Transcription
All right, I'm back in London and I looked up on Google the most dangerous places in London, the most dangerous neighborhoods and a couple of them that come up are Camden, which I'm in now, and Brixton. So, I'm going to take you to those two today.
So, Camden has very strong links to Amy Winehouse. And behind me is the pub where she used to drink. So, she was known for visiting this pub and a lot of other pubs nearby. There's actually a mural behind. Yeah, she used to live just off of Camden High Street, although she's originally from Southgate, but she used to be very well known around this part. So, I'm just going to take a stroll around Camden Town.
So, um, normally everyone asks me like what what day did you film it and what time? So, it's 2:00 p.m. and it's a Tuesday and today the sun is going to set at 4:00 p.m. That's why it looks really dark already. So Camden does have a relatively high crime rate compared to the rest of London, although it is lower than Westminster. So I did cover some of the areas in Westminster in my other video which was about um phone snatching around these areas like Trafalgar Square and Oxford Street. So the most common crimes here are like personal theft, um burglary, antisocial behavior and drug related offenses and not so much like violent crime.
On one of my videos on the England series, someone made a comment that their daughter went to Camden and her mobile phone was stolen. So when I when I was just walking here, you can see how packed it is. There was a girl right in front of me. Her backpack was open and anyone could have put their hand in and taken something. So I can see how pickpocketing would be something that would happen here all the time. somebody lost their boot. Um, so when I research, so when I researched the crime statistics for this area, it says that there's 70 to 90 crimes per thousand residents, which seems pretty high. Um, and a lot of them are like to do with the night life. So I think a lot of them are happening at night, plus the pick pocketing, it just makes it like a bit of a crime hot spot. But those are the statistics that are online. um when you're actually walking around here, it doesn't feel like a threatening place because there's so many um there's so many foreign tourists and just tourists from UK as well. Um, it just doesn't feel threatening in any way. I probably wouldn't come here late at night though and there's so many pubs here. Um, so I think there there's a big nightlife scene here. And because this is such a central area, it's like it's got really good links to central London. Um, the house prices are really high. So it doesn't actually correlate to the supposed [ __ ]. And the reason that people are coming to this area is because of Camden Market obviously everybody knows. Um, and it's got like really strong links to like alternative lifestyle, shopping and um, music, music scene. And it was also in Camden that global street food was a thing before literally anywhere else in London. Thank you. [Music] So, this is a this is a cool place to come in London. But yeah, you can see it's it's really packed. Um yeah, this this guy had a sign. I don't know if you could see it. He said £2 for a picture. So, I gave him £2. Um, now it's I think it's about 3:00 p.m. And yeah, as I said, it's the sun's setting really early here, so the sun's going to be completely set by 4:00 p.m. So, I'm going to hurry up and get the tube to Brixton cuz I don't want to go there when it's really, really dark. So, let's go to the next destination.
And, and I think I said it before, but this area doesn't feel dangerous at all. Um, but yeah, I'm here during the day. I think it's cuz there's a lot of people around. It doesn't feel that unsafe. Um, I mean, if anyone tried to do anything to you, there's so many people here. So, what's going to happen? So yeah, overall I know that the statistics they paint a different picture, but um actually coming here I think the the biggest threat is like keeping an eye on your belongings like but that's like in any other tourist place. All of the cities in Europe are the same. You need to watch out for pickpockets. So yeah, that that was that was Camden. Uh one of my favorite places in London. Okay, let's go to Brixton. I've been told not to go there, so let's see what it's like. It's an interesting place, though. Interesting history. I'll tell you more when I get there. Please make use of all available space. This station has step free access station. Your safety security.
I just arrived in Brixton. It's starting to get a little bit dark. It's a nice sunset over there. It took me a bit longer to get here than I expected cuz I had to take the underground. Anyway, I'm here now and my first impressions are it's better than wood grain. Tell you that. Um it's really busy. And it's got like this really big um this must be the high street that I've just I've just came out of the Brixton underground. So Brixton is an area in South London. It's in the borough of Lambeth and Lambeth is located on the south bank of the river Thames and it's directly across from Westminster and the city of London and it's one of South London's best known neighborhoods and it's famous for Brixton Market. So it's about quarter past 4 at the moment. Uh it's pretty busy still lots of traffic. There's a little fun fair over there. You can hear Jamaican music like everywhere. From coal miners to delivery drivers, has the working class lost its power. Hosted by the Socialist Workers Party.
