Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the

London Plan The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Greater London area in the United Kingdom that is written by the Mayor of London and published by the Greater London Authority. The regional planning document was first pu ...

as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century as communications with central London improved. Brixton is mainly residential, though includes

Brixton Market Brixton Market comprises a street market in the centre of Brixton, south London, and the adjacent covered market areas in nearby arcades Reliance Arcade, Market Row and Granville Arcade (recently rebranded as 'Brixton Village'). The market sel ...

and a substantial retail sector. It is a multi-ethnic community, with a large percentage of its population of Afro-Caribbean descent. It lies within

Inner London Inner London is the name for the group of London boroughs which form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. With its origins in the bills of mortality, it became fixed as an area for statistics in 1847 and was u ...

and is bordered by Stockwell,

Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history ...

, Streatham, Camberwell,

Tulse Hill Tulse Hill is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in South London that sits on Brockwell Park. It is approximately five miles from Charing Cross and is bordered by Brixton, Dulwich, Herne Hill, Streatham and West Norwood. History The a ...

, Balham and

Herne Hill Herne Hill is a district in South London, approximately four miles from Charing Cross and bordered by Brixton, Camberwell, Dulwich, and Tulse Hill. It sits to the north and east of Brockwell Park and straddles the boundary between the borou ...

. The district houses the main offices of

Lambeth London Borough Council Lambeth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, and one of the 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council meets at Lambeth Town Ha ...

. Brixton is south-southeast from the geographical centre of London (measuring to a point near Brixton Underground station on the

Victoria Line The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely underg ...

History

Toponymy

The name Brixton is thought to originate from Brixistane, meaning the stone of Brixi, a Saxon lord. Brixi is thought to have erected a

boundary stone A boundary marker, border marker, boundary stone, or border stone is a robust physical marker that identifies the start of a land boundary or the change in a boundary, especially a change in direction of a boundary. There are several other t ...

to mark the meeting place of the ancient Brixton hundred court of Surrey. The location is unknown but is thought to be at the top of

Brixton Hill Brixton Hill is the name given to a section of road between Brixton and Streatham Hill in south London, England. Brixton Hill and Streatham Hill form part of the traditional main London to Brighton road (A23). The road follows the line of a ...

, at a road known at the time as Bristow or Brixton Causeway, long before any settlement in the area.

Until the mid-19th century

Brixton marks the rise from the marshes in the north of the ancient parish of Lambeth up to the hills of Upper Norwood and Streatham. At the time the

River Effra The River Effra is a former set of streams in south London, England, culverted and used mainly for storm sewerage. It had been a tributary of the Thames. Its catchment waters, where not drained to aquifer soakaways and surface water drains, ha ...

flowed from its source in Upper Norwood through

to Brixton. At Brixton the river was crossed by low bridges for Roman roads to the south coast, now Brixton Road and Clapham Road. The main roads were connected through a network of medieval country lanes, such as Acre Lane,

Coldharbour Lane Coldharbour Lane is a road in south London, England, that leads south-westwards from Camberwell to Brixton. The road is over long with a mixture of residential, business and retail buildings - the stretch of Coldharbour Lane near Brixton Ma ...

, Brixton Water Lane and Lyham Road, formerly 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 A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to ...

s known for game and strawberries. 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 Vauxhall Bridge is a Grade II* listed steel and granite deck arch bridge in central London. It crosses the River Thames in a southeast–northwest direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Pimlico on the north bank. Opened in 1906, i ...

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 that owned land in Lambeth from the late 17th century until well into the 20th. As bridges were built across the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

in the early 19th century those working in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

and the West End moved to south London. The first development was in Washway, now Brixton Road. With the

enclosing Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...

of the Manor of Lambeth, owned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1806 and the opening of

in 1816,

terraced houses In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

and detached villas started to line the main roads. The Rush Common enclosure stipulations dictated that houses had to be set back from the main roads, allowing for generous gardens. St Matthew's Church on part of the former common land was consecrated in 1824. The parish of St Matthew Brixton, one of five subdivisions of the ancient Lambeth parish, stretched from Camberwell Green in the northeast, to Clapham Road in the northwest, to the outer edge of Brockwell Park in the southeast and to Kingswood Road in the southwest. Ashby's Mill, one of the few surviving windmills in London, was built in 1816, just off Brixton Hill and surrounded by houses built during Brixton's Victorian expansion. The Surrey House of Correction, later Brixton prison, was established in 1819.Ideal Homes – Brixton
As part of the Reform Act 1832 the expanding area of London was given representation with the creation of new parliamentary boroughs covering the metropolitan area. Only the part of Brixton north of St Matthew's Church became part of the Lambeth parliamentary borough, reflecting the still semi-rural nature of the southern part of the area. The population of Brixton was 10,175 in 1841, about 10% of the parish of Lambeth. In twenty years the population of both had doubled.

Victorian expansion

When the London sewerage system was constructed during the mid-19th century, its designer

Sir Joseph Bazalgette ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

incorporated flows from the River Effra into his 'high-level interceptor sewer', also known as the Effra sewer. Brixton was connected to central London by rail on 25 August 1862 when Brixton and South Stockwell railway station was opened by the

London, Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and no ...

on the line from Victoria. On 13 August 1866 the

London, Brighton & South Coast Railway The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR; known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its ...

opened Loughborough Park railway station with connections to London Bridge and the following year to Victoria. With the arrival of the railways a building boom set in. Brixton was transformed into a middle class suburb between the 1860s and 1890s and Brixton developed into a major shopping centre. The first purpose-built

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

, Bon Marché, was opened on Brixton Road in 1877 and

Electric Avenue Electric Avenue is a street in Brixton, London. Built in the 1880s, it was the first market street to be lit by electric lights (The first street to be lit by an incandescent lightbulb was Mosley Street, in Newcastle upon Tyne). Today, Elect ...

was one of the first shopping arcades to have electric lighting. The now famous

began in Atlantic Road and was moved to Station Road in the 1920s to ease traffic congestion. In 1881 the population of Brixton was 62,837, now home to a quarter of the parish of Lambeth. A prominent building on Brixton High Street (at 472–488 Brixton Road) is Morleys, an independent department store established in the 1880s. In 1888,

was so named after it became the first street in London 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 start of the 20th century as the middle classes were replaced by an influx of the working classes.

Before World War II

By 1925, Brixton attracted thousands of new people. It housed 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 Road is the main shopping area, fusing into

. On the western boundary of Brixton with Clapham stands the Sunlight Laundry, an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

factory building. Designed by architect F.E. Simpkins and erected in 1937, this is one of the few Art Deco buildings that is still owned by the firm that commissioned it and is still used for its original purpose. The Brixton area was bombed during World War II, contributing to a severe housing crisis, which in turn led to

urban decay Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban deca ...

. This was followed by

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

s and the building of council housing.

