The Hampstead Road was an ancient thoroughfare. In the 1830s it led out of London through the Duke of Bedford’s and Lord Southampton’s estates. With the arrival of the Regent’s Canal at Hampstead Road in 1816, businesses were established in Camden alongside the Hampstead Road, based on the wharves and basins immediately above and below Hampstead Road Lock.

The London & Birmingham Railway started operating from Euston for passenger traffic in 1837. Camden Goods Depot was established in 1839 on 30 acres of Lord Southampton’s land as the terminus for goods trains, in anticipation of further extension of the railway to London’s docks. This was achieved under the London & North Western Railway (LNWR). Following the grouping, this became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).

Robert Stephenson, the Engineer to the L&BR, was responsible for the extension to Euston and needed to reassure Lord Southampton and others that operations without the noise and smoke from locomotives could be achieved. It was agreed that rope haulage on Camden Incline be used, as on the Liverpool and Manchester line, to draw passenger trains from the passenger terminus to meet the locomotives waiting at Camden for the onward journey. Stationary winding engines housed in vaults under the main line, with impressive twin chimneys, were built for this purpose.

From Camden passengers continued their journey by locomotive under Chalk Farm Lane Bridge and through Primrose Hill Tunnel East Portals, the western boundary of CFRL.

The location of Camden Goods Depot alongside the Regent’s Canal and the Hampstead Road stimulated Camden’s commercial and industrial development. Pickfords, as the largest agents for the railway company, were the first to respond to this opportunity. Pickfords goods interchange shed on the south bank of the Regent’s Canal was the first to establish three-way goods transhipment in 1841, soon to be followed by LNWR goods interchange facilities. The latter evolved over several phases, culminating in the splendid Interchange Warehouse of 1905.

The first reorganisation of the goods depot in 1846 saw the construction of the Roundhouse as a goods engine shed. It also saw the Regent’s Canal towpath diverted to the south at Hampstead Locks via the Roving Bridge.

The next reorganisation in 1855 saw the rebuilding of the stables complex to provide stabling for the many horses that worked in the depot or in the carriage of goods to and from the depot. With the goods depot raised some 4-5 metres above natural ground, buildings in all phases of goods depot reorganisation were raised on vaults that could used both for stabling and storage.

One of the most important businesses attracted to the Goods Depot was the wine, beer and spirits trade. W & A Gilbey became the largest firm in the world in the trade in the last quarter of the 19th century, established a storage, bottling and distribution base in the goods depot in 1869. This included a distillery, bonded storage, bottling plants, and a range of associated industries in the premises they owned and leased in Camden.

The beer trade served the needs of the capital from beer stores in the goods yard, stocked by rail transport from the Midlands and elsewhere. At the same time the growing local community, including thirsty railway workers off shift, were served by a burgeoning number of public houses. Piano manufacture gravitated to Camden, benefitting from its ties to the West End showrooms and from the strategic location of Camden for transport of the finished product.