Brixton is predominantly residential with a prominent street market and substantial retail sector.[2] It is a multiethnic community, with around 24 percent of Brixton's population being of African and Caribbean descent,[3] giving rise to Brixton as the unofficial capital of the British African-Caribbean community. Brixton is in Inner–South London and is bordered by Stockwell, Clapham, Streatham, Camberwell, Tulse Hill and Herne Hill.[4] Brixton houses the main offices of the London Borough of Lambeth.[5]
The name Brixton is thought to originate from Brixistance, meaning the stone of Brixi, a Saxon lord. Brixi is thought to have erected a boundary stone to mark the meeting place of the ancient hundred court of Surrey. The location is unknown but is thought to be at the top of Brixton Hill, at a road known at the time as Bristow or Brixton Causeway, long before any settlement in the area. Brixton marks the rise from the marshes of North Lambeth up to the hills of Norwood and Streatham. At the time the River Effra flowed from its source in Norwood through Herne Hill to Brixton. At Brixton the river was crossed by low bridges for Roman roads to the south coast of Britain, now Brixton Road and Clapham Road. The main roads were connected through a network of medieval country lanes, such as Acre Lane, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton Water Lane and Lyham Road, formally Black Lane. It was only at the end of the 18th Century that villages and settlements formed around Brixton, as the original woodland was gradually reduced until the area was covered in farmland and market garden known for game and srawberries.[6]
The area remained undeveloped until the beginning of the 19th century, the main settlements being near Stockwell, Brixton Hill and Coldharbour Lane. With the opening of Vauxhall Bridge in 1816 improved access to Central London led to a process of suburban development. The largest single development, and one of the last in suburban character, was Angell Town, laid out in the 1850s on the east side of Brixton Road, and so named after a family which owned land in Lambeth from the late 17th century until well into the 20th.[7]
One of a few surviving windmills in London, built in 1816, and surrounded by houses built during Brixton's Victorian expansion, is to be found just off Brixton Hill. The nearby 'Windmill' pub is named after it. When the London sewerage system was constructed during the mid-19th century, its designer Sir Joseph Bazalgette incorporated flows from the River Effra, which used to flow through Brixton, into his 'high-level interceptor sewer', also known as the Effra sewer.[citation needed]
Brixton transformed into a middle class suburb between the 1860s and 1890s. Railways linked Brixton with the centre of London when the Chatham Main Line was built through the area by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in the 1860s. In 1880, Electric Avenue was so named after it became the first street in the area to be lit by electricity. In this time large expensive houses were constructed along the main roads in Brixton, which were converted into flats and boarding houses at the turn of the century as the middle classes were replaced by an influx of the working classes. By 1925 Brixton attracted thousands, amongst others housing the largest shopping centre in South London at the time, as well as a thriving market, cinemas, pubs and a theatre. In the 1920s Brixton was the shopping capital of South London with three large department stores and some of the earliest branches of what are now Britain's major national retailers. Today Brixton High Street is Brixton's main shopping area, fusing into Brixton Market. The dominant building on Brixton High Street (472-488 Brixton Road), "Morleys Of Brixton" is an independent department store that survives from the 1920s.[7][8]
The Brixton area was bombed during World War II, contributing to a severe housing crisis, which in turn led to urban decay. This was followed by slum clearances and the building of council housing. In the 1940s and 1950s many immigrants, particularly from the West Indies, settled in Brixton.[7] More recent immigrants include a large Portuguese community (see Little Portugal) and other EU citizens. Brixton also has an increasingly ageing population which affects housing strategies in the area.[9]
The Windrush generation
The Empire Windrush which brought immigrants from the Caribbean to Tilbury in 1948.
