Brixton

Brixton is a locality in the southern suburbs of Londre.

First evocation under the name of Brixistane in 1067. Brixton is primarily composed of waste grounds until the beginning of the 19th century, the principal zones which will be urbanized are close to Stockwell, Brixton Hill and Coldharbour Lane. The opening of the Vauxhall Bridge allows a faster access to London and thus supports the urban development.

Brixton is a very alive district of London, located at 5,3 km of Charing Cross, considered as the “capital” of the community jamaïcaine of London. Windrush Public garden, located between Lambeth Town Hall and Touches it Library, was built in order to commemorate the 50e birthday of the arrival of the modern community afro-caribéenne.

Nowadays, Brixton consists of four great residential zones:

Myatts Field on Vassal Road,
Angel Town on Brixton Road,
Loughborough Junction in the center of Brixton,
Somerleyton Estate on Loughborough Park Road.

It is in these four zones that the majority of the population of Brixton resides.

Brixton has a music scene and cultural broad and varied. The largest rooms are the Brixton Academy and The Fridge And Mass. But a certain number of smaller scenes such as the 414, Windmill or The EFLA Tavern (among others), are high places of the London music scene, offering concerts of internationally famous artists.

In April 1981 and September 1985, Brixton was the scene of riots that some qualified race riots (riots according to the ethnic membership), whereas others preferred there to analyze a revolt of the popular classes (underlining the fact that the blacks were not the only participants in the riots). They made several hundreds of seriously injureds. In both cases, they put in scene black young men who disputed certain discriminatory measurements of the police force. Following the demonstrations of 1981, the government sent Lord Scarman to inquire. It is in Brixton that the first policies of preventive police force were tried. But the death of blacks as a police custody and a total lack of confidence in the police force caused some riots during the Années 1990.

In 1979, The Clash, taken along by Joe Strummer, sings The Guns Of Brixton . An engaged song, denouncing police violences with Brixton. The song was written by Paul Simonon, bass player of The Clash, which grew in Brixton and thus profited from a culture Reggae suitable for Brixton.

More recently, the symbolic system role of Brixton as “a heart of the Blacks of Great Britain” brought the visit of Nelson Mandela in 1996, but also of the bomb planter Néo-Nazi David Copeland, whose explosion in 1999 wounded 39 people.

The heart of Brixton is in its market which is held each morning, offering products coming from the whole world. The song The Electric Avenue written and sung by Eddie Grant in 1983, speaks about a specific part of the market, the first commercial street of the the United Kingdom which was lit by flashlights in 1888. At the market one will find a large variety of African products , but also Asian S, Indian S or South American S. In 1970 Brixton made build Stockwell Skatepark.

The realizer Richard Parry, made a film in 2001 named South West Nine in reference to the zip code of Brixton. Curiously this one corresponds more to Stockwell whereas SW2 covers most of Streatham Hill.

One also finds on the commune of Brixton, a windmill built in 1816, surrounded by houses built little time after due to the demographic explosion of London.

Famous people of Brixton

Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of 1957 with 1963, was born in Brixton.
John Major, Prime Minister of 1990 with 1997, passed part of its childhood to Brixton.
Freddie Davies, actor, was born in Brixton.
David Bowie, singer, was born in Brixton.
Paul Simonon, bass player of The Clash, grows in Brixton.
Dilinja, music producer Drum and low, grows in Brixton.
Sharon Osbourne, the woman of Ozzy Osbourne, was born in Brixton.
Vincent Van Gogh, painter, lived in Brixton.
C.L.R. James, historian, philosophical, Trinidadian political militant (trotskism, panafricanism, libertarian Marxism, etc), specialist in the cricket, spent its last years there.

Surrounding places

Stockwell
Clapham
Camberwell
Tulse Hill
Vauxhall
Streatham

Subway station nearest:

Brixton tubes station

Park nearest:

Brixton railway station

External bonds

Booklet " '' We want to riot not to work (Brixton, 1981) '' " 56p A5 to download
Brixton Society: association on the local history.
Urban75 Brixton : independent site with tourist information, like on the pubs.
Friends off Windmill Gardens: a site giving more information in connection with the above-named windmill.
Brixton Windmill : the site of the concert hall The Windmill. One also finds there the history of the pub and some anecdotes.
Voice Online : version Internet of the newspaper '' The Voice '' based in Brixton.

Simple: Brixton

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