London

A is for...
The A-list
To kick start our celebration of London's least salubrious postal code, we head down to the Dublin Castle to meet the new cultural kingpins of Camden town.
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B is for...
Beautiful boozehounds
The social life of north London is synonymous with fashionistas slumming it in rough-and-ready boozers, but why are the glamourous people folcking to former metalheads' dive the Hawley Arms? Time Out investigates the watering holes attracting the capital's coolest customers.
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C is for...
The Camden Crawl
Your guide to navigating the chaotic collection of new bands assembling in the capital on Thursday April 19 and Friday April 20.
Click here to download your free guide and printable map,and buy tickets now if you haven't already. Feature continues

D is for …
Dublin Castle
Birthplace of the Crawl (1995)
Legendary Parkway boozer the Dublin Castle was built on the proceeds of digging holes. Alo Conlon, the Irish owner, was originally from County Mayo. He came to London in the late ’50s and earned a reputation as a fearless tunneller. His son Henry, now landlord, explains: ‘He and his mate were known for digging tunnels in very dangerous conditions. They would earn good money as no one else wanted to do it, so they got extra cash.’

Alo eventually invested in the Dublin Castle. Originally there were pubs in Camden called the Dublin, the Windsor, the Edinburgh and the Caernarvon. They were set up for the thousands of navvies building the railways. As Henry points out, ‘The managers wanted to keep the workers from different regions apart and decided to establish pubs for the Irish, Scots, Welsh and English. It meant less arguments, less fights and therefore more men showing up for work in the morning.’

Things changed forever one afternoon in the summer of 1979. ‘My dad remembers it well,’ says Henry. ‘Seven young men came in and said they were a jazz band and could they get a gig? Dad thought: Oh, jazz, that’s nice and respectable. He was not a little surprised the following Friday when a bunch of skinheads showed up. He thought: What am I doing? But the band were Madness and the crowd were great.’ Alo quickly offered the Nutty Boys a Friday-night residency: ‘Before we knew it we had crowds of people queuing down the street, and the place was packed each week. Twenty eight years later, Suggs still comes in for a pint.’

E is for…
Eco anarchy