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 Road ever since. Not a different branch. Not a rebrand in a new postcode. The same stretch of pavement, through two world wars, the Blitz, the birth of the welfare state, the collapse of British manufacturing, and every youth movement that walked through north London in steel-capped boots.

That is 175 years of selling boots from the same spot. The London Underground is younger than this shop.

From Hobnails to Dr Martens

For the first century, Holts was a working boot shop in a working neighbourhood. Camden was not yet the tourist attraction it is today — it was industrial, dockside, and full of people who needed footwear that could survive a twelve-hour shift. The shop sold what the area needed: sturdy, practical, British-made boots.

That changed in the late 1950s. The Griggs family in Wollaston, Northamptonshire had licensed a German air-cushioned sole design and began producing a new boot under the name Dr Martens. The first 1460 rolled off the production line on 1 April 1960. Holts — by then run by Alan Roumana — was one of the first shops in the world to stock them.

At the time, the boots were workwear. Postmen wore them. Factory workers wore them. Nobody predicted what came next.

The Subcultural Years

By the late 1960s, skinheads had adopted the Dr Martens boot as uniform. Not because of marketing — there was none — but because the boots were tough, affordable, and looked right with turned-up jeans and braces. The shop on Kentish Town Road became a destination.

Then came punk. The Clash bought their boots here. Joe Strummer was a regular — his connection to the shop is remembered in our Strummer Range, a line of boots that carries his name. The Sex Pistols, The Damned, Siouxsie Sioux — if you were making noise in London in the late seventies, you probably bought your boots from Camden.

And then, directly above the shop, something remarkable happened. Jerry Dammers set up 2 Tone Records on the first floor. The label that launched The Specials, The Selecter, and Madness operated from the rooms above our ceiling. Madness signed their first record deal in the building. The bass from rehearsals shook the boot boxes on the shelves.

This is not heritage we have to manufacture. It happened here. The walls remember it.

A Family Business

Alan Roumana ran the shop through the skinhead era, the punk era, and the new wave years. His grandson, Nick Roumana, runs it today. Three generations of the same family, from the same shop, on the same road.

Nick knows every boot in the shop. He knows which Solovair last runs narrow, which George Cox creeper suits a wider foot, and which vintage Dr Martens colourways will never be produced again. That knowledge does not come from a product database. It comes from decades of fitting customers, handling stock, and maintaining relationships with the factories that make these boots.

What We Stock Today

The shop has evolved, but the principle has not: we sell British-made boots and shoes from people who know what they are talking about.

Our current range includes Solovair — made at the NPS factory in Wollaston, the same factory that produced the original Dr Martens for thirty-five years. We carry the full George Cox range, including the D-Ring Creeper and the Robot Range, which is exclusive to our shop. We stock Loake, Grinders, and one of the largest collections of vintage and deadstock Made in England Dr Martens anywhere in the world.

If you have read our Solovair vs Dr Martens comparison, you will know that we sell both and we are honest about the differences. We are not a brand shop with a single story to tell. We are a specialist retailer with an opinion, and that opinion is earned.

Why It Matters

There is a reason people fly from Tokyo, New York, and Berlin to visit a boot shop in Camden Town. It is not because we have a nice website. It is because this shop is the real thing — a place where subcultural history, British manufacturing, and genuine product knowledge intersect in a way that no online-only retailer can replicate.

Every pair of boots we sell connects to a story. The Solovair 8-eye derby connects to the NPS factory and thirty-five years of shared history with Dr Martens. The George Cox creeper connects to the Teddy Boys, Malcolm McLaren, and the punk movement. The vintage Dr Martens connect to a factory floor in Northamptonshire that no longer exists.

We have been telling these stories since 1851. We do not plan to stop.

Visit Us

We are at 5 Kentish Town Road, Camden Town, London NW1 8NH — a two-minute walk from Camden Town tube station on the Northern Line. Come in, try something on, and ask Nick about any boot in the shop. He will tell you more than any product page ever could.

Cannot visit in person? Browse our full range online at britboot.co.uk with free UK delivery on orders over £100.