The Camden Bench

Four years ago a new form of street furniture started to appear in London, the Camden Bench, a specially commissioned piece of amorphous concrete designed to deter anti-social behaviour.

Quite what is anti-social will vary depending on the person, but Camden Council needed new seats for its streets, but also wanted to ensure they were for use by the correct sort of people.

It’s a lump of aggregate concrete with just enough shape to suggest it might be a bench for sitting on, but none of the normal indicators that it is indeed, a bench.

While seemingly a utility for footsore Londoners, it’s primary design aim is to discourage the wrong sort of use. It offers rest to weary office bums, but offers no respite for homeless bums.

The slight angles on the top seem designed to make sitting more confortable, but actually make sleeping very difficult. In this regard, the Camden Bench is not unique, as many benches have arm rests, not for comfort but to ensure there isn’t enough space to sleep on them.

However, these lumps of municipal concrete go further, they are covered in a waterproof anti-graffiti coating. They lack any nooks and crannies for lazy people to stuff empty food packets – or drugs – into.

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