1948: The Windrush generation

In the 1940s and 1950s, many immigrants, particularly from the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

and Ireland, settled in Brixton. The first wave of immigrants (492 individuals) who formed the British African-Caribbean community arrived in 1948 at

Tilbury Docks The Port of Tilbury is a port on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London, as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for contai ...

on the HMT ''Empire Windrush'' from

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

and were temporarily housed in the Clapham South deep shelter. The nearest Labour Exchange (

Jobcentre Jobcentre Plus ( cy, Canolfan byd Gwaith; gd, Ionad Obrach is Eile) is a brand used by the Department for Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom. From 2002 to 2011, Jobcentre Plus was an executive agency which reported directly to the Minis ...

) was on Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, and the new arrivals spread out into local accommodation. Many immigrants only intended to stay in Britain for a few years, but although a number returned to the Caribbean, the majority remained to settle permanently.British history: The making of modern Britain
, BBC Online: Mike Phillips, 1998. Retrieved 4 October 2006. The arrival of the passengers has become an important landmark in the history of modern Britain, and the image of

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

s filing off its gangplank has come to symbolise the beginning of modern British multicultural society. In 1998 the area in front of Brixton Library was renamed " Windrush Square" to mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the ''Windrush''.

1980s: Riots after police actions and Scarman Report

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 property and land use planning, amenity (lat. ''amoenitās'' “pleasantness, delightfulness”) is something considered to benefit a location, contribute to its enjoyment, and thereby increase its value. Tangible amenities can include the ...

—in a predominantly African-Caribbean community. The Metropolitan Police began ''Operation Swamp 81'' at the beginning of April, aimed at reducing

street crime Street crime is a loose term for any criminal offense in a public place. The difference between street crime and white-collar crime is that street crime is often violence that occurs in a public area whereas white-collar crime is non-violent crim ...

, largely through the repeated use of the so-called sus law, which allowed police officers to stop and search any individual on the grounds of mere "suspicion" of possible wrongdoing. Plain clothes police officers were dispatched into Brixton, and within five days almost 1,000 people were stopped and searched under this law. There was intense local indignation at this, since the vast majority of those stopped by the police were young black men. The riot resulted in almost 279 injuries to police and 45 injuries to members of the public, more than a hundred vehicles were burned (including 56 police vehicles), and almost 150 buildings were damaged, with 30 burned. There were 82 arrests. Reports suggested that up to 5,000 people were involved in the riot. Following the

1981 Brixton riot The 1981 Brixton riot, or Brixton uprising, was a series of clashes between mainly black youths and the Metropolitan Police in Brixton, London, between 10 and 12 April 1981.J. A. Cloake & M. R. Tudor. ''Multicultural Britain''. Oxford Unive ...

the Government commissioned a public inquiry into the riot headed by

Lord Scarman Leslie George Scarman, Baron Scarman, (29 July 1911 – 8 December 2004) was an English judge and barrister, who served as a Law Lord until his retirement in 1986. Early life and education Scarman was born in Streatham but grew up on the bo ...

. The subsequent

Scarman report The Scarman report was commissioned by the UK Government following the 1981 Brixton riots. Lord Scarman was appointed by then Home Secretary William Whitelaw on 14 April 1981 (two days after the rioting ended) to hold the enquiry into the riots ...

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 led to a new code for police behaviour in the '' Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984'' and the creation of an independent

Police Complaints Authority This is a list of notable authorities, agencies and similar bodies that are responsible for investigating or responding to complaints about police. Asia Hong Kong *Independent Police Complaints Council India * Police Complaints Authority (In ...

in 1985."1981 riots timeline"
. ''Untold History'' Channel Four Television. Retrieved 6 March 2009 The 1999 Macpherson Report, an investigation into the murder of

Stephen Lawrence Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

, found that recommendations of the 1981

had been ignored and concluded that the police force was " institutionally racist".

1990s: Nail bombing

John Major's childhood roots in the area were used in a campaign poster leading up to the 1992 election "What does the Conservative Party offer a working class kid from Brixton? They made him Prime Minister." The 1995 riots were sparked by the death of a black man, Wayne Douglas, in police custody and occurred in an atmosphere of discontent about the

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...

of Brixton. In April 1999,

was the site of the first of three attacks known as the London nail bombings. The other two, which followed within a fortnight, were in Brick Lane, the heart of East London's Bangladeshi community, and the

Admiral Duncan pub The Admiral Duncan is a public house in Old Compton Street, Soho in central London that is well known as one of Soho's oldest gay pubs. In 1999, the pub was bombed by neo-Nazi David Copeland, resulting in three people being killed and 83 bei ...

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

, frequented predominantly by the gay community. In the Brixton attack, 48 people were injured. The bomber was caught after the third attack; the BBC reported that he intended to ignite a race war across Britain with his bombing campaign. He was convicted of murder and given six concurrent

life sentences Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes ...

.Buncombe, Andrew; Judd, Terri; and Bennett, Jason
"'Hate-filled' nailbomber is jailed for life"
''The Independent'', 30 June 2000.

2000s: Regeneration vs Gentrification

There has been, and there remains great debate regarding whether Brixton's recent renaissance should be deemed regeneration or

. Some believe the area has slowly undergone a process of gentrification since the 1990s and has resulted in many wealthy middle-class people taking advantage of the area's location and the thriving

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

art scene. However, others argue that the area is undergoing exciting regeneration. In recent years, Brixton has hosted a regular farmers' market on Station Road, as well as

Pop-up restaurant A pop-up restaurant is a temporary restaurant. These restaurants often operate from a private home, former factory, existing restaurants or similar space, and during festivals. Various other names have been used to describe the concept of settin ...

s and pop-up shops. New art galleries, delicatessens, bars, cafes and vintage clothing stores, particularly in and around Brixton Village Market have also opened, which some believe is gentrifying the area in a similar way to that in nearby

Pop Brixton exemplifies the ongoing discussion about regeneration. Originally created as a

community project A community project is a term applied to any community-based project. This covers a wide variety of different areas within a community or a group of networking entities. Projects can cover almost anything, including the most obvious section of conce ...

, opinion is divided over whether Pop fulfils its intentions of being part of the local community, with some arguing that Pop is seen as just another tourist and retail attraction, and that the council did not meaningfully engage with Brixton residents. Others have welcomed its arrival for its entrepreneurial approach and benefiting start-ups, and that it brings people into the area which has benefited trade and its popularity. In April 2015, a Reclaim Brixton protest was held by local residents and activists opposing gentrification. In March 2016, a campaign to save the businesses that occupy the railway arches commenced, with long-running local businesses being forced out due to rent-rises. The council passed the plans for

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

to refurbish them in August. In May 2019, plans for a 20-storey tower block providing office space were unveiled by

Taylor McWilliams Taylor McWilliams (born October 1980) is an American real estate developer and part-time DJ, who owns most of London's Brixton Market. McWilliams is originally from Texas, and by 2014, was based in Earls Court/Fulham, London. In 2018, McWilliams ...

