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Pub culture doesn’t equal the end of the world as we know it
Having an ambulance on standby to deal with intoxicated drinkers sends out the wrong message about nightlife in Camden Town, says Simon Pitkeathley
SOMETIME circa 1840, when The World’s End Pub was still the Mother Red Cap and night- time fighting between the nationalities employed to build the railways and the canal was still commonplace, some enlightened souls decided to build the Caernarfon Castle, the Dublin Castle and the Edinburgh Castle, in order to ensure that workers were in a fit state for physical labour the day after the night before.
Ever since this time, Camden Town has been a centre for pubs.
Today there are more than 50 licensed drinking premises in my Business Improvement District that stretches from Chalk Farm down to Mornington Crescent.
There are at least 10 million visitors a year to these parts, some say as high as 25 million. But despite these numbers, the number of violent incidences associated with alcohol is in serious decline.
The suggestion that we need an ambulance on permanent duty during weekend and night times is interesting, and may relieve some burden for A&E departments.
But publicising it may send out a message that the place is heaving with bloodied fighting yobs, which is just not true.
In Camden borough there were 92 reported violent crimes in the year up to May 2006. In May 2007 that number had fallen to 43, and fell further to just 25 in 2008.
When you look at those numbers, I think it’s a credit to the area, and the amount of effort that goes into running responsible licensed premises (64 of which are currently applying for the Best Bar None scheme), that there is so little trouble.
Also, far and away the majority of these pubs are independently run by people who care deeply about the area.
This is part of what makes Camden Town such a fantastic part of London. Where else would you find so many independent pubs in one area?
Licensed premises should not be seen as a problem. It’s time that someone mentions that these are important for the area. They bring income, but they also bring culture and life.
In the Business Improvement District we want to do a lot to Camden to improve it, but that doesn’t include getting rid of things that make it the unique place it is.
There are some residents who complain about noise and anti-social behaviour at these premises, and it’s essential that publicans are open to communication and are able to sit down with residents and resolve problems.
But there’s also an onus on people to acknowledge that if you move to Camden Town you’re not moving to a suburb; you’re moving to an exciting, edgy, part of a European capital city.
I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong with having ambulances to treat intoxicated people before they need to go to A&E.
It might be a useful service, but publicising it enables it to be represented as a solution to a chronic problem.
The danger is that it sends a message that alcohol-related violence is everywhere in Camden Town, and it isn’t.
I applaud efforts to relieve some of the pressure on A&E, but my suspicion is they’re not going to find the huge numbers of people spilling out of pubs needing treatment some might expect.
People end up in A&E from all sorts of places. They don’t all fall out from the pubs around Camden Town.
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