Camden Town has been exposed as London’s fourth biggest crime hotspot by an award-winning research student at University College London.

The neighbourhood was one of the five areas with the highest number of violent and sexual crimes in the capital between April 2012 and March this year, according to the latest open crime data from the website police.uk.

Camden Town came behind only Brixton, Shoreditch and Soho and Leicester Square in the audit, where each hotspot had more than 750 recorded crimes within a 1km radius over the 12 month period.

Research student Matt Ashby, an online crime blogger and former police constable for British Transport Police, also found that half of all reported offences took place in less than one per cent of streets across London.

Mr Ashby, 32, said: “The Camden Town area had 1,100 violent or sexual crimes in the past year, more than all but three other hotspots in London.

“Camden Town is a busy shopping and entertainment destination for Londoners and tourists almost 24-hours a day.

“With so many people in the area it is inevitable that some of them will be the victim of crime.”

The statistics also reveal that there have been roughly 120 crimes in Camden Town for every 1,000 residents over the past 12months, with reported burglaries and vehicle crimes believed to be growing in number.

But anti-social behaviour, robberies and violent crimes have decreased since the first half of 2012.

Detective Sergeant Lucy Robinson, from the Central Cluster Neighbourhood Police Team, said: “The statistics demonstrate the proactive work by police in the area, who make regular arrests and tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.”

She added: “A dedicated Camden Town Centre Team patrol the area and conduct high visibility policing, covert operations and crime prevention to Camden Town’s communities.”

Camden cabinet member for community safety, Cllr Abdul Hai, said: “We know that crime remains an issue in Camden Town, which is why we continue to invest resources in the area such as providing funding for 16 additional police officers.

“We have had success in reducing the levels of alcohol related violence in Camden Town, which was down 5 per cent last year, and we are confident we can work together to reduce all crime in the area.”