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Why Tourists From 30 Countries Visit a Boot Shop in Camden
A Boot Shop That People Fly To There is a boot shop in Camden Town, London, that receives visitors from Tokyo, New York, Berlin, Melbourne, Stockholm, São Paulo, and dozens of other cities every year. They do not come because they cannot buy boots at home. They come because this particular shop — at 5 Kentish Town Road, NW1 8NH — is not like the one at home. The British...
Inside the NPS Factory: Where Solovair and the Original Dr Martens Are Made
The Factory That Made the Original Dr Martens The NPS factory in Wollaston, Northamptonshire has been making boots since 1881. For thirty-five of those years — from the late 1960s to 2003 — it manufactured Dr Martens under contract. Every pair of Dr Martens 1460s sold during that period came from this building, made by these workers, on these machines. When Dr Martens moved production to Asia in 2003, the...
How 2 Tone Records Changed Music — From Above a Boot Shop
The Label Upstairs Between 1979 and the early 1980s, one of the most important record labels in British music history operated from the first floor of a boot shop in Camden Town. The boot shop was ours. The label was 2 Tone Records. And the music that came out of those rooms — The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat — changed the sound of Britain. This is not ancient...
The British Boot Company: 175 Years of Camden Bootmaking
A Shop Older Than the Tube Most boot shops have a founding story. Ours has a founding century. The British Boot Company — originally known as Holts — opened its doors in 1851, selling hobnail boots to the Irish labourers who were building the railways and canals that would transform Camden Town from a quiet parish into one of London's most restless neighbourhoods. The shop has been on Kentish Town...
