Camden, London: the British Museum, the British Library, Camden Lock and Kenwood House

Bloomsbury and Holborn are the borough's southern tip, laid out in Georgian squares and terraces and now carrying the University of London precinct and four collections within a few streets. The British Museum fills the block behind Great Russell Street, Grade I listed, NHLE 1130404, and opens daily 10.00 to 17.00, to 20.30 on Fridays, with last entry at 16.45 and 20.15 on Fridays. Entry is free and a free advance ticket is advised; it closes 24 to 26 December. Its curtilage carries three further entries: the entrance gateway, railings and lodges at Grade II*, NHLE 1130406, eighteen forecourt lamp posts at Grade II, NHLE 1130405, and the King Edward VII Galleries at Grade I, NHLE 1322129.

Three house museums fill out the rest of a day here. Sir John Soane's Museum occupies 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, on the north side of the square, which is in Camden; the Grade I listing, NHLE 1379327, covers Nos 12, 13 and 14 together, rebuilt in turn between about 1792 and 1824. It opens Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, free and without pre-booking, with last admission usually at 4.30pm. The Charles Dickens Museum at 48-49 Doughty Street opens Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, last entry 4pm, and is ticketed; Dickens lived there between 1837 and 1839 and Historic England states that the house 'is listed Grade I for this reason', NHLE 1356735. The Foundling Museum at 40 Brunswick Square opens Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm and Sunday 11am to 5pm, at £14.50 for an adult, £13.50 online and free for 21 and under, and its ticket admits for a year.

The quarter sits in the Bloomsbury Conservation Area, designated by Camden as local planning authority, which carries no list entry number. Coram's Fields, on the site of the original Foundling Hospital, keeps its Grade II listed playground gates and railings, NHLE 1271627, with the forecourt gates and railings listed separately east, NHLE 1271632, and west, NHLE 1378645. The statue of Thomas Coram outside No 40 Brunswick Square is Grade II listed, NHLE 1272393.

The Euston Road spine and the railway lands behind it hold three mainline termini and two collections that charge nothing to enter. The British Library at 96 Euston Road opens Monday to Thursday 09:30 to 20:00, Friday 09:30 to 18:00, Saturday 09:30 to 17:00 and Sunday 11:00 to 17:00. Entry to the building is free, exhibitions may be ticketed, and the reading rooms need a reader pass. The library, its piazza and the boundary wall and railings to Ossulston Street, Euston Road and Midland Road were listed at Grade I on 31 July 2015, NHLE 1426345: Colin St John Wilson and M J Long's design of 1975–78, built between 1982 and 1999 and opened in 1997, on a concrete frame at 7.8m by 7.8m column centres clad in hand-made dark Victorian Red brick from Leicestershire.

The Wellcome Collection stands at 183 Euston Road, on the north side of the road opposite Euston station, and its galleries and Reading Room open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00, closed Mondays. The operator states that all its permanent and temporary exhibitions, and most of its events, are free. The building itself carries no entry on the National Heritage List; the three nearest listed buildings are the UCL Chemistry Laboratory, NHLE 1322169, at 66m, No. 30 Euston Square, NHLE 1113131, at 74m, and Friends House, NHLE 1078321, at 113m.

St Pancras International and the former Midland Grand Hotel are Grade I listed together, NHLE 1342037: the station of 1865–69 and the hotel of 1868–76 by George Gilbert Scott, with William Henry Barlow's train shed of 1865–68, in deep red Gripper's patent Nottingham brick with Ancaster stone dressings and shafts of grey and red Peterhead granite. The station works; the hotel building is now a hotel and apartments and is publicly accessible only in part. Behind it, Coal Drops Yard is a shopping and eating quarter in the Eastern Coal Drops of 1851–52, Grade II listed, NHLE 1379214, beside Lewis Cubitt's Granary of the same years, Grade II listed, NHLE 1379215, which houses Central Saint Martins and is not generally open to visitors. Gasholder No. 8 of 1883, Grade II listed, NHLE 1423467, was re-erected around a park in 2014, and the Triplet of 1879–80, Grade II listed, NHLE 1464325, around apartment blocks in 2018. The King's Cross and St Pancras Conservation Area and the Regent's Canal Conservation Area, both designated by Camden as local planning authority, cover this ground and carry no list entry numbers.

Camden Town and Chalk Farm are built on the Camden Goods Depot, which Robert Stephenson began in 1837 on a 25-acre site bought from Lord Southampton and opened to traffic in 1839. Camden Market occupies it now, at Camden Lock Place, open Monday to Sunday 10am to 7pm including bank holidays, with the Hawley Wharf food halls at Chalk Farm Road open 11.30am to 11pm; the operator notes that individual times may vary, since the market is made up of independent businesses. The depot's structures stand around the stalls. The Interchange, Grade II listed, NHLE 1113238, is a four-storey warehouse built directly over the canal basin, its ground floor carried on a line of octagonal steel columns down the centre of the basin. The Horse Hospital, Grade II* listed, NHLE 1258100, held 92 horses in its western range of 1882–83 and 40 more in the eastern range of 1897. The Stanley Sidings stables are Grade II listed, NHLE 1258101.

