Camden Town rivals world murder capitals

If Cool Britannia ever had a capital, Camden in north London was it. But now Camden Town, home to media and TV celebrities, is quickly gaining another reputation – for murder, drugs and violence.

With six murders in three months, the murder rate is running at levels almost on a par with Johannesburg and Moscow, two of the crime capitals of the world.

Every weekend thousands of people visit Camden to buy trinkets and T-shirts from its famous markets and to visit the venues where Blur, Oasis and Coldplay cut their musical teeth. Around 14 million people visit a year, making the area one of the country's top overseas tourist attractions.

Opera director Sir Jonathan Miller lives on an exclusive crescent two minutes away from Inverness Street and the Good Mixer pub where Damon Albarn and other members of Blur would unwind after recording at Food Records in Greenland Street.

Among his neighbours is his former Beyond the Fringe colleague, the playwright Alan Bennett and the millionaire philanthropist Torquil Norman, who rescued the once dilapidated Roundhouse venue in nearby Chalk Farm, now home to the Royal Shakespeare Company.

But in the past three months alone six people have met violent ends on the streets of Camden. Camden is running at 12 murders per 100,000 of the population while Moscow is at 18.2. London as a whole is at 2.3.

Crack and heroin dealing have also become rife, leading to drive-by shootings and murmurings from the fashionable media industry that it is time to pull out of one of Britain's cultural centres. A few minutes walk from Sir Jonathan's house is a popular gay club called the Black Cap. In July Andreas Hinz, a 37-year-old trainee Rabbi, described by friends as "quiet and very polite", uncharacteristically left with a man. He wasn't seen again for a week. Then his decapitated body was found in six rubbish bags behind bins on an estate 10 minutes' walk away. His torso was left on the pavement.

In May Frankie Kyraciou, 19, was stabbed during a fight in Falkland Road. Pierluigi Campioni, 35, was stabbed to death in June on Camden Lock.

Jahmai Conquest, 17, was killed with a knife outside the Tally Ho pub at the top of Kentish Town Road, yards from the Forum music venue, in July. In the same month, Kon Deng Thiep, 43, a refugee from Somalia, was beaten to death in Ferdinand Street while trying to break up a fight.

Last month Thomas Breen, 50, an Irish labourer, was stabbed outside the Oxford Arms in Camden High Street, feet away from MTV's studios and Camden's markets.

And last week terrified tourists dived for cover when, around the corner from the Oxford Arms in Jamestown Road, when a car pulled up and shots were fired at a 25-year-old man in the cafe, hitting him in the chest and legs.

"There is a feeling of unease in Camden," Dr Miller said. "There have always been places to avoid. Dickens wrote about them – it used to be places in the East End. But I think there is a feeling of unease widening across Camden.

"Drug dealing is rife in the high street and around the Tube and you really have to watch out for yourself. I think there is a social problem that is being overlooked by the Government." The week before the Thomas Breen killing, 150 people, mainly women, marched through Camden in protest at the killings. They laid flowers at each spot where someone had died.

One of the organisers, Lynn Costello, said: "We shouldn't have to be worried that a thug is going to stick a knife into our children. I'm disappointed we didn't get 1,000 people.

"Every parent in the area should have been out supporting this because one day it could happen to them."

The police admit they do not have enough officers to cope. Glen Smythe, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, says at least 40,000 officers are needed to police London, and the total in Camden needs raising from 700 to 1,066.

This week London's Mayor Ken Livingstone walked into the row. He called for powers to sack and appoint police chiefs in London.

He said: "I would have one body controlling London's police. We have all these different forces and we cannot look at what's going on and send police to where the trouble is, so when there is a problem in Camden, for instance, we can send them there."

His police advisor Lee Jasper, added: "By the time we can respond to trends the problem has been on the ground for three months, and it takes another three months to do anything."

Meanwhile restaurateurs and bar owners say people are beginning to fear coming to the area at night. The owner of two Camden restaurants, who asked not to be named, said: "Business is definitely down. I wouldn't want to come here with my children."