- a Texan property developer whose company Hondo Enterprises had bought

in 2018. This plan drew a large opposition from the local community and campaign groups, already concerned with the threat of eviction of a popular local supermarket. Despite a petition and overwhelming opposition, council planners approved the development on 3 November 2020. A subsequent decision is to be made by London mayor

Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...

, the date so far for which has been postponed.

Transition Town

Brixton was one of the first inner-city based '

Transition town The terms transition town, transition initiative and transition model refer to grassroot community projects that aim to increase self-sufficiency to reduce the potential effects of peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instabilitythrough r ...

' projects in the UK.

Brockwell Park Brockwell Park is a 50.8 hectare (125.53 acres) park located south of Brixton, in Herne Hill and Tulse Hill in south London. It is bordered by the roads Brixton Water Lane, Norwood Road, Tulse Hill and Dulwich Road. The park commands views of th ...

hosts the now annual Urban Green Fair, first held in summer 2007.

Brixton pound

The Brixton pound was first trialled at Transition Town Brixton's "Local Economy Day" on 19 June 2008. It was then launched on 17 September 2009 by Transition Town Brixton. The Brixton pound is a

local currency In economics, a local currency is a currency that can be spent in a particular geographical locality at participating organisations. A regional currency is a form of local currency encompassing a larger geographical area, while a community curren ...

that is available as an alternative to sterling. The first trading day of the Brixton pound was on 18 September 2009 with 80 local businesses accepting the currency. 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. 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 Lambeth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, and one of the 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council meets at Lambeth Town Hall ...

has endorsed the project, which the

New Economics Foundation The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is a British think-tank that promotes "social, economic and environmental justice". NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) with the aim of working for a "new model of wealth ...

helped to develop. On 29 September 2011, the Brixton pound launched an electronic version of the currency where users can pay by text message. A second issue of the paper currency was launched, featuring a new set of well-known people with Brixton connections: On the B£1, the Black Cultural Archives founder

Len Garrison Lenford Alphonso (Kwesi) Garrison (13 June 1943 – 18 February 2003) was an educationalist, community activist and historian whose life's work was to catalogue the development of the black British identity and its history and promote the works o ...

, on the B£5, NBA basketball player

Luol Deng Luol Ajou Deng (born 16 April 1985) is a British former professional basketball player. He was a two-time NBA All-Star and was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 2012. Born in what is now South Sudan, Deng fled the country with his ...

(the reverse was inspired by the Ark Evelyn Grace Academy),

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

on the B£10 and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

secret agent

Violette Szabo Violette Reine Elizabeth Szabo, GC ( née Bushell; 26 June 1921 – February 1945) was a British-French Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent during the Second World War and a posthumous recipient of the George Cross. On her second mission ...

on the B£20. The reverse of the notes, designed by a Brixton creative agency This Ain't Rock'n'Roll, feature notable local landmarks such as the Stockwell Skatepark, public art on

, Nuclear Dawn (one of the

Brixton murals The Brixton murals are a series of murals by local artists in the Brixton area, in London. Most of the murals were funded by Lambeth London Borough Council and the Greater London Council after the Brixton riots in 1981. The murals portray pol ...

), and the

Stirling Prize The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The S ...

-winning Ark Evelyn Grace Academy. All four notes feature a design motif inspired by

's Southwyck House (or "Barrier Block"). In 2015, to celebrate the Brixton pound's fifth anniversary, the

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...

-winning artist

Jeremy Deller Jeremy Deller (born 30 March 1966) is an English conceptual, video and installation artist. Much of Deller's work is collaborative; it has a strong political aspect, in the subjects dealt with and also the devaluation of artistic ego through th ...

was commissioned to design a limited-edition B£5 note. It was described as "psychedelic and political", with the front featuring bright colors and the back with a quotation from

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

’s ''

Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist phi ...

'' ("Capital is money, capital is commodities...By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs.") Other towns and cities in the UK that have used their own currency include the city of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and abo ...

in Devon, Stroud in Gloucestershire and Lewes in Sussex.

Housing

Housing estates

Brixton is home to several particularly large

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex or housing development) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throughout the United States ...

s: Stockwell Park Estate off Stockwell and Brixton Roads respectively; Myatt's Fields South and North off Vassall Road;

Angell Town Angell Town is an area in Brixton, in the London Borough of Lambeth, south London. The area is dominated by the Angell Town Estate, a housing estate known for its poverty, deprivation and gang subculture. The Angell Town Estate was originally ...

off Brixton Road on the boundary with Camberwell; Cowley on Cowley and Vassall Roads, Loughborough in the centre of Brixton, Tulse Hill estate, Somerleyton estate and Moorlands Estate, situated off Coldharbour Lane. There are also smaller estates such as Blenheim Gardens, Caldwell Gardens, Church Manor and Hertford. These estates account for a large part of the Brixton residence. 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. The Somerleyton Estate is dominated by Southwyck House (known locally as "Barrier Block"), a large horseshoe-shaped brick and concrete 1970s structure that 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 that was planned to pass through Brixton and Camberwell, later abandoned. Brixton 1889

Some housing estates have been linked with

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. Problems of urban decay have been reported around

Loughborough Junction Loughborough Junction is an area of South London, in the London Borough of Lambeth, which is located equidistant between Brixton, Camberwell and Herne Hill. Loughborough Junction is centred on a rail junction consisting of seven railway ...

, the catchment area for Loughborough Estate, the Angell Town Estate and the Moorlands Estate.

Victorian buildings

Brixton still features some grand Victorian housing.

Brixton Market

is open every day, selling a range of African-Caribbean products and reflects other communities in the local area with Indian and Vietnamese supermarkets and South American butchers amongst the shops and stalls.. London Farmers' Markets opened a farmers market on Brixton Station Road in September 2009. It is open every Sunday from 9.30am to 2pm.

Culture

Brixton murals

After the riots in 1981 a series of murals were funded by the council. The murals portray nature, politics, community and ideas. The surviving murals include the Brixton Academy Mural (Stockwell Park Walk) by

Stephen Pusey Stephen Pusey (born 1952) is a New York-based artist of Irish and British descent known for Abstract art and earlier work as a painter of figurative community murals in London, UK. Early life and education Stephen Pusey was born on 24 June 195 ...

(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. Recent contributions towards Brixton's mural tradition include the portrait of Michael Johns on Popes Road by

Dreph Neequaye Dreph Dsane (born 1973), also known as Dreph, is a London-based visual artist known for large-scale portraits in the public realm. Biography He was born in Nottingham to Ghanaian parents, grew up in Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places ...

, created as part of Brixton Design Trail in September 2017 and the temporary installation of "Remain, Thriving" by

Njideka Akunyili Crosby Njideka Akunyili Crosby (born 1983) is a Nigerian-born visual artist working in Los Angeles, California. Through her art Akunyili Crosby "negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America and her native Nigeria, creating collag ...