Hampstead Road Lock, also called Camden Lock, works on the Regent's Canal at Chalk Farm Road and is freely accessible from the towpath. It is Grade II listed, NHLE 1272427, listed on 9 January 1992, and stands in the Regent's Canal Conservation Area, designated by Camden as local planning authority, which carries no list entry number. The roving bridge over the canal west of the lock, NHLE 1272428, the Hampstead Road bridge over the canal, NHLE 1272426, and the Regent's Canal Information Centre beside the lock, NHLE 1244300, are all Grade II listed. The canal was built between 1812 and 1820, and it is why Stephenson put the depot here: it gave the railway a freight link to the London docks.

The Roundhouse on Chalk Farm Road is a goods locomotive shed of 1846–47 by Robert B Dockray, built by Branson & Gwyther, Grade II listed, NHLE 1258103, and listed on 10 June 1954 under the name 'The Round House Theatre'. It works as a performance venue and admits by event ticket, so a visit follows the programme rather than an opening time. A cattle trough opposite the debouchment of Belmont Street, NHLE 1258104, and a drinking fountain set in the wall next to the Roundhouse, NHLE 1258105, are Grade II listed. On Gloucester Avenue, the Camden Incline Winding Engine House of 1837 by Robert Stephenson is Grade II listed, NHLE 1342073, with four parallel vaulted underground chambers each about 35m long.

Hampstead and Highgate are the high northern villages either side of Hampstead Heath, and Camden's five places here stand on and around the Heath, which itself runs on into Barnet and Haringey. Kenwood House on Hampstead Lane opens daily 10am to 5pm with last entry at 4.30pm, free, run by English Heritage: a core of about 1616 remodelled by Robert and James Adam between about 1764 and 1779, Grade I listed, NHLE 1379242, in grounds on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens at Grade II*, NHLE 1000142, 47.0 hectares registered on 1 October 1987. The Iveagh Bequest hangs Rembrandt's 'Self-Portrait with Two Circles' there, and the operator names Vermeer, Gainsborough, Turner and Constable in the collection.

Keats House at 10 Keats Grove is the pair of about 1815–16 once known as Wentworth Place, Grade I listed, NHLE 1379221, and run by the City of London Corporation. It is ticketed, and volunteer-led ground-floor tours run most Thursday, Friday and Sunday afternoons from about 2.15pm, last about 30 minutes and carry no extra charge. No source states its opening hours, so none are given here. The Freud Museum London at 20 Maresfield Gardens opens Wednesday to Sunday 10:30 to 17:00, at £16.90 for an adult with donation and £14.90 without, in a house Grade II listed as '20, MARESFIELD GARDENS', NHLE 1113113. The Isokon Building on Lawn Road, Wells Coates's block of 36 flats built in 1933–34, is Grade I listed, NHLE 1379280, and is lived in, so it is seen from the street; the small volunteer-run gallery in its former garage publishes no hours that a source states, so none are given here.

Highgate Cemetery on Swain's Lane opens daily 10am to 5pm from March to October, last entry 4.30pm, and daily 10am to 4pm from November to February, last entry 3.30pm, closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Visits are ticketed and it is still a working burial ground. It is on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens at Grade I, NHLE 1000810, 14.7 hectares. The London Cemetery Company opened it in 1839 on 17.5 acres and doubled it in 1854 with the East Cemetery extension across Swain's Lane; by 1888 it held more than 25,000 graves. The Egyptian Avenue of about 1838–39 and the Lebanon Circle are Grade I listed, NHLE 1271935, and the Terrace Catacombs of 1838–39 are Grade II* listed, NHLE 1378923.

All three mainline termini are inside the borough. For London St Pancras International take East Midlands Railway, Hull Trains, Southeastern or Thameslink. For London King's Cross take Grand Central, Great Northern, Hull Trains, London North Eastern Railway, Lumo or Thameslink. For London Euston take Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Trains or the Lioness Overground line. The interchange to aim for is King's Cross St. Pancras Underground station, which carries the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines.

Eight Underground lines serve stations inside the borough: Central at Holborn and Chancery Lane; Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan at King's Cross St. Pancras and Euston Square, with the Metropolitan also at Finchley Road; Jubilee at Swiss Cottage and Finchley Road; and the Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines. Two Overground lines run through it, the Mildmay and the Lioness at Euston. Tottenham Court Road, the nearest Elizabeth line station, straddles the Camden and Westminster boundary: TfL's station point and the Dean Street ticket hall fall in Westminster, and the Centre Point end falls in Camden.

For Bloomsbury and Holborn, catch the Piccadilly line to Russell Square for the British Museum and the Foundling Museum, the Central or Piccadilly line to Holborn for Sir John Soane's Museum, and the Central line to Chancery Lane for Doughty Street. Goodge Street on the Northern line serves the western end. For Camden Town and Chalk Farm, catch the Northern line to Camden Town or Chalk Farm, or the Mildmay Overground to Camden Road for the market and to Kentish Town West for the Roundhouse; the 1, 88, 214, 253 and 274 buses stop at Camden Town Station / Bayham Street. For Hampstead and Highgate, catch the Northern line to Hampstead or Highgate for Kenwood House, the Mildmay Overground to Hampstead Heath for Keats House and the Isokon Building, and the Jubilee or Metropolitan line to Finchley Road for the Freud Museum, about 250m away. Belsize Park on the Northern line also serves the Isokon Building. Highgate and Archway, the closest stations to Highgate Cemetery, are in Haringey and Islington. Kenwood House has no station within 500m: Highgate, Hampstead and Hampstead Heath are each roughly 1.5 to 1.8km away across the Heath.