The first wave of immigrants (492 individuals) that formed the British African-Caribbean community arrived in 1948 on the Empire Windrush from Jamaica and were temporarily housed in the Clapham South deep shelter. The nearest Labour Exchange (Job Centre) was in Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, and the new arrivals spread out into local accommodation.[11][12][13]
This first generation of the British African-Caribbean community is referred to as the "Windrush Generation" and immigrated to Britain when the British Nationality Act 1948 gave all citizens of Commonwealth countries the right of British citizenship. Britain was at the time considered the "Mother Country" of the Commonwealth.[11][13][14] The Windrush was en route from Australia to England via the Atlantic, docking in Kingston, Jamaica. An advertisement had appeared in a Jamaican newspaper offering cheap transport on the ship for anybody who wanted to come and work in Britain. Many only intended to stay in Britain for a few years, and although a number returned to the Caribbean, the majority remained to settle permanently.[11] The arrival of the passengers has become an important landmark in the history of modern Britain, and the image of West Indians filing off its gangplank has come to symbolise the beginning of modern British multicultural society.[11] In 1998 the area in front of the Tate Library in Brixton was renamed "Windrush Square" to mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush.[7]
Brixton was the scene of riots in April 1981 at a time when Brixton underwent deep social and economic problems — high unemployment, high crime, poor housing, no amenities — in a predominantly African-Caribbean community.[15] The Metropolitan Police began Operation Swamp 81 at the beginning of April, aimed at reducing street crime, mainly through the heavy use of the so-called sus law, which allowed police to stop and search individuals on the basis of a mere 'suspicion' of wrong-doing. Plain clothes police officers were dispatched into Brixton, and in five days almost 1,000 people were stopped and searched.[16] The riot resulted in almost 279 injuries to police and 45 injuries to members of the public;[17] over a hundred vehicles were burned, including 56 police vehicles; and almost 150 buildings were damaged, with thirty burned. There were 82 arrests. Reports suggested that up to 5,000 people were involved in the riot.[18]
Following the 1981 Brixton riot the Government commissioned a public inquiry into the riot headed by Lord Scarman. The Scarman report was published in November 1981 and found unquestionable evidence of the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of 'stop and search' powers by the police against black people. The report made a number of recommendations and lead to a new code for police behaviour in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the creation of an independent Police Complaints Authority in 1985.[19] The 1999 Macpherson Report, an investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence found that recommendations of the 1981 Scarman Report had been ignored and concluded that the police force was "institutionally racist".[20]
The 1985 Brixton riot followed the police shooting of a black woman, Dorothy 'Cherry' Groce, after the police entered her house looking for her son Michael Groce. Although the Brixton area subsequently saw pioneering community policing initiatives, the continued death of young black men in police custody (and in one case the death of a man pointing a fake gun at people) coupled with general distrust of the police led to smaller scale protests through the 1990s. The Brixton riots in 1995 were initially sparked by the death of a black man in police custody (Wayne Douglas) and occurred in an atmosphere of discontent about the gentrification of Brixton.
Former Prime Minister John Major's Brixton roots were used in a campaign poster during the Conservative Party's 1992 election campaign: "What does the Conservative Party offer a working class kid from Brixton? They made him Prime Minister."[23]
On 17 April 1999 neo-nazi bomber David Copeland planted a nail bomb in Electric Avenue, which exploded on a market day by the Iceland supermarket at the junction with Brixton Road (Brixton High Street). Around 50 people were injured. Copeland was sentenced to six life sentences in June 2000.
The Brixton bombing is reported to have targeted the black community in Brixton. Copeland also bombed Brick Lane, the heart of East London's Bangladeshi and Asian community, and the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho, London, frequented predominantly by the gay community. The BBC reports that Copeland intended to ignite a race war across Britain with his bombing campaign.[24]
JayDay Cannabis Festival
From 2001 to 2004 Brockwell Park hosted the annual Cannabis Festival, or JayDay, organised by the Cannabis Coalition. The police reportedly maintained a low profile, tolerating the smoking of cannabis.[25][26] In 2005 the London Borough of Lambeth rejected the application for a further Cannabis Festival on the following grounds:
"While Lambeth Council supports freedom of speech and the right to take part in a legitimate campaign, the council cannot condone illegal activities such as cannabis use and drug pushing - both of which have taken place at a previous festival held by the Cannabis Coalition. Indeed council officers monitoring the event in the past were approached by drug dealers who offered them drugs."[27]
