Camden: Amy Winehouse’s spiritual home
The legacy of the late Amy Winehouse can be felt all across London, nowhere more so than Camden, a borough in which you’re never more than a stone’s throw away from her face. This area of London was far more than just a city to her and became the essence of her creative spirit, which soon saw her dubbed the ‘Queen of Camden’. Its shabby charm and well-established links to the music scene saw its iconic venues house acts from Winehouse herself to Babyshambles.
Winehouse even took a moment to shout out her town during a 2008 Grammy acceptance speech; that’s how significant it was to her. After being awarded ‘Record of the Year’, Winehouse wrapped up her speech with a cry of “London, this is for London”, before adding: “This is for Camden, Camden Town ain’t burning down.”
As was touched on in the Amy film, the singer moved to Camden at the age of 20, during the Frank era of her career. She would spend a lot of time at the Hawley Arms, where she met singers like Pete Doherty, as a new era of British music began to bubble away. Known for her love of pool, Winehouse was content in her surroundings, and as a result, Frank took on a distinctly urban sound that reflected the scenery. The pub, however, was burnt down in the 2008 Camden Lock fire but reopened its doors after a massive fundraising effort.
It still serves her favourite drink, a “Rickstasy” – three parts vodka, one part banana liqueur, one part Southern Comfort. Although Winehouse likely confused the majority American audience by referencing the fire as part of her work, she made it well known how much she cared about the venue, and its association with her continued to benefit the pub even after her death. In 2019, when it was forcibly put up for sale and likely ended up as housing, the venue sold a gig setlist signed by Winehouse to raise funds. The Hawley Arms is still open to this day.
Winehouse’s father, Mitch, once described Camden as her “playground”, and the singer spent as much time as she could in every one of its venues before Back To Black shot her to international fame. In moments before she was an acclaimed star, she’d play at smaller jazz venues like The Jazz Cafe, which helped shape her gravelly contralto vocals.
As Winehouse’s celebrity stock rose to uncomfortable heights, a brutal battle with addiction emerged, but she never stopped wanting to perform at the small venues that made her. The Dublin Castle was often a Camden venue she’d play in, and the pub has a dedicated fresco and signed photo of her to mark it.
Ultimately, Winehouse’s connection to Camden is somewhat bittersweet. Her embrace of its music scene kept beloved pubs open on her endorsement alone, but the ubiquity of her face there is a testament to a level of fame that wound up killing her. Ill-equipped to handle such intense popularity, she passed away from alcohol poisoning in her spiritual home in 2011. Camden Council had to put up a request asking her fans not to steal the Camden Square street sign, which vanished 14 times. As much as Amy wanted to soak up every inch of Camden in her lifetimes, even in death, people clawed something back from her.
