Kentish Town and Archway

Published 21 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

Kentish Town and Archway sit on the slope between Camden and Highgate, about 20 minutes north of the West End on the Northern line. There is no famous sight here. What there is instead: a 1930s cinema that became one of London's best-loved concert halls, a 60-metre open-air pool that never closes, a working city farm, and the streets that carry you up to Hampstead Heath.

Most visitors reach this part of north London by accident, usually by walking one stop too far up Kentish Town Road from Camden. That walk is the point. Within ten minutes the crowds thin, the shops stop selling souvenirs, and you are in an ordinary London high street where people are buying fish and getting their shoes mended.

Archway is a mile further north and 40 metres higher. It is where the roads out of London funnel together before climbing Highgate Hill, and it has been a junction since long before the Underground arrived. Neither place is pretty in the way Hampstead is. Both are useful, and both put you within walking distance of the eastern half of Hampstead Heath.

What the high street is actually like

Kentish Town Road runs roughly north from Camden to the junction with Highgate Road and Fortess Road, a five-way crossing that locals simply call the top of the road. The southern end still feels like the tail of Camden: tattoo studios, second-hand record shops, a few bars. North of the station it changes character. Butchers, greengrocers, hardware shops, two or three good bakeries and a long parade of small restaurants occupy Victorian shopfronts, most of them still the original width.

The postcode is NW5, which places it in the north-west sector even though it is due north of the centre. If that seems odd, our explanation of how London postcodes are arranged covers why the letters do not match the compass.

The street's rhythm is worth knowing. Shops open late, around 09:30 or 10:00, because there is no commuter trade to catch. Restaurants fill from 19:00. On Sunday the high street is quiet until midday, when the pubs start serving lunch and stay busy until about 17:00.

The O2 Forum: an Art Deco cinema that never left

The single best reason to come here after dark stands at 9-17 Highgate Road, three minutes' walk from Kentish Town station. The O2 Forum Kentish Town opened on 17 December 1934 as a cinema, built for the cinema owner Herbert Yapp and designed by the architect J. Stanley Beard, with interiors by his partner W. R. Bennett. It became an ABC cinema in 1935, closed in 1970, spent years as a bingo hall and then a dance hall, and reopened in the 1980s as the Town & Country Club.

That is when it became a fixture of the British music circuit, and the building has barely been altered since. You walk in off a main road into a proper 1930s auditorium: a sloping stalls floor, a deep balcony, plasterwork around the proscenium. The venue describes itself as one of the best preserved original cinema theatres in the country, and from the balcony you can see why.

Practical points the website makes clear. The box office opens one hour before doors, and sells only for that night's show, at a price that may differ from the online one. There is no lift to the upper levels. Wheelchair users are directed to a raised area in the stalls next to the front-of-house desk, and spaces are limited and allocated first come, first served, so ring ahead on the venue's access line rather than buying blind. One companion ticket is issued free of charge with proof of eligibility, or on production of an Access Card number.

Kentish Town has form for this. Several other rooms around the top of the road put on live music most nights of the week, from pub back rooms to mid-size halls, and the area is a standing fixture in our round-up of where to see live music in London.

Parliament Hill Lido: 60 metres of cold water, all year

Ten minutes' walk west of Kentish Town station, on the Gordon House Road side of Hampstead Heath, is an unheated open-air pool lined in stainless steel. It is run by the City of London Corporation along with the Heath's three bathing ponds, and unlike almost every other outdoor pool in Britain it does not shut for winter.

Prices are those published by the City of London Corporation for the period to 31 March 2027; check the swimming tickets page before you go, and note that from 1 October 2026 the swimming facilities take card payment only. In summer the morning and afternoon slots are bookable and sell out in hot weather; outside the summer season everything is drop-in, pay on arrival. Evening sessions in summer are adult lane swimming and do not run on Tuesdays, Saturdays or Sundays.

Winter swimming here is a serious local habit rather than a novelty, and the water is genuinely cold. If you want the gentler version, the Heath's mixed and single-sex bathing ponds are a short walk further into the park; we compare all of them in our guide to London's lidos and swimming ponds.

Kentish Town City Farm, and why it is free

Four and a half acres of smallholding sit between two railway lines off Cressfield Close, ten minutes from Gospel Oak station. Kentish Town City Farm is a charity, open seven days a week from 09:00 to 17:00, with free entry and no booking. There are goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, geese, donkeys, three horses and a cow, plus community gardens and a wildlife pond.

Animal encounter sessions run at the small animal enclosures at 12:00 on Saturdays and Sundays and at 11:30 on weekdays except Tuesdays. Pony rides cost £5 per child, are for ages four and over with a weight limit of 50 kg, and must be booked in advance; tickets for each Saturday go on sale at noon the previous Sunday. Groups of more than eight people have to book.

The site is wheelchair accessible and has accessible toilets. No eating, drinking or smoking is allowed on the farm, and dogs other than support dogs are not admitted. Children under eight must be with an adult at all times. If this sounds like your kind of afternoon, our guide to London's city farms and playgrounds has the others.

The climb to Archway and Highgate Hill

From the top of Kentish Town Road, Fortess Road runs north-east to Tufnell Park and on to Archway. It is a steady climb, and the gradient is the reason the area exists in the shape it does: Archway sits where Junction Road, Holloway Road, Highgate Hill and Archway Road all meet.

