Camden bench
noun · first attested 2012
It is designed to defeat sleeping, skateboarding, drug dealing and graffiti at the same time.
A concrete street bench shaped so that it can be used for sitting and for nothing else.
London Borough of Camden·United Kingdom
51.5428°N -0.1594°W · Q202088
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 2012
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
London Borough of Camden
- In English
Camden bench
The London Borough of Camden commissioned it and installed the first examples in 2012. Its angled faces stop anyone lying down, recesses protect bags from theft, the surface resists paint and there are no gaps to hide anything in. Critics made it the textbook example of hostile architecture, a bench that is mostly a list of prohibitions in concrete.