Brixton tube station Brixton is a London Underground station on Brixton Road in Brixton in the London Borough of Lambeth, South London. The station is the southern terminus of the Victoria line. The station is known to have the largest London Underground roundel ...

, a commission by

Art on the Underground Art on the Underground, previously called ''Platform for Art'', is Transport for London's (TfL) contemporary public art programme. It commissions permanent and temporary artworks for London Underground, as well as commissioning artists to creat ...

. In 2018 Dreph completed a large mural depicting Michelle Obama in Dorrell Place.

Entertainment

The

Ritzy Cinema The Ritzy is a cinema in Brixton, London, England. It is a Grade II listed building. It is managed by Picturehouse Cinemas, who were bought by Cineworld in 2012. The cinema opened on 11 March 1911 as "the Electric Pavilion". It was built by E ...

, Coldharbour Lane, is a formerly independent cinema now owned by

Picturehouse Cinemas Picturehouse Cinemas is a network of cinemas in the United Kingdom, operated by Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd and owned by Cineworld. The company runs its own film distribution arm, Picturehouse Entertainment, which has released acclaimed films su ...

. The building was designed as the Electric Pavilion in 1910 by E. C. Homer and Lucas, one of England's first purpose-built cinemas. Brixton has a significant clubbing and live music scene. Large venues include

Brixton Academy Brixton Academy (originally known as the Astoria Variety Cinema, previously known as Carling Academy Brixton, currently named O2 Academy Brixton as part of a sponsorship deal with the O2 brand) is a mid-sized concert venue located in South Wes ...

and

Electric Brixton The Fridge was a nightclub in the Brixton area of South London, England, founded, in 1981, by Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington, who had run the Roxy during punk music's heyday in 1977. The Fridge closed on 17 March 2010 and has no ...

. A range of smaller venues such as The Windmill, Jamm, and Phonox are a major part of London's live music scene. The Brixton Splash is an annual one-day street party held since 2006. The event is community run, showcasing local talent and celebrating the cultural diversity and history of Brixton.

Record shops

Brixton has had a number of popular record shops. Desmond's Hip City on Atlantic Road existed from the 1970s until its closure in 1989. A record by the band

Skydiggers Skydiggers are a Canadian roots rock band from Toronto formed by Andy Maize and Josh Finlayson. Since 1990, they have released 19 albums/EPs and have had a number of singles that have appeared on the Canadian charts. Their most successful album i ...

; Desmond's Hip City is named after the shop. In 2018, filmmaker

Molly Dineen Molly Dineen (born 7 March 1959) is a television documentary director, cinematographer and producer. One of Britain's most acclaimed documentary filmmakers, Molly is known for her intimate and probing portraits of British individuals and institut ...

made a film about the owner of Blacker Dread Muzik Store called ''Being Blacker''. Brixton's current record shops include Supertone Records (opened in 1983) selling soundsystem reggae and Container Records which sells dance music.

Sport

Brixton is also home to a 1970s purpose-built

skatepark A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairse ...

, named Stockwell Skatepark, its own

Dominoes Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also c ...

team, the Brixton Immortals started by the community's

Windrush Generation British African-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens whose ancestry originates from the Caribbean or they are nationals of the Caribbean who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-C ...

and bicycle co-operative Brixton Cycles.

Media

Brixton is served by two local news

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

s - Brixton Blog running since 2010 which also prints a monthly newspaper, and Brixton Buzz formed in 2011

Radio

Choice FM Capital XTRA (formerly Choice FM) is a Global-owned radio station that broadcasts on 96.9 FM and 107.1 FM in Greater London. Nationally, it is heard on DAB Digital Radio, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media and Global Player. It specialises in ...

was an

independent local radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...

station broadcasting from studios in Trinity Gardens from 1990 to 2004. It is now replaced by Capital XTRA. Reprezent Radio is a

community radio station Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular ...

that broadcasts from Pop Brixton to the local area on 107.3FM. Brixton has always been served by a number of long-running community

pirate radio Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially ...

stations including Lightning and Vibes FM.

Religious sites

Christian churches

Brixton lies within the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. 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 The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

style. It is one of the "

Waterloo church A Commissioners' church, also known as a Waterloo church and Million Act church, is an Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Acts of 1818 and 1824. The 1818 Act supplied ...

es" built to celebrate Britain's victory at the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

. St. Saviour's Church was a location filming site of Alfred Hitchcock's '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'' in 1955, identified in the film as Ambrose Chapel. The 1868 parish church of St Jude, located on Dulwich Road, was designed by the architect John Kirk of

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...

. 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. Christ Church on Brixton Road is an Art Nouveau and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

-style Grade II*listed building built in 1902 by Beresford Pite, and St Paul's church on Ferndale Road was originally built in 1958 as a

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

church by John Soper. Corpus Christi Church in Brixton comes under the remit of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Southvarcensis'') is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in England. It is headed by the Archbishop of Southwark. The archdiocese is part of the Metropolitan ...

Brixton Mosque

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. Opened in 1990 it is one of the oldest mosques in south London. The mosque provides religious, social and financial support to its members. The mosque made international headlines when it was reported that

Richard Reid Richard Colvin Reid (born 12 August 1973), also known as the "Shoe Bomber", is the perpetrator of the failed shoe bombing attempt on a transatlantic flight in 2001. Born to a father who was a career criminal, Reid converted to Islam as a young ...

, the so-called "shoe bomber", had attended the mosque.

Abdul Haqq Baker Abdul Haqq Baker (born 1966) is an academic and religious leader. He supports the Salafi branch of Islam that is popular in the Persian Gulf. He is known for his work de-radicalizing young Muslims influenced by extremist groups like al-Qaeda. ...

, 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".

Zacarias Moussaoui Zacarias Moussaoui (Arabic: زكريا موسوي, '; born May 30, 1968) is a French member of al-Qaeda who pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to conspiring to kill citizens of the United States as part of the September 11 attacks. He is se ...

, who was convicted of conspiring to kill citizens of the US as part of 11 September 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 Abdullah el-Faisal (born Trevor William Forrest, also known as Abdullah al-Faisal, Sheikh Faisal, Sheik Faisal, and Imam Al-Jamaikee, born 10 September 1963) is a Jamaican Muslim cleric who preached in the United Kingdom until he was convicted ...

, 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. 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

apostate Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal religious disaffiliation, disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of emb ...

s (''

takfir ''Takfir'' or ''takfīr'' ( ar, تكفير, takfīr) is an Arabic and Islamic term which denotes excommunication from Islam of one Muslim by another, i.e. accusing another Muslim to be an apostate. The word is found neither in the Quran nor in the ...

'').

Brixton Synagogue

Brixton Synagogue at 49 Effra Road opened in 1913 and closed in 1986, with the congregation then amalgamating with the nearby Streatham Synagogue. The front of the building still exists.