Transition Town
Brixton was one of the first inner city based 'Transition Town' projects in the UK.[28]Brockwell Park hosts the now annual Urban Green Fair, first held in summer 2007.[29]
Brixton Pound
The Brixton Pound was launched on 17 September 2009 by Transition Town Brixton.[30] The Brixton Pound is a local currency that is available as an alternative to the pound sterling.[31]
The first trading day of the Brixton Pound was on 18 September 2009 with 80 local businesses accepting the currency.[32]
The Brixton Pound aims to boost the local economy and build a mutual support system amongst independent businesses by tying local shoppers to local shops and by encouraging local shops to source goods and services locally.[32] The notes are available in B£1, B£5, B£10 and B£20 denominations and depict local celebrities such as the community activist Olive Morris and the environmentalist James Lovelock. Lambeth council has endorsed the project[32] which the new economics foundation helped to develop.[33]
Housing
Housing estates
The Loughborough Estate in the east of the area
Brixton is home to six big housing estates:Stockwell Park Estate off Stockwell and Brixton Roads respectively; Myatts Field off Vassall Road; Angell Town off Brixton Road on the boundary with Camberwell; Loughborough in the centre of Brixton; Moorlands Estate, situated off Coldharbour Lane; St Matthew's, located in the fork between Brixton Hill and Effra Road; Tulse Hill a little further south of St. Matthews.[3] The six estates account for a large part of the Brixton residence.[2]
Estates like the Stockwell Park Estate and the Angell Town Estate were originally designed to accommodate high-level walkways which were envisaged to link the whole of Brixton. The ground floor garages of these estates have proved to be a major security problem.[9] The Somerleyton Estate is dominated by Southwyck House (known locally as 'Barrier Block'), a large horseshoe-shaped brick and concrete 1970s structure which backs onto Coldharbour Lane. The 176-apartment block was originally constructed in this shape to provide a noise barrier against Ringway 1, a proposed inner-London motorway which was planned to pass through Brixton and Camberwell, later abandoned.[34]
Some housing estates have been linked with urban decay and crime. New gates and iron bars have been constructed for the Loughborough Estate around Loughborough Road and Minet Road in response to a number of murders around the estate. The Loughborough Estate is home to more than 3,000 families and a mix of 1940s low-rise buildings and 1960s/1970s tower blocks and houses.[3] Problems of urban decay have been reported around Loughborough Junction, the catchment area for Loughborough Estate, the Angell Town Estate and the Moorlands Estate.[35]
Victorian building
File:File:Brixton 1889.jpgMap of Brixton in 1889, showing Coldharbour Lane, Angell Town and Loughborough Road. Published in Life and Labour of the People in London by Charles Booth. The red areas are "middle-class, well-to-do" and the yellow areas are "upper-middle and upper classes, wealthy".
Brixton still features some grand Victorian housing.[3] As bridges were built across the Thames in the early 19th century those working in the City of London and the London West End moved to south London. The earliest built development was in Washway, now Brixton Road. With the enclosing of the Manor of Lambeth, owned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1806 and the opening of Vauxhall Bridge in 1816 development of terraced houses and detached villas started to line the main roads. St Matthew's Church in the centre of Brixton was consecrated in 1824, indicating a sizable population by this time. The Rush Common enclosure stipulations dictated that the large terraced and detached houses that were built along the main roads were set back from the road, allowing for generous gardens. The windmill was erected in 1816 by John Ashby on Brixton Hill and the Surrey House of Correction, later Brixton prison, was established in 1819.[6]
With the arrival of the railway in Brixton in the 1870s a building boom set in and Brixton developed into a major shopping centre. The first purpose built department store, Bon Marche, was opened on Brixton Road in 1877 and Electric Avenue was one of the first shopping arcades to have electric lighting. The now famous Brixton Market began in Atlantic Road and was moved to Station Road in the 1920s to ease traffic congestion.[6]Brixton Market is open every day selling a range of Afro-Caribbean products and reflects other communities in the local area with Indian and Vietnamese supermarkets and South American butchers amongst the shops and stalls.[citation needed]
Culture
Brixton murals
File:Brixtonacademymural.jpgBrixton Academy Mural, 1982
After the riots in 1981 a series of murals was funded by the council, although there is no evidence to show that murals have any direct correlation to the level of violence within a community. The murals portray nature, politics, community and ideas. the surviving murals include the Brixton Academy Mural (Stockwell Park Walk) by Stephen Pusey (1982) showing a mixed group of young people, intended to portray the natural harmony that could be found between children of mixed backgrounds in the local schools.