The junction was rebuilt as Navigator Square, a paved public space outside the station, and the traffic that used to circle it now runs one way around a smaller loop. It is not beautiful. It is, however, one of the most useful bus interchanges in north London, and the point where the walk up Highgate Hill begins.

Highgate Hill is steep enough that the Whittington Stone, the small monument with a cat on top near the foot of the hill, marks the spot where legend says Dick Whittington turned back towards London. The Whittington Hospital, named after the same story, stands beside it. Keep climbing for 15 minutes and you reach Waterlow Park and the gates of Highgate Cemetery. The village at the top, and the walks that lead off it, are covered in our guide to Highgate and Crouch End.

Eating and drinking without booking

This is not a restaurant destination and it does not pretend to be. What it has is a high concentration of neighbourhood places that do one thing well: a Greek-Cypriot grill, a Neapolitan pizzeria, two or three Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan kitchens, an Italian deli, a Portuguese café with the best custard tarts on the road. Most take walk-ins on weeknights.

The pubs are the real draw. Several large Victorian corner pubs survive around the top of Kentish Town Road and along Highgate Road, a couple of them with function rooms upstairs that still put on comedy and music. They serve food until about 21:00 and a roast on Sundays, and they fill up when there is a gig on. Our guide to pubs where the food is the point explains what to expect from a kitchen in a London pub.

For a picnic, buy on the high street and walk to Parliament Hill. The view from the top of the hill takes in the whole of central London and is free, which is more than can be said for most viewpoints in this city.

Getting here, and the buses worth knowing

Kentish Town station is a single building serving two networks: the Northern line, High Barnet branch, and Thameslink trains that run through the centre to Gatwick and out to Bedford. That makes it unusually well connected for a Zone 2 station. Neither Kentish Town nor Archway has lifts, so both are worth avoiding if you have heavy luggage or cannot manage escalators.

Kentish Town West, half a mile away on Prince of Wales Road, is on the Mildmay line with direct trains to Richmond one way and Stratford the other. Gospel Oak, on the western edge, is where the Mildmay and Suffragette lines cross. If those names are new to you, we explain what the six Overground line names mean and where each one goes.

Route 24 is the one to remember. It runs the whole length of Whitehall and past Westminster Abbey, and ends its northbound journey at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, which means you can ride from Parliament Square to the edge of the Heath without changing. We have picked out the best of these journeys in our guide to bus routes worth riding for the view.

Is it worth staying here?

Only for particular trips. There are very few hotels, and the ones that exist are small and independent. The case for Kentish Town is that rooms cost less than in Camden, you are inside the Zone 1-2 daily cap of £8.90, and the Thameslink line gets you to Gatwick without crossing London. The case against is that you will spend 20 to 30 minutes each way getting to the West End, the stations have no lifts, and there is nothing to do here in the morning.

Archway is cheaper again and worse connected, with one line and a long walk to anything. If the idea of north London appeals but you want more on the doorstep, look at staying in Camden and north London, or further east around Angel and Finsbury Park. And if you are here between December and February, the lido, the pubs and the Heath are all better in the cold, which is the argument our guide to London in winter makes at greater length.

Frequently asked questions

How far is Kentish Town from Camden Market?

About 20 minutes on foot, straight up Kentish Town Road, or one stop on the Northern line from Camden Town to Kentish Town. Many buses cover the same route, including the 24, 214 and 134. Camden Town station is often made exit-only at busy times, so walking is frequently quicker than queueing.

Can you swim at Parliament Hill Lido in winter?

Yes. The lido is open all year. From 28 September 2026 to 30 April 2027 it opens at 07:00 with last entry at 13:00, and a single adult ticket is £5.00. The water is unheated and cold, and there is a sauna on site during the winter season for £7.00. Check the City of London Corporation's swimming pages before travelling.

Is Kentish Town station step-free?

No. Kentish Town has escalators and no lifts, and neither does Archway. If you need step-free access in this part of London, use the buses, which are all low-floor with ramps, or plan around the Overground stations and check TfL's step-free information before you travel.

What is the O2 Forum Kentish Town like inside?

It is a 1934 cinema auditorium with a sloping stalls floor and a balcony, largely unchanged. Standing is on the stalls floor; the balcony has seats. There is no lift to the upper levels. The box office opens an hour before doors and sells tickets only for that night's show.

Is Archway worth visiting on its own?

Not really. Archway is a junction rather than a destination, but it is the natural starting point for the walk up Highgate Hill to Waterlow Park, Highgate Cemetery and Highgate village, and it is a good bus interchange. Treat it as the bottom of a hill rather than a place to spend an afternoon.

Sources

• O2 Forum Kentish Town - About us (checked September 2026)
• O2 Forum Kentish Town - Getting here (checked September 2026)
• O2 Forum Kentish Town - Accessibility (checked September 2026)
• City of London Corporation - Hampstead Heath swimming tickets (checked September 2026)
• City of London Corporation - Swimming opening times (checked September 2026)
• Kentish Town City Farm - Visiting the farm (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Tube station information and step-free access (checked September 2026)