Governance

Brixton town centre is divided between four wards of Lambeth Council. * Brixton Hill ward - south of Acre Lane and west of Brixton Hill * Coldharbour ward - east of Brixton Road/Effra Road and south of Loughborough Road * Ferndale ward - north of Acre Lane and west of Brixton Road * Tulse Hill ward - east of Brixton Hill as far as Effra Road/Norwood Road. The area south of Brixton Water Lane and including

is in Herne Hill ward

Policing, drugs and crime

Operation Swamp

Before the 1981 riot was the centre of "Operation Swamp 81" aimed at reducing

mainly through the heavy use of the so-called sus law, which allowed police to stop and search individuals on the basis of a "suspicion" of wrongdoing. Plainclothes 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.

Gang culture

In 2003 ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' reported that around 200 "hardcore Yardies" are based in Lambeth, some operating as members of "Firehouse Posse" or Brixton's "Kartel Crew". 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. 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. Several gangs are headquartered in the Brixton area. The "Murderzone" (MZ) gang, which is involved in illegal drug dealing, hail from the Somerleyton Estate. The "Poverty Driven Children"/"Peel Dem Crew" ( PDC) are located in the Angell Town and Loughborough Junction area. "Organised Crime" (OC), a gang linked with various shootings and an ongoing rivalry with the

Peckham Boys The Peckham Boys, also referred to as Black Gang (due to its association with the colour black), is a multi-generational gang based in Peckham, South London. The gang is particularly prominent for its members prolific activity in music. Gigg ...

, are based in the Myatts Field Estate.

GAS Gang GAS Gang, also known more simply as GG or GAS, was a British street gang based in Brixton, South London that formed sometime in the late 2000s. The name carries various different meanings, such as Guns And Shanks, Gangsters Always Shoot, Grip A ...

, which stands for "Guns and Shanks", "Grind and Stack", "Grip and Shoot", or "Gangsters Always Shoot", was located mainly in Angell Town. In 2011, five of the most prominent members of the GAS Gang—Ricardo Giddings, Helder Demorais, Jamal Moore, Shaquille Haughton and Kyle Kinghorn—were sentenced to a total of 76 years in prison for the murder of rival gang member, fifteen-year-old Zac Olumegbon. Members of local 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; however, they continue to evade the police and have been responsible for numerous offences of homicide. 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, in 9 mm. According to the detective many of the deactivated guns are shipped in from the Balkans and then reactivated. Brixton has been noted as one of the most significant origins of

UK drill UK drill is a subgenre of drill music and road rap that originated in the South London district of Brixton from 2012 onwards. Initially borrowing heavily from the style of Chicago drill music before creating its own unique sound, UK drill artist ...

Drugs

Some media commentators persistently call Brixton "the drugs capital of London".

Val Shawcross Valerie Shawcross is a British politician who served as Deputy Mayor of London for Transport from 2016 to 2018. A member of the Labour Co-operative parties, she was Member of the London Assembly for Lambeth and Southwark from 2000 to 2016. ...

, Labour representative on the London Assembly for Lambeth and Southwark, runs a "Brixton Drug Crime" campaign and 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)

For many decades, Brixton has had a reputation for

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...

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. 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.

JayDay Cannabis Festival

From 2001 to 2004,

hosted the annual Cannabis Festival, or JayDay, organised by the Cannabis Coalition. The police reportedly maintained a low profile, tolerating the smoking of

. 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.''"

Brian Paddick

In 2001,

Brian Paddick Brian Leonard Paddick, Baron Paddick (born 24 April 1958), is a British politician and retired police officer, currently sitting in the House of Lords as a life peer. He was the Liberal Democrat candidate for the London mayoral elections of 2 ...

, then

Police Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

for the London Borough of Lambeth, became subject of newspaper headlines due to the implementation of a pilot

programme in Brixton, also known as the "softly softly" approach, as well as his posts made on the Brixton-based

Urban75 Urban75, also known as U75 or simply Urban, is a website and internet forum based in Brixton, London, and online since 1995. History Urban75 originated from a football comic ''Bluebird Jones'' - an e-zine formed around football fans oppositi ...

internet forum An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...

. 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 The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Sir Mark Rowley was appointed to the post on 8 July 2022 after Dame Cressida Dick announced her resignation in February. The rank of Commissione ...

Sir John Stevens John Arthur Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, (born 21 October 1942) was Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (head of the Metropolitan Police Service) from 2000 until 2005. From 1991 to 1996, he was Chief Constable of Northum ...

. 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. 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. Paddick had been a sergeant on the front line during the

, an experience which shaped his attitudes about confrontational police action and strengthened his belief in

community policing Community policing, or community-oriented policing (COP), is a strategy of policing that focuses on developing relationships with community members. It is a philosophy of full-service policing that is highly personal, where an officer patrols ...

. In December 2000 he was appointed

for Lambeth, where he worked until December 2002, fulfilling his ambition of becoming head of policing in Brixton. 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.

Gun crime

In June 1998, gun crime in Brixton was reported on widely in connection with the linked murders of Avril Johnson and Michelle Carby, in Brixton and Stratford respectively. Both women were shot in their homes in separate, but connected, attacks; in addition, both victims were shot in the head. 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." 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. 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." 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.

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. In 2007 firearm offences rose by 4 percent 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 Murders of three boys in one week, led some media commentators to call the area "gun capital".

In popular culture

Music

A 2022 article from ''Complex'' named Brixton as the "mecca of

" due to two original UK drill groups - 150 and 67 - originating in the borough. References to Brixton in song started with the release of "Whoppi King" by

Laurel Aitken Lorenzo "Laurel" Aitken (22 April 1927 – 17 July 2005) was an influential Caribbean singer and one of the pioneers of Jamaican ska music. He is often referred to as the "Godfather of Ska". Career Born in Cuba of mixed Cuban and Jamaican desc ...

in 1968 and "Brixton Cat" by Dice the Boss in 1969. This was later followed in August 1975 by a popular novelty song written and sung by Geraint Hughes and Jeff Calvert (who billed themselves as "

Typically Tropical Typically Tropical were a British band comprising two Trojan Records audio engineers, Jeff Calvert and Max West. They are best known for their 1975 number one hit record "Barbados" and for writing the 1978 disco hit "I Lost My Heart to a Stars ...

"): two white men who told the story of a Brixton bus-driver " going to Barbados" with "Coconut Airways" to escape the rain of London. *The 1979 punk song "

The Guns of Brixton "The Guns of Brixton" is a song by the English punk rock band the Clash. It was written and sung by bassist Paul Simonon, who grew up in Brixton, South London. The song has a strong reggae influence, reflecting the culture of the area and the r ...