The Ritzy Cinema, Coldharbour Lane, is a formerly independent cinema now owned by Picturehouse Cinemas. The building was designed as the Electric Pavilion in 1910 by E. C. Homer and Lucas, one of England's first purpose-built cinemas.[36]
Brixton has a significant clubbing and live music scene. Large venues include the O2 Academy, The Fridge and Mass at St Matthew's Church. A range of smaller venues such as The Prince Albert, The Prince / DexClub, The Windmill, The Dogstar, Jamm, The Telegraph, Plan B, South Beach Bar, The 414, The Effra Tavern, Upstairs at the Ritzy, and The Grosvenor are a major part of London's live music scene.[37] The Brixton Splash is an annual street party held since 2005 celebrating Brixton culture.[citation needed]
Brixton Synagogue in Effra Road closed in the 1980s. The front of the building still exists.[38]
St Matthew's Brixton
Christian churches
Brixton lies within the Anglican Diocese of Southwark.[39] The grade II* listed St Matthew's Church, located on Brixton Green, was built in 1822 by the architect C F Porden in the Greek Revival style. It is one of the "Waterloo churches" built to celebrate Britain's victory at the Battle of Waterloo. Today, its basement is used as the venue for the "Mass" nightclub.
The 1868 parish church of St Jude, located on Dulwich Road, was designed by the architect John Kirk of Woolwich. It closed in 1975, and the parish merged with St Matthew's. The church building is today used as business premises by a publishing company.[40]
Christ Church on Brixton Road is an Art Nouveau and Byzantine-style Grade II* listed building built in 1902 by Beresford Pite,[41] and St Paul's church on Ferndale Road was originally built in 1958 as a Seventh Day Adventist church by John Soper.
The Masjid ibn Taymeeyah, or Brixton Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre, is located in Gresham Road, close to Brixton Police Station. The mosque has facilities for both men and women and space for 400 worshippers during prayer.[43] Opened in 1990 it is one of the oldest mosques in South London. The mosque provides religious, social and financial support to its members.[44]
The mosque made international headlines when it was reported that Richard Reid, the so called "shoe bomber" had attended the mosque. Abdul Haqq Baker, chairman of Brixton Mosque told the BBC that Reid came to the mosque to learn about Islam but soon fell in with what he called "more extreme elements".[45]Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of conspiring to kill citizens of the USA as part of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, made his initial steps into radical indoctrination in Brixton Mosque, where he met Reid, though he was expelled from the mosque after he turned up wearing combat fatigues and a backpack, and pressured the cleric to give him information on joining the jihad. Abdullah el-Faisal, a radical Muslim cleric who preached in the UK until imprisoned for stirring up hatred and later deported to Jamaica in 2007, was associated with the Brixton Mosque and began preaching to crowds of up to 500 people, but was ousted by its Salafi administration in 1993.
[46][46] Afterward, he gave a lecture he called The Devil's Deception of the Saudi Salafis, scorning the Salafi Muslims (especially the members of the Brixton Mosque), calling them hypocrites and apostates (takfir).[47]
Brixton was a site of a conference after the London bombings, at which local Muslims condemned all use of terror and indiscriminate killing. Footage of the conference was included in a 6-part ITV series called Mosque. It included local Muslims talking about the discrimination they face from people not able to differentiate between Muslims and terrorists, and the local Brixton community, on the whole, is described as welcoming towards Muslims.[48][unreliable source?]
