Interchange Warehouse

Interchange warehouse

(Eric Braun, 2007)

The towpath crosses the Interchange Basin, known popularly as Dead Dog Hole, by a bridge dating from 1845 (see picture) when the LNWR started planning its first interchange facility. The vent openings in the wall alongside the towpath serve the underground vaults built in 1854-6 west of the Interchange Basin which were formerly used for storing wine and beer.

The red brick building now called the Interchange Warehouse was designed to straddle the interchange dock and completed by 1905. The dock was bridged over with heavy girders supporting the railway tracks and platforms of a railway goods shed, and the barges and narrow boats below were accessed through trapdoors in the platforms. Canal to rail transhipment had by then much declined and the new building was mainly devoted to transfers between railway and road vehicles and to storage in the magnificent warehouse on three floors above.

The Interchange Warehouse, which is Grade II listed, was converted to offices and refurbished in the late 1980s, retaining many of the original features and emphasizing the riveted steel columns. It was connected to Camden Lock Place (formerly Commercial Place) by the creation of steps through the retaining wall. In 2007 it was further restored, with many recent additions removed.

In the pavement of Oval Road and Gilbeys Yard a number of features of the historic goods yard remain, including the granite sett paving, rail lines, granite bollards, ventilation grilles to the horse tunnel below, a turntable and the frames of two large weighbridges.

See the Interchange Warehouse history for more about this building.

The Interchange Building in Gilbeys Yard

The Henson Building and The Interchange Building are the only remaining historic buildings in Camden Goods Yard where a new neighbourhood of over a thousand new homes was approved for development in 2017, on the Morrisons Supermarket Camden part, with One Housing Group Ltd working toward redeveloping Juniper Crescent Estate and Gilbeys Yard Estate on either side of Morrisons

Oval Road Estate is part of The Henson Building that faces the Interchange Building