" by

the Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the w ...

deals with law enforcement violence in Brixton. Written by the group's bass player Paul Simonon, who grew up in Brixton, it had a strong reggae influence. *On the 1979 album ''

Forces of Victory ''Forces of Victory'' is the debut solo album by the dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. It was released in 1979 on Island Records. The album peaked at No. 66 on the UK Albums Chart. Production The album was produced by Linton Kwesi Johnson and D ...

'' by long-time Brixton Resident

Linton Kwesi Johnson Linton Kwesi Johnson (born 24 August 1952), also known as LKJ, is a Jamaica-born, British-based dub poet and activist. In 2002 he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. His p ...

is a song called "Sonny's Lettah (Anti-Sus Poem)" in form of letter of a

Brixton Prison HM Prison Brixton is a local men's prison, located in Brixton area of the London Borough of Lambeth, in inner-South London. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. History The prison was originally built in 1820 and opened a ...

inhabitant to his mother. *

Sex Gang Children Sex Gang Children are an early gothic rock and post-punk band that formed in early 1982 in Brixton in London, England. Although the original group only released one official studio album, their singles and various other tracks have been pack ...

, a post-punk band who are attributed with pioneering the goth movement, were formed and based in Brixton in the early 1980s. *Before a

Jam Jam is a type of fruit preserve. Jam or Jammed may also refer to: Other common meanings * A firearm malfunction * Block signals ** Radio jamming ** Radar jamming and deception ** Mobile phone jammer ** Echolocation jamming Arts and ente ...

gig, well-known punk band the

Misfits Misfits or The Misfits may refer to: Film and television * ''The Misfits'' (1961 film), a film starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift * ''The Misfits'' (2011 film), a Mexican film * ''The Misfits'' (2021 film), an American ...

were involved in a fight and thrown into Brixton Prison, which led them to write their song "London Dungeon". *

Eddy Grant Edmond Montague Grant (born 5 March 1948) is a Guyanese-British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known for his genre-blending sound; his music has blended elements of pop, British rock, soul, funk, reggae, electronic music, Af ...

's 1982 album ''

Killer on the Rampage ''Killer on the Rampage'' is the sixth studio album by Eddy Grant. It remains his most successful album, hitting the top 10 in the US and the UK. It features the hits "Electric Avenue" (which was a big hit in the US and UK at #2), " I Don't Wa ...

'' contains his hit song "

", a reference to the well known shopping street in central Brixton, which was one of the first in the UK to have electric street lighting installed. The song evokes images of poverty, violence and misery but also celebrates the energising vibe of the area. *

The Pogues The Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in Kings Cross, London in 1982, as "Pogue Mahone" – the anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic ''póg mo thóin'', meaning "kiss my arse" ...

song "Transmetropolitan" on their album " Red Roses for Me" (1984) mentions "Brixton's lovely boulevards" along with many other London landmarks. *The song "Journey to the Centre of Brixton" is by R.O.C. *The song "Brixton, Bronx ou Baixada" by Brazilian rock-reggae band

O Rappa O Rappa was a Brazilian reggae/ rock band from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Combining many styles such as rock, reggae, funk, hip hop and samba, Many of O Rappa's songs contain sharp protests against the social problems in Brazil and the members of ...

is about social differences, while comparing the neighborhood with the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

in New York and the

Baixada Fluminense The Baixada Fluminense (standard ; local pronounce: ) (literally "Fluminense Lowland") is a region in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in southeastern Brazil. It is located on Guanabara Bay, between Rio de Janeiro to the south and the Serra dos Órg� ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. *The song "And God Created Brixton" is featured 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. *Brixton-formed

Alabama 3 Alabama 3 are a British/English musical group founded in Brixton, London in 1995. They are best known for their track " Woke Up This Morning", which was used for the opening credits of the TV series ''The Sopranos''. In the United States, the ...

's album "

Exile on Coldharbour Lane ''Exile on Coldharbour Lane'' is the debut album by Alabama 3, released on 11 November 1997 on One Little Indian and Geffen. The name and cover are references to '' Exile on Main St.'' by The Rolling Stones and Coldharbour Lane a major street ...

" references Brixton life. *The subject of

Maxi Priest Max Alfred "Maxi" Elliott (born 10 June 1961), known by his stage name Maxi Priest, is a British reggae vocalist of Jamaican descent. He is best known for singing reggae music with an R&B influence, otherwise known as reggae fusion. He was one ...

's 1990 hit song " Close to You" is from Brixton. *

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues and jazz. A membe ...

's song "Me and Mr Jones" features a reference to Brixton. *California

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

band Rancid wrote a song called "Brixton" that appears on the ''Rock Stars Kill'' compilation, and later on '' B Sides and C Sides''. *The electronic band Chase and Status collaborated with

Cee-Lo Green Thomas DeCarlo Callaway - Burton (born May 30, 1975), known professionally as CeeLo Green (or Cee Lo Green), is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. He is known for his work in hip hop and R&B, including the Gnarls ...

on their record Brixton Briefcase, which features on the album ''

No More Idols ''No More Idols'' is the second studio album by English drum and bass production duo Chase & Status, released on 28 January 2011. ''No More Idols'' marks the first major full-length release by Chase & Status since their debut album '' More than ...

''. *In the track "Buckingham Palace" on rapper

Canibus Germaine Williams (born December 9, 1974), better known by his stage name Canibus, is an American rapper and actor. He initially gained fame in the 1990s for his ability to freestyle, and eventually released his debut album Can-I-Bus in 1998 ...

' 1998 debut album ''

Can-I-Bus ''Can-I-Bus'' is the debut album by rapper Canibus, released on September 8, 1998 through Universal Records. The album was released after the rapper's success with his LL Cool J diss track, " Second Round K.O.", which was included on ''Can-I-Bus'' ...

'', Brixton is mentioned. *

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...

mentions "moving bricks to Brixton" in his 2012 song " Candy". *

The Streets The Streets are an English music project led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner. The project has released six studio albums: ''Original Pirate Material'' (2002), '' A Grand Don't Come for Free'' (2004), '' The Hardest Way to ...

mentions "As London Bridge burns down Brixton's burning up" in 2002

Original Pirate Material ''Original Pirate Material'' is the debut studio album by English hip hop project the Streets, released on 25 March 2002. Recorded mostly in a south London house rented at the time by principal member Mike Skinner, the album is musically influ ...

"Let's Push Things Forward" *English singer

was born in Brixton in 1947. *American singer

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...

references "nights out in Brixton" in her 2019 song " London Boy". *English singer-songwriter Elly Jackson of La Roux lives in Brixton, where she created the songs of her 2020 album ''Supervision''. *"Welcome to Brixton" was released by British rapper SR in 2020. *British pioneering hip hop group Hijack were from Brixton. *The song "Its Only Natural" by the American rock band

Red Hot Chili Peppers Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates elements of alternative rock, funk ...

from their 2022 album

Unlimited Love ''Unlimited Love'' is the twelfth studio album by the American rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers, released through Warner Records on April 1, 2022. Produced by Rick Rubin, the album marks the return of guitarist John Frusciante, who left the ...

tells the story of two lovers. While the female subject is "a daddy's girl, pride of all Brixton" the male is "a Southend boy" that knows how to fight. They fall in love despite their class differences.

