Things to Do in Kentish Town: The Heath, a City Farm, the Forum and a Pot with Your Name On It

Kentish Town is one stop north of Camden Town and a different place entirely: no market crowds, a high street that still works as a high street, and Hampstead Heath at the top of the hill. It is where North Londoners go when they want Camden without the elbows. Here is how we would spend a day here, from the people who run the pottery studio on Kentish Town Road.

Up to the Heath

Walk north past the station and keep going: Parliament Hill is fifteen minutes away and the view from the top takes in the whole of London. Behind it is the Heath proper, with the ponds, the swimming lido, and enough space to lose an afternoon. Go early on a clear day.

Kentish Town City Farm

A working farm between the railway lines, with pigs, goats, sheep, horses and a riding school, free to visit and run by the community since the seventies. If you have children with you, this is the first stop.

Paint your own pottery (this is us)

Halfway down Kentish Town Road, at number 136, is our Kentish Town studio, Studio 136: our first and busiest pottery painting studio. Pick a piece from the shelves, mugs, plates, bowls, planters, sit down and paint it. Pieces start at £23, the studio fee is £5 per person, and paints, glazing and firing are all included. Weekday afternoons and Sundays you can just walk in; Saturdays, book.

Booking for two? The date-night sessions are the ones most people book here. Want to get your hands in clay instead? Studio 221 in Camden, our making studio with the wheels, is a ten-minute walk down the road.

A gig at the Forum

The O2 Forum Kentish Town is the art deco theatre on the high street that has hosted almost everyone at some point, and still puts on a serious run of bands. Check the listings before you come: a painting session at six and a gig at eight is a very good Kentish Town evening.

The pubs

This is pub country. The Pineapple, tucked in a side street off Leighton Road, is the one people cross London for. The Assembly House on the corner by the station is the grand Victorian one. Both do a proper Sunday.

Down the canal to Camden

If you do want the market after all, walk it: Regent’s Canal runs south of the high street, and the towpath gets you to Camden Lock in fifteen minutes without touching a pavement. We wrote a whole post on what to do there once you arrive.

Getting here

Kentish Town has the Northern line and Thameslink, and Kentish Town West on the Overground is five minutes away. Studio 136 is on Kentish Town Road itself, a two-minute walk south from the tube.

Painting somewhere else in the city? See pottery painting in London for all four painting studios side by side.