The Dublin Castle is a microcosm of Camden’s music history. The pub’s walls are plastered with band memorabilia and stepping inside transports you back to an era of punk and rebellion.

But beyond the music, Dublin Castle has served as a home-from-home for Camden’s Irish community. It was built in the mid-19th century when ‘navvies’ arrived to build the railways. Irish navvies flocked to the Castle to enjoy traditional folk music sessions that reminded them of home.

400 years ago, The World’s End pub in Camden was called the Mother Redcap, and was allegedly home to a local witch called Jinney Bingham. Rumour had it that she killed her boyfriend by burning him to death in her oven.

Most sources offer no critical perspective on the Mother Redcap story. As a society, we are gradually beginning to interrogate the layers of misogyny hidden behind the name ‘witch’. Jinney Bingham, however, has yet to be exonerated in the historical record.

Before its abrupt closure in 2015, the Black Cap pub was a centre of LGBTQ+ life in Camden. Famous drag and cabaret artists graced the stage and it was known as a place of safety and inclusivity for all genders and sexualities.

The local group ‘We Are The Black Cap’ has been campaigning for it to be reopened for nine years. Foregrounding the community heritage of the Black Cap is vital to their campaign - it is only by remembering the pub’s past that we can realise its importance for the future of Camden.

The Colonel Fawcett pub in Camden was named after the victim of one of the last fatal duels in England in 1843. The Colonel was brought to the pub after being shot, where his health declined until his death.

Duelling was illegal at the time, but the law turned a blind eye if high-ranking military officers were involved. Through a modern lens, it seems ironic that such cold-blooded killing was seen as the sport of ‘gentlemen’ and ‘men of honour’.