Film and television

*Director Richard Parry's 2001 film '' South West Nine'' (SW9), whose name refers to the postcode covering much of central Brixton, was shot here. 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

A204 road,

Streatham Hill Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surre ...

and

. *Sarah Manning, a fictional character from ''

Orphan Black ''Orphan Black'' is a Canadian science-fiction thriller television series created by screenwriter Graeme Manson and director John Fawcett and starring Tatiana Maslany. The series focuses on Sarah Manning, one of several genetically identical ...

'', the BBC America Series, was from Brixton. *In the 1975 film '' Monty Python and the Holy Grail'', one of the fictional co-directors listed is Reg Llama of Brixton.

Literature

*In

John Le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

's novel '' Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'', the "scalphunters" of Britain's

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

are based in Brixton, in "a grim flint schoolhouse... behind a flint wall with glass and barbed wire on the top." They are the section of MI6 specializing in "hit-and-run jobs... too dirty or too risky for the residents abroad" such as "murder, kidnapping, or crash blackmail."

Internet

is a long-running

based in Brixton.

Transport

Buses

Brixton is served by London Buses routes 2, 3, 35, 37, 45, 59, 109,

118 118 may refer to: *118 (number) *AD 118 *118 BC *118 (TV series) *118 (film) *118 (Tees) Corps Engineer Regiment *118 (Tees) Field Squadron, Royal Engineers See also *11/8 (disambiguation) *Oganesson Oganesson is a synthetic chemical element wi ...

, 133, 159,

196 Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita ...

250 __NOTOC__ Year 250 (Roman numerals, CCL) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Traianus and Gratus (or, less frequently, y ...

, 322, 333, 345,

355 __NOTOC__ Year 355 ( CCCLV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Arbitio and Maesius (or, less frequently, year 1108 '' Ab ...

415 __NOTOC__ Year 415 ( CDXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Theodosius (or, less frequently, year 1168 ' ...

, 432, P4, P5, N2, N3, N35, N109, N133

London Underground

The nearest station is Brixton on the

Victoria line The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely underg ...

. Around the corner from it is the National Rail station.

National Rail

The nearest station is Brixton for

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

services towards

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...

and

Orpington Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Ma ...

. It is located around just around the corner from the Underground station.

Road Network

Brixton is located on several main roads. The A203, A204 and A2217 links the area to

and the A23 London to Brighton road runs through the area from the north to the south. Brixton was due to be a major interchange of the South Cross Route, part of the

London Ringways The London Ringways were a series of four ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre. They were part of a comprehensive scheme developed by the Greater London Council (GLC) to alleviate traffic con ...

plan, which was cancelled in the 1970s.

Notable people

Three people who have lived in Brixton have blue plaques marking their former homes: *

Havelock Ellis Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality i ...

, pioneer sexologist lived at Dover Mansions on Canterbury Crescent *

C. L. R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, '' The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are i ...

, the writer and black political activist, lived in

Railton Road Railton Road runs between Brixton and Herne Hill in the London Borough of Lambeth. The road is designated the B223. At the northern end of Railton Road it becomes Atlantic Road, linking to Brixton Road at a junction where the Brixton tube stat ...

, above the offices of ''

Race Today ''Race Today'' was a monthly (later bimonthly) British political magazine. Launched in 1969 by the Institute of Race Relations, it was from 1973 published by the ''Race Today'' Collective, which included figures such as Darcus Howe, Farrukh Dh ...

''. *

Dan Leno George Wild Galvin (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904), better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall a ...

(1860–1904), an English music hall comedian famous for his drag acts (56 Akerman Road). Other notable people with Brixton connections include: *

was born at 40 Stansfield Road, Brixton. *Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone grew up and lived for many years in Brixton. *Poet

is a long-time Brixton resident. *Former British Prime Minister John Major spent part of his childhood living off Coldharbour Lane. He began his political career as a local Lambeth councillor. * Max Wall, comedian and music hall performer, was born in Brixton. *

Freddie Davies Freddie Davies (born 21 July 1937) is a British comedian and actor who came to public notice in 1964 though the television talent show '' Opportunity Knocks'' and has since appeared in several television series and films. Early life Freddie Da ...

, the "parrot-faced" comedian and actor, was born in Brixton in 1937. *

Poly Styrene Marianne Joan Elliott-Said (3 July 1957 – 25 April 2011), known by the stage name Poly Styrene, was an English musician, singer-songwriter, and frontwoman for the punk rock band X-Ray Spex. Early life Poly Styrene was born Marianne Joan Ell ...

, the singer of the band

X-Ray Spex X-Ray Spex were an English punk rock band formed in 1976 in London. During their first incarnation (1976–1979), X-Ray Spex released five singles and one album. Their 1977 single " Oh Bondage Up Yours!" and 1978 debut album '' Germfree Adol ...

, was born in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

in 1957 but grew up in Brixton. *

Jumpin Jack Frost Nigel Thompson (born 29 May 1967), better known as Jumpin Jack Frost, is a British jungle and drum and bass DJ and record producer. Biography Frost was born in Brixton, London, and after a troubled youth, started to discover music through loca ...

, drum and bass producer and DJ was born and still lives in Brixton. * Danny Williams, heavyweight boxer, was born in Brixton *

Frank Dillane Frank Stephenson Dillane (born 21 April 1991) is an English actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Nick Clark on '' Fear the Walking Dead'' (2015–2018) and 16-year-old Tom Riddle in the film ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ...

, film actor, was born in Brixton as well as spending his early childhood there. * Paul Simonon and Mick Jones of

The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the w ...

are both from Brixton. * Drum and bass producer

Dillinja Karl Francis, also known as Dillinja, is a British jungle/drum and bass DJ and record producer. Biography Dillinja is a prolific producer and artist within the jungle and drum and bass scene. Since 1991, Dillinja has produced a number of track ...

is from Brixton. *Screenwriter, director

Daniel Mulloy Daniel Mulloy (born 1977) is a British artist and filmmaker. Short films The work of Daniel Mulloy has often been defined by both its starkness and deceptive simplicity. Mulloy's short films have won over one hundred international festival awa ...

was born in Brixton. *The band

were formed in Brixton. * House music duo Basement Jaxx formed in Brixton. * EBK, long-term resident of Brixton. *

Fruitbat Leslie George Carter, known as Fruitbat (born 12 December 1958) is an English musician who was a member of Carter USM. Career Carter played in a number of bands during the late 1970s, before meeting Jim Bob (James Neil Morrison) at The Orchest ...

of power-pop punk band Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine was a long-time Brixton resident. *

Jan Chappell Janet Victoria Chappell (born 7 June 1945 in Brixton, London) is an English actress, known for her portrayal of Cally (Blake's 7), Cally in the first three series of ''Blake's 7''. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1963–65) wher ...