Before the 1981 riot was the centre of Operation Swamp 81 aimed at reducing street crime mainly through the heavy use of the so-called sus law, which allowed police to stop and search individuals on the basis of a mere 'suspicion' of wrong-doing. Plain clothes police officers were dispatched into Brixton, and in five days almost 1,000 people were stopped and searched. The local community was not consulted about the operation and tensions between the black community and the police on the streets of Brixton reached breaking point. Local residents complained about young, inexperienced police officers being sent on the streets, provoking confrontation.[49]
In 2003 The Independent reported that around 200 "hardcore Yardies" are based in Lambeth, some operating as members of "Firehouse Posse" or Brixton's "Cartel Crew".[50] Yardies were historically associated with Jamaican immigrants and had a recognised stronghold in Brixton. Parts of Brixton were referred to as "Little Tivoli" after "Tivoli Gardens", a notorious "garrison community" in Jamaica ruled by gunmen.[51][52] In 1999 a scandal broke over Metropolitan Police detectives allowing two known Jamaican Yardies to stay in Britain as an intelligence tool. Eaton Green, one of the Yardies, escaped bail in Jamaica in 1991 and settled in Brixton dealing in crack cocaine. Three months later Green was arrested by a Brixton constable, Steve Barker, and became a paid informer. Green provided intelligence about Yardie activity for two years, continuing the use of firearms and the dealing of crack throughout this time.[53]
Several gangs are headquartered in the Brixton area. The "Murderzone" (MZ) gang, which is involved in illegal drug dealing, hail from the Somerleyton Estate.[54] The "Poverty Driven Children"/"Paid in Full" (PDC/PIF) are located in the Angell Town and Loughborough Junction area.[55][56] "Organised Crime" (OC), a gang linked with various shootings and an ongoing rivalry with the Peckham Boys, are based in the Myatts Field Estate.[57][58]
Members of these gangs are mostly in their late teens or early 20s, with gang leaders usually being childhood friends. Brought up in some of London's poorest areas some gang members reportedly move from house to house on an almost nightly basis, making it hard to track them. According to the Metropolitan Police these youth gangs are "far from organised criminal masterminds" but shootings and thefts can lead to violent feuds. Operation Trident officers stated that it is a "struggle" to persuade local people to testify, because of fear of reprisals. Trident officers stated that some gang members were "inept at handling powerful guns", and that gangs have machine guns, 9 mm. According to the detective many of the deactivated guns are shipped in from the Balkans and then reactivated.[59]
Drugs
Some media commentators have called Brixton the "the drugs capital of London"[60] and Val Shawcross, Labour representative on the London Assembly for Lambeth and Southwark, runs a "Brixton Drug Crime" campaign. She states on her website:
"I have been raising the disgraceful state of Brixton and the existence of an open drugs market in the centre - with the Council, Mayor and the Metropolitan police....The police, the Drugs and Firearms Unit and Transport Operational Unit officers have been undertaking long-term surveillance of the area(Brixton Town Centre) culminating in a three-day operation at the end of June to arrest those dealing Class A drugs...The police will be carrying out continuing covert operations in Brixton and patrolling with drug detection dogs. This is a long-term crackdown with the aim on cleaning the dealers out of Brixton."(retrieved July 2008)[61]
Brixton has a reputation for cannabis use, and the BBC has quoted a local resident as saying "People have always smoked cannabis in Brixton - everyone knows that, people have walked down the street smoking spliffs for years." This reputation was amplified by the "softly softly" police approach to cannabis that was piloted in Brixton in 2001 to 2005. Concerns were raised about "drug tourism" to the area.[35] The "softly-softly" pilot occurred in the context of a wider debate in Britain about the classification of cannabis. Despite the pilot being stopped and replaced by a "no deal" policy, the Metropolitan Police was in favour of a reclassification of cannabis from class B to class C. Cannabis was officially reclassified in Britain from a class B down to a class C drug in early 2004. In January 2009 the UK government reclassified cannabis back to a class B drug.[62][63][64]
Brian Paddick
In 2001 Brixton became subject of newspaper headlines due to the implementation of a pilot cannabis programme, also known as the "softly softly" approach, initiated by Brian Paddick, then Police Commander for the London Borough of Lambeth. Police officers were instructed not to arrest or charge people who were found to be in possession of cannabis. They were instead to issue on-the-spot warnings and confiscate the drugs. Although Paddick is credited with the idea, the pilot programme was sanctioned by the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Sir John Stevens. Paddick asserts that he implemented the policy because he wanted his officers to deal with cannabis quickly and informally so that they could concentrate on heroin and crack cocaine offences, and street robbery and burglary, which were affecting the quality of life in Lambeth to a greater extent.[65] The pilot was ended December 2005 and was replaced by a so called "no deal" policy on cannabis in Brixton following complaints about increasing numbers of dealers openly selling the drug.[66]
Paddick was a sergeant on the front line during the 1981 Brixton riot,[67] an experience which shaped his attitudes about confrontational police action and strengthened his belief in community policing.[68] In December 2000 he was appointed Police Commander for the London Borough of Lambeth where he worked until December 2002,[69] fulfilling his ambition of becoming head of policing in Brixton.[70] Paddick gained much support from the local community for his approach to policing and addressed a rally in his support in March 2002, leading Dominic Casciani from the BBC to comment:
"If someone had said just five years ago that black, white, young and old, straight and gay, liberal and anarchist would all be standing together giving a standing ovation to a police commander in Brixton, people might have said they had smoked one spliff too many."[71]
Gun crime
In the mid-1990s Brixton was considered one of the most dangerous places in Britain, with Coldharbour Lane once holding the statistic of 3 shootings per week.[3] In March 1998, following a string of shootings in Lambeth and Brent, the Metropolitan Police launched Operation Trident, also known as "Trident", a London wide initiative to deal with gun crime in London's black community. Brixton is one of the focus areas of Operation Trident.