So the same as in Camden, Brixton tends to have overall higher crime than the London average. And the statistics say that the most common crimes are theft, violence, vehicle crime, and public order offenses. So it's a little bit different to Camden which was more like pickpocketing drug related offenses. So this area is still very close to central London. It's really only a couple of stops away from Green Park, Oxford Circus. So it's it still feels like very central. [Music] So you can see the underground over there that I just just came from. And then this is just the main big open street. And I'm going to go to one of the murals which is here. Let's see if I can find it. [Music] So right opposite the underground there's the David Bowie mural. And he actually grew up nearby. So that's why that's here.
So Brixton's modern history begins with the Windrush generation in 1948. This is when people from the Caribbean were invited to come to the UK to help rebuild the country after World War II. This happened between 1948 and the early 1970s. And many of these arrivals were on the ship Empire Windrush, which is why it's called the Windrush generation. So right after World War II, Britain really needed workers and many of the people who were invited here worked in essential jobs like the NHS, public transport, factories and construction. But despite their contributions, there were tensions between the local community jealousy not from JJ the one. This is to do with like lack of job opportunities, poverty and racial inequality. And all of this resulted in several notable riots between 1981 and 1995, the Brixton riots. So because of these riots, I think that's one of the reasons why there's like maybe like a bad reputation, but the modern area is actually getting a lot of investment and they actually have like wealthier people moving in and then they have problems of like gentrification, things like that. So it's I think it's a changing area.
So, I read that like the area near to Brixton Market and near to the underground station is a bit more safe because it's more lit up and there's more cameras and there's just more people, but then they have like different pockets that are less safe. And they said that the crime rate can really vary depending on which area you're in or which street. So, you really have to like know where you're going if you live here or if you visit. So, I'm just going off onto one of the neighborhood streets. Love a cheeky Nando's. There's lots of murals and like artwork. Yeah. A lot It's a lot quieter down these streets and they have all these Yeah. This is something that you can see in in London. Yeah. Um so this I'm not sure. Oh, these are lit up actually. Sometimes you can see these these kind of houses. They're just being held like for speculative value like held as asset and there's no one living in them. But these ones actually seem to be all taken. They're all lit up.
Okay, so the time is currently 4:40. Starting to get dark and I think I'm getting out of here. I'm just going to go back to the main street where it's more lit up and then I'll be on my way. But yeah, just walking around that area. Obviously, it's very different. Like if you just come here at certain time of the day, this this area that I just came to, it's very different to if you live here or if you go to another area at the wrong time of the day. So everything's very subjective. And it also I saw online as well like it depends like who you ask. Someone someone can say, "Oh, it's so safe. Yeah, it used to be dangerous, but now it's not." Or somebody else can say, "Oh, no. I never go there." You know what I mean? So, everything is subjective, but I'm just sharing my uh experience. It's It's fine. It's It's not as bad as what I thought it's going to be. Yeah. Plus, it's 4:30 and it's not midnight. So, it feels like another place in central London, to be honest. And one of one of the famous places here is Brixton Market, which I haven't gone to. I wanted to see more like the neighborhood and the surrounding areas, but I'm just going back to the main street is through here. Oh, is that Banksy? So, I think that Banksy is very famous and everybody knows who he is, but if you didn't know, he's he does street art in London and it just pops up randomly in all kinds of places that you wouldn't expect. So, I I have never seen a Banksy um street art before. So, I'm very I'm thrilled to see this. This is great. [Music] video. Okay, that guy thought I was making a video of his car. I wasn't. Um, okay. I'm going to wrap this video up here. I hope you enjoyed my little tour of Camden and Brixton and I'll see you in the next one.