, actress, best known as Cally in ''

Blake's 7 ''Blake's 7'' (sometimes styled ''Blakes7'') is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four 13-episode series were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first ...

''. *

Joe Cornish Joseph Murray Cornish (born 20 December 1968) is an English comedian and filmmaker. With his long-time comedy partner, Adam Buxton, he forms the comedy duo Adam and Joe. In 2011, Cornish released his directorial debut ''Attack the Block''. He ...

, presenter of the BBC production ''Adam and Joe'' in the 1990s, and current comedy radio presenter on BBC6 Music with

Adam Buxton Adam Offord Buxton (born 7 June 1969) is an English actor, comedian, podcaster and writer. With the filmmaker Joe Cornish, he is part of the comedy duo Adam and Joe. They presented the Channel 4 television series '' The Adam and Joe Show'' (19 ...

. *

Bradley McIntosh Bradley John McIntosh (born 8 August 1981), also known as City Boy, is a British singer, rapper, record producer and actor. He was a member of the pop group S Club 7 where he enjoyed five years of hit singles, arena tours and awards. Since 2008, ...

, member of pop group

S Club 7 S Club 7 were a British pop group from London, created by former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller and consisting of members Bradley McIntosh, Hannah Spearritt, Jo O'Meara, Jon Lee, Paul Cattermole, Rachel Stevens and Tina Barrett. The gro ...

. * Sharon Osbourne, wife of

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

and daughter of

Don Arden Don Arden (born Harry Levy; 4 January 1926 – 21 July 2007) was an English music manager, agent, and businessman. He managed the careers of rock acts such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Air Supply, Small Faces, The Move, Black Sabbat ...

, was born in Brixton. *Mike Skinner of the band "

" moved to Brixton c. 2000 to pursue his recording career. Some of his songs are about living in Brixton. *

Skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different de ...

, singer of the band

Skunk Anansie Skunk Anansie are a British rock band whose members include Skin (lead vocals, guitar), Cass (bass, guitar, backing vocals), Ace (guitar, backing vocals) and Mark Richardson (drums and percussion). Skunk Anansie formed in 1994, disbanded in 2 ...

, grew up in Brixton. * Stereo MC's, acid jazz/club dance group, were formed and are still based in Brixton. *Novelist Martin Millar lived here, and most of his novels are set in and around Brixton. *Environmentalist James Lovelock, famous for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, was born and spent his childhood in Brixton. *

Frank Reginald Carey Frank Reginald "Chota" Carey, (7 May 1912 – 6 December 2004) was a Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter pilot and flying ace who served during World War II. Born in Brixton, London, Carey was educated at Belvedere School before he joined the RAF ...

, Second World War fighter ace, was born in Brixton. *

Jo Self Jo Self (née Lee; born 15 January 1956) is an English contemporary artist and poet. Background Self was born and grew up on a Hertfordshire rural housing estate. Before becoming an artist, she worked in various jobs including as a croupier ...

, artist, long-term resident of Brixton. *

Iwan Thomas Iwan Gwyn Thomas (born 5 January 1974) is a Welsh sprinter who represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the Olympic Games in the 400 metres, and Wales at the Commonwealth Games. Thomas is a former European, Commonwealth Games and Wo ...

, Olympic athlete. *

Nyron Nosworthy Nyron Paul Henry Nosworthy (born 11 October 1980) is a former professional footballer. After beginning his career with Gillingham, he moved to Sunderland in 2005 with whom he played in the Premier League. After two lengthy loan spells with Shef ...

, professional footballer. * Shivani Kapoor, Indian model. * Ty, rapper. *Several members of the So Solid Crew. *

Sneakbo Agassi Babatunde Odusina (born 25 July 1992), better known by his stage name Sneakbo, is a British rapper. His first song, " The Wave", peaked at number 48 on the UK Singles Chart and he has since released a number of top 40 hits, such as " Zi ...

, rapper. * Big Narstie, rapper. *

, player for the American basketball team

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The club plays its home games at FT ...

, lived and played in Brixton. * Alex Wheatle, novelist. *

Lisa Maffia Lisa Maffia (born 16 June 1979) is a British singer-songwriter, musician, rapper, actress, fashion designer, model and presenter, who originally came to the public's attention as the main female member of So Solid Crew. Whilst in So Solid Crew, ...

, singer and TV personality, was brought up in Brixton. * Bunmi Mojekwu, actress. *

James Dagwell James DagwellQ and A with James Dagwell.
TV Newsroom, 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2011. is a British

, journalist and former

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

presenter, lived in Brixton. *

La Roux La Roux ( ) is an English synthpop act formed in 2008 by singer Elly Jackson and record producer Ben Langmaid. The act's debut album '' La Roux'' (2009) was a critical and commercial success, winning a Grammy Award and producing hit singles su ...

(Elly Jackson), musician, was born and raised in Brixton. *

Hew Locke Hew Donald Joseph Locke (born 13 October 1959) is a British sculptor and contemporary visual artist based in Brixton, London. In 2000 he won a Paul Hamlyn Award and the EASTinternational Award. In 2010 he was shortlisted for the Fourth plinth, ...

, contemporary artist, a resident of more than 20 years, has cited Brixton and its market as an influence on his work. *

Nikki Sudden Adrian Nicholas Godfrey (19 July 195626 March 2006), known professionally as Nikki Sudden, was a prolific English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He co-founded the post-punk band Swell Maps with his brother, Epic Soundtracks, while attending So ...

and Dave Kusworth of the

Jacobites Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to: Religion * Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include: ** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometime ...

shared a house on Norwood Road, Brixton, in the early 1980s. *

Danny Kirwan Daniel David Kirwan (13 May 1950 – 8 June 2018) was a British musician whose greatest success came with his role as guitarist, singer and songwriter with the blues rock band Fleetwood Mac between 1968 and 1972. He released three albums as a s ...

of the band Fleetwood Mac was born and raised in Brixton. *

Clive Dunn Clive Robert Benjamin Dunn (9 January 19206 November 2012) was an English actor. Although he was only 48 and one of the youngest cast members, he was cast in a role many years his senior, as the elderly Lance Corporal Jones in the BBC sitcom ' ...

(1920–2012), best known for playing Lance-Corporal Jack Jones in the British sitcom ''

Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran fo ...

'', was born in Brixton. *

Jean Kent Jean Kent (born Joan Mildred Field; 29 June 1921 − 30 November 2013) was an English film and television actress. Biography Born Joan Mildred Field (sometimes incorrectly cited as Summerfield) in Brixton, London in 1921, the only child of va ...

(1921–2013), actress known for appearing in British films, was born in Brixton. * Philip Lindsey Clark, sