A CITIZEN SCIENCE ZINE
Safety as a Feeling
Women's perceptions of safe havens in Camden Town
Fatima Sharif Citizen Science Academy · UCL & Camden Council ·August 2026 Ethics ref: UCL 16659/002
01— WHO I AM
Not whether safe havens exist on a map — but whether they exist in the mind. I am a Camden resident, software engineer and community researcher, with a clinical practice background of 3,700+ hours. I came to this research through the Citizen Science Academy — a partnership between Camden Council and UCL — because I live on the High Street corridor this study examines.
WHAT THIS ZINE IS ABOUT
This zine summarises three phases of independent citizen science rese arch into one question: do women in Camden Town feel safe in their everyday environment, and does the borough's formal Safe Haven scheme actually reach them? It combines street observation, a survey of 30+ women, and a codesign workshop to answer it.
Safety, for the women in this study, is not a place. It is a feeling — anticipatory, embodied, and shaped by design.
THE HEADLINE FINDING
Across three phases of research, one finding held steady — the borough's Safe Haven scheme is invisible to nearly everyone it was built for.
02 — THE METHOD
Three phases, one walked route. Each phase built on the last — from unobtrusive observation, to a wider anonymous survey, to a facilitated conversation that let the women themselves interpret the pattern. Route walked across four-plus Tavistock observation sessions.
MORNINGTON CRESCENT
→
CAMDEN TOWN
→
CHALK FARM
THE METHOD — THREE PHASES
01
Tavistock Observation
02
Questionnaire
03
Participatory Workshop
4+ structured sessions along Camden High Street, Mornington Crescent to Chalk Farm. Participants unaware they were observed — objective spatial behaviour only.
Anonymous mixed-methods survey, 30+ women. Covered safety perception, Safe Haven awareness, unsafe locations and time-of-day patterns.
Women rated locations, co-designed what a safe haven should feel like, and took part in reflective, psychoanalytically-informed dialogue.
03— OBSERVATION · TAVISTOCK METHOD
Four ways a body says no before the mind does i. Eye contact, avoided
Consistently avoided near groups of men occupying the pavement — anticipatory, not reactive (Valentine, 1989).
iii. Alleys, reliably avoided
Women travelling alone did not enter narrow side streets, even in daylight.
HOTSPOT
ii. Pace, unconsciously changed
Speeding up near Buck Street alleys and the Tube entrance — automatic, not a conscious decision.
iv. Phone, held as a shield Used to appear occupied and unapproachable — the most frequent behaviour.
Buck Street and the market alleys held the highest concentration of
avoidance behaviour of any location, across every session recorded.
OBSERVED AVOIDANCE, BY LOCATION
Marker shows Buck Street & the market alleys — the single highest c oncentration of avoidance behaviour recorded.
04 — QUESTIONNAIRE · 30+ WOMEN
What women told us An anonymous, mixedmethods survey of 30+ women asked how safe they feel in Camden Town, whether they had heard of the Safe Haven scheme, and which locations and times felt hardest to navigate. The headline figures below are dra wn directly from those responses.
80–90%
~99%
felt unsafe in Camden Town, specifically at night
had never heard of a Safe Haven scheme at all
9pm–12 reported window of lowest perceived safety — not deep night
WHY WOMEN FEEL UNSAFE Respondents could select more than one reason. 78%
Feeling watched or followed
74%
Male-dominated groups blocking space
68%
Crowding, unable to see exits
55%
Memory of a past bad experience
"I never heard of a safe haven — and I feel like it would be even more unsafe, as the workers would probably also be men if I needed to access this late at night." — QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONDENT
05 — WORKSHOP · CO-DESIGN & DIALOGUE
Where safety lives, on a scale from dread to trust In the final phase, participants rated five familiar locations from least to most safe, then took part in a facilitated, psychoanalytically-informed conversation about what safety actually feels like day to day.
LOCATION RATINGS — LEAST SAFE TO MOST SAFE Canal path, at night Unanimously the most unsafe — by-day quiet becomes by-night isolation.
Market alleys, by day The only location rated unsafe even in daylight.
High Street, in the evening Moderately unsafe — footfall drops, visibility follows.
TfL station concourse Trusted and familiar — the one public space rated positively by all.
A known café or venue Instinctively safe — refuge sought before any formal scheme is known.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEMES Three themes recurred across the workshop discussion:
Anticipatory safety
Containment
Self-policing
Routes, timings and exits planned before leaving home — safety as continuous labour, not reaction (Valentine, 1989).
Safe spaces 'hold' rather than expose — Bion and Winnicott's precondition for security.
Years of automatic adjustment, unnamed until the workshop asked the question aloud.
As one participant put it: "The feeling of safety came from people, not buildings."
06 — RECOMMENDATIONS
What needs to happen next TO TRANSPORT FOR LONDON
Put Safe Havens inside the station, not on the street Staffed points at Camden Town & Mornington Crescent. Awareness through digital screens and staff briefings — not pavement stickers — folded into Ask for Angela and Night Tube messaging.
TO REGENERATION & BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Stop consulting women. Start co-designing with them Embed a temporal safety lens in every brief. Audit canal paths, market alleys and side streets. Map with local women before intervention — not after.
TO COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & CAMDEN GIVING
Let's keep this moving together A joint follow-up during VAWG Activism Week, November 2026, would be a natural moment to review progress. Continued support for the next cohort would help sustain this work, and publishing the findings would let the women who shaped them see where they led.
Research that ends at a presentation informs. Research with followthrough changes something.
THANKS
To the women of the High Street who trusted me with their experience. To PI, whose interview shaped this whole direction. To Dom at Camden Council, and to Saffron and Alex at the Citizen Science Academy at ICP. To UCL and Camden Council for the room to do this work. WOMEN AND GIRLS' SAFETY IN PUBLIC SPACES – A CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT Following many successful collaborations, including the Good Life Euston, Euston Young Voices, and previous residency programmes, Camden Council teamed up with the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London (UCL) and Camden Giving to deliver a Community Infrastructure Levy-funded project focused on safety in public spaces. This zine is one of the outputs from this programme. Ten local residents were employed by Camden Council to conduct research informed by their own lived experience, focusing on the safety of women and girls in public spaces around the borough. As part of their residency, the cohort completed a bespoke 12-week paid training programme with the UCL Citizen Science Academy, using methods such as photo elicitation, walking ethnography, workshops, and interviews. The residents developed ten distinct research questions exploring intersectional challenges - ranging from global majority communities accessing essential services and the safety of women travelling with children, to Islamophobia and the experiences of female shift workers. Through practical training and supported fieldwork, the resulting recommendations and findings were presented at a celebration event in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall in June 2026, supporting the wider goal of promoting citizen-led policymaking and connecting residents with local government.
Fatima Sharif · faatimaashaarif@gmail.com Citizen Science Academy · UCL & Camden Council · 2026 · Ethics ref: UCL 16659/002