Security guards in Camden

Which parts of Camden do we cover?

All of it, from Holborn, Bloomsbury and St Giles up to Kentish Town, Hampstead and West Hampstead.

The south of the borough is part of central London. The West End, shared with Westminster, reaches into Camden around Tottenham Court Road, and the London Plan names further clusters of shops and services at High Holborn and Kingsway, on Euston Road and at King’s Cross and St Pancras. Network Rail runs three of the main line stations here: Euston, King’s Cross and St Pancras International (Network Rail).

Around those stations is the Knowledge Quarter, a partnership of more than 100 organisations within a mile of King’s Cross, among them the British Library, the British Museum, UCL, Wellcome and Central Saint Martins. University College Hospital is on Euston Road (UCLH), and Great Ormond Street Hospital is also in the borough.

Two Opportunity Areas surround the main line stations. King’s Cross, shared with Islington, has room for 25,000 new jobs, and Euston for up to 15,000 jobs and 3,800 homes.

Further north, Camden Town is a Major town centre, and so is Kilburn High Road on the Brent border. Kentish Town, Hampstead, Swiss Cottage with Finchley Road, and West Hampstead are district centres. Camden has no Strategic Industrial Location in the London Plan. In Kentish Town, the council has marked the Regis Road industrial area for employment-led redevelopment, and its planning framework expects that area and the neighbouring Murphy’s site to take potentially 2,000 new homes.

What needs guarding in Camden?

Offices, labs and institutions. Knowledge Quarter members range from libraries and museums to research institutes and life sciences labs. An officer on reception can check people in against your rules and keep them out of areas they shouldn’t reach, then lock up and patrol at night: see office and corporate security.

Building sites. HS2’s tunnels run deep beneath the borough from Kilburn High Road to the Euston approaches (HS2), and the council’s Community Investment Programme aims to build 4,850 homes, including 1,800 council homes. Whatever the size of your site, it needs its gate run during the day and someone guarding it after the trades leave: see construction site security.

Jewellery and other high-value shops. Hatton Garden is London’s jewellery quarter and has its own Business Improvement District (Camden Council). Our retail security officers give a shop a visible, polite presence, and our keyholding and alarm response service can attend if your alarm goes off after you’ve gone home.

What else affects security in Camden?

• HS2 works carry on at night. HS2 publishes construction look-aheads for Camden, including overnight and weekend work and utility diversions around Euston and its approaches. Sign up for them, and time your deliveries and patrols around the works. Traffic marshals can see vehicles safely through your gate when the roads outside are disrupted.
• Late venues need licensed door staff. Camden Town and the Tottenham Court Road area both have night-time economies that the London Plan rates of international or national significance. Anyone guarding a licensed venue’s door needs an SIA door supervisor licence, not a security guarding one (SIA).
• Five BIDs. Camden has five Business Improvement Districts: Camden Town Unlimited, Euston Town, Hatton Garden, the Fitzrovia Partnership and the Central District Alliance, which covers Holborn, Bloomsbury and St Giles and reaches into Islington (Camden Council). Euston Town became a BID in 2016, with the station’s rebuilding and HS2 among the changes it set out to help businesses through. Your BID can tell you what it already does in your street.
• Check which side of the road you’re on. Kilburn High Road marks the boundary with Brent, and York Way, beside King’s Cross station, marks the boundary with Islington. Premises on opposite sides of either street come under different councils, with different parking and licensing rules.