify Britpop Camden Voicemap playlist as a warm-up. I thought that was a nice touch.

Posted by Alan , over 4 years ago

Thank you , Alan

Posted by Miranda , 4 months ago

Very informative and wonderfully personal and personable.

Posted by Anonymous Explorer , over 4 years ago