In June 1998 gun crime in Brixton was reported on widely in connection with the linked murder of Avril Johnson and Michelle Carby, in Brixton and Stratford respectively. Both women were shot in their homes in separate, but connected attacks. Both victims were shot in the head.[72] In 2008 Tony Thompson, a former Time Out news editor, reported that "Gun crime began to escalate following a series of South London gang executions in the late 1990s." Thompson states that "Previous Met operations were seen as putting down the black community. Trident, from the start, was intelligence-led and had strong links with the black community."[73]
In 2001 the Metropolitan Police raised concerns over rapidly increasing gun crime in London. At the time Lambeth had the highest rate of robberies in London. In July 2001 two armed police officers shot dead black 29 year old Derek Bennett in Brixton, Angell Town Estate, after Bennett brandished a gun-shaped cigarette lighter. The verdict of the subsequent inquest ruled that Bennett had been "lawfully killed", the verdict was upheld in a subsequent appeal.[74][75][76]
In December 2004 the Metropolitan Police reported that in Lambeth, police have had 271 offences involving the use, or possible use, of a gun since April 2001. Furthermore five murders had been designated as Trident investigations in Lambeth during 2001.
In December 2004 Operation Trident officers and armed officers were assisting Lambeth police in a number of stop and search operations targeting "suspected gunmen or vehicles that have been associated with firearms" and called "Operation Trident Swoop" by the police. The Metropolitan police hoped that "the searches will deter suspects from carrying weapons and prevent shootings taking place, as well as possibly recovering weapons and leading to arrests."[77] Superintendent Jerry Savill, Lambeth Police has responsibility for policing in the Brixton area, stated:
"This operation is aimed very specifically at people we have information to suggest may be involved in gun crime or other offences. We want to send out a very clear message to those who carry guns in Lambeth, don't. It is time to stop the vast majority of people in this borough feeling afraid to be on the street and make it the gunmen who are fearful of their community helping the police to arrest them."[77]
In September 2006 Brixton was the scene of a widely reported shooting, involving two boys being shot in the packed McDonald's on Brixton Road/Acre Lane.[78]
In 2007 firearm offences rose by 4 per cent in London, totalling 3,459 ‘gun-enabled’ crimes, including 30 gun murders of which nine victims were aged 18 or under. A series of gun crimes in the Brixton, Clapham and Streatham, including the shooting of three boys in one week, lead some media commentators to call the area ‘gun capital’.[79]
Electric Avenue, the street which gave its name to Eddy Grant's 1982 single
References to Brixton in song started with the release of 'Whoppi King' by Laurel Aitken in 1968 and 'Brixton Cat' by Dice the Boss in 1969. This was followed in August 1975 by a song written and sung by Geraint Hughes and Jeff Calvert (who billed themselves as "Typically Tropical"): two white men who told the story of a Brixton bus-driver "going' to Barbados" with Coconut Airways to escape the rain in London.
The 1979 song "The Guns of Brixton" by The Clash deals with law enforcement violence in Brixton. Written by Paul Simonon, who grew up in Brixton, it had a reggae influence and showed the reggae roots of both Brixton and Paul Simonon's musical background.
Before a Jam gig, well-known punk band The Misfits were involved in a fight and thrown into Brixton Prison, which led them to write their song "London Dungeon".
Ian Hunter's 1981 album Short Back 'n' Sides contains a track called "Theatre of the Absurd" which refers to the Brixton law enforcement problem. "Play me some, play me some, play me Brixton power", is the chorus line, and the issue of race is opened with the first lines, "My tea turns seven shades darker as I sit and write these words. And London's gettin' paler, in my Theatre of the Absurd." The production of the record was overseen by Mick Jones of the Clash.
Eddy Grant's 1982 album Killer on the Rampage contains the smash "Electric Avenue", a reference to a shopping street in central Brixton, one of the first in the UK to have electric street lighting installed (when Brixton's character was very different). The song evokes images of poverty, violence and misery while also celebrating the vibe of the area.
