Nestled in a lamplit, brick-walled back alley in the heart of London’s Camden Town, The Black Heart rock pub has been thriving for a full fifteen years. Pubs in grotty old Camden might not seem, or look, too special — The Black Heart itself is so obscure one could easily walk past its single entryway without realising it was a venue at all — but this bar holds an entirely special place in the heart of the local community, and for goths, punks, rockers and metalheads from across the capital city and beyond.
Many times I’ve stumbled into a late-night conversation with a band-shirt clad bloke in the smoking area, pint of Camden Hells in hand, who has travelled all the way from a distant English county just to catch a glimpse of The Black Heart’s action. But what’s drawing music fans so rampantly to socialise at such a discreet venue?
It’s likely no shock to hear that Camden Town, situated in North London (about a fifteen minute walk from King’s Cross St. Pancras train station), is a historic hot-spot for the alternative music scene. Just like Whitby’s ripe association with Gothic culture in Northern England, Camden Town coalesces the many subcultures of rock music into one melting pot of oddities: goth shops, metal bars, mohawked punks blasting raucous music from the bridge overlooking Camden Lock…
At least that’s how it used to be. These days, gentrification has practically obliterated the heart and soul of this buzzing highstreet location; the goth shops are gone, and in their place, two Pret A Manger’s stand within a one minute walk of each other, an extra Starbucks for luck perched between the two, with a host of generic, Instagram-girl hipster stores filling the void left by the emo scene’s demise. Yet, The Black Heart remains, stronger than ever; a pillar in the alternative community and one of the metal scene’s last remaining safe havens.
The Black Heart isn’t just a pub decked out in exquisite all-goth attire; its walls painted black and smattered vibrantly with music artwork, fairy lights sparkling in the dimness, unisex bathroom stalls plastered with band stickers and extremely entertaining graffiti, and even a pesky family of life-size skeletons clambering up the walls around Halloween season. The Black Heart is also an events venue, its second and third floors regularly hosting live gigs, karaoke and club nights, pop-up shops featuring pop-up tattoo parlours, fashion, jewellery, handmade goods from independent alternative businesses, as well as other creative antics and activities.
The musicians’ stage may be cramped and the audience space even more so, but this adds astronomically to the pure rush fuelling this intimate venue. Band members performing so close you can see the sweat begin to trickle beneath the stage lights, a hyped-up audience slowly turning feral in the heat, moshing and spawning circle-pits in the space of a few small metres. But, if getting caught up in the thick of the metal-show mayhem isn’t your style at all, the sidelines consistently offer a safe place to hover, with full, clear views of each performance, and in much closer range than practically any other music venue.
Downstairs, the bar bustles with metalheads and night-creatures from all walks of life; the bar staff heralding London’s diversity, inclusivity and all-important trans-rights, providing a safe space where ex-teen outcasts can revel with folk that share not only a guitar-heavy music taste, but sometimes the deepest of life’s experiences. Tucked away in a tourist hotspot, this is the rare type of venue where London locals and first-time city visitors happily chat the hours away beneath the blast of classic Iron Maiden and Judas Priest hits, spilling wild stories until the dead of night, and creating unforgettable experiences with equally unforgettable people.
In two years of visiting this venue, I can recount some vivid highlights that might well stick with me forever: the Halloween bash where a masked civilian rocked up in the most outlandish, cinema-worthy Predator costume fathomable; a side-splitting karaoke rendition of Slipknot’s “Duality” where the guy replaced every tongue-twisting lyric of the rapped verse with one single, iconic line from the chorus, repeated over and over for four hilarious minutes; not to mention the countless conversations: chatting political topics with an opinionated American expat, the rare trees of Kew Gardens with a Croatian tourist, and innumerable late-night deep dives into favourite bands, best new albums, what patches we’ve sewn onto our battle vests, “where on Earth did you find those spiked, leather boots?” and the like.
Venturing over to the three-panelled bar, one will find a refreshing selection of craft beers, shots, cocktails and mocktails (I’d recommend a shot or five of the Irish liqueur, ‘Lucky Sod’), bottles and ciders, to name a handful of drinks-menu highlights. And that’s not to mention The Black Heart’s award-winning pop-up kitchens, serving a class array of vegan meals and bites, with classic roast dinners available every Sunday. At the time of writing this article, LD’s Kitchen has rein over the menu: a female-owned business hiring out-of-work musicians and serving delectable “vegan BBQ soul food.”
This writer wasn’t alive during Camden Town’s ‘70s punk heydey, but even since The Black Heart first opened for business in 2014, the rock scene is being evidently pushed out of its historic hometown. Alongside The Black Heart, another metal bar, The Devonshire Arms (formerly known as The Hobgoblin, just a four minute walk away, down Kentish Town Road) is the only social hub left where lovers of rock, goth, punk and metal can congregate in their flocks of black leather, stir up some friendly chaos and headbang the night away.
London’s narrowing number of exclusive metal venues has pumped the community full of deathless love for The Black Heart. When the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions put their stranglehold on pub nights and live events, The Black Heart lay on the cusp of permanent closure. But London’s metalhead community crawled out of their shadows to crowdfund an incredible £150,000 to keep the venue up and kicking, where it remains a vital hotspot for the alternative scene to continue thriving today.
So, if you’ve ever been a rock / metal music nerd, or held an odd soft spot for all things occult, there’s hardly a better Third Place to socialise, meet interesting new folks and make lasting friendships than at Camden’s Black Heart. Show up for a drink and stay hours for the atmosphere, found hardly anywhere else across the sprawling capital city.
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