The song "Waiting for the Worms" from Pink Floyd's The Wall has a rally leader speaking into a megaphone to a racist rally mob, which acts as some of the lyrics to separate verses of the song. The very first lyrics heard from the megaphone are, "We have been ordered to convene outside Brixton town hall..." The album was released in 1979, two years before the start of the riots of 1981.
The town featured in the song "Svarta pärlan i London" (The black pearl in London) by Swedish artist Thomas Di Leva.
The town also featured in the song "Has It Come To This?" by UK rapper The Streets.
The album "Quixotes of moons fights the Wind-mills of Brixton" by Project 5am
The song "Journey to the Centre of Brixton" by R.O.C.
The song "Brixton, Bronx ou Baixada" by Brazilian rock-reggae band O Rappa, tells about social differences.
The song "And God Created Brixton" features on the Carter USM album A World Without Dave. It mentions many of the most famous landmarks in the community including The Ritzy cinema and the prison.
The song "Sister Rosetta" of Brixton based "acid-house-country-gospel" band Alabama 3 starts with a conversation between "Larry Love" (Rob Spragg) and "The Very Reverend Dr. D. Wayne Love" (Jake Black) and the district's name is included in the first sentence of the song:
"It's a rainy night in Brixton D. Wayne
Why are you taking me downtown?
I brought you down here for a reason, Larry
you've been a faithful little reverend
due in the mountain of dessiminating the dope music to people all over the world
but I haven't been wholly straightforward with you Larry
but tonight, I think you're about to move a stage further in my twelve step plan which you have fought so diligently..."
UK hip hop collective The Illersapiens feature a track entitled "Brixton" on their debut EP, a tribute to the hometown of the group's lead rapper Mr. Man. Similarly, the Pop-Punk group Zebrahead make reference to a Brixton as a song title on their album Phoenix; whether this refers to the English city is debatable.
The Thin Lizzy song Half Caste, which was released in 1975 as the B-side of Rosalie, refers to Brixton. It has a reggae inspired beat and sound.
The song "Me and Mr Jones" by Amy Winehouse briefly refers to Brixton.
"Rulers one thing, but come Brixton"
Brixton in film
Director Richard Parry shot a film here (released in 2001) called South West Nine (SW9), referring to the postcode covering much of central Brixton. Confusingly, this postcode is officially that of Stockwell - although the northern part of Brixton falls within the boundary - whereas SW2 (the Brixton Hill sorting office) also covers Tulse HillA204 road, Streatham Hill and Brixton Hill.
"Reg Llama of Brixton" was mentioned in the (farcical) opening credits of the 1975 comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Brixton was also mentioned in the film V for Vendetta as being the location where the first riots against Chancellor Adam Sutler's authoritarian British government broke out, which resulted in Sutler calling out the army to try and stop growing public support for "V".
The film Johnny Was, with the exception of a number of flashback sequences, is set entirely in Brixton.
Ross Kemp filmed in Brixton on two occasions for his programme Ross Kemp on Gangs.
In the 1980 film Scum, a prison warder beats up a black inmate and yells at him that he is a "black Brixton slag".
The 1980 film "Babylon" was set in Brixton.
In the 1980 film The Long Good Friday the section where Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) finds and questions Errol was filmed in Vila Road, off Brixton Road.
Michael Caine could be seen under the Victor Value supermarket sign in Atlantic Road near the railway station in the film Alfie and a large fight scene was filmed in a soon-to-close pub in Brixton Road.
Brixton sits on several main roads. The A23 London to Brighton road runs North-South through the area. There is also the A203 which links to Vauxhall Bridge along with the A204 and A2217. Brixton was due to be a major interchange of the South Cross Route, part of the London Ringways plan, which was cancelled in the 1970s.
Other notable people with Brixton connections include:
Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone grew up and lived for many years in Brixton
Former British Prime Minister John Major spent part of his childhood in a two-room flat off Coldharbour Lane living with his father, former Music Hall performer Tom Major-Ball, then moved to a house on Burton Road. He started his political career as a Lambeth Councillor while still living in the area.
Max Wall Comedian and music hall performer was born in Brixton.
Freddie Davies the comedian and actor was born in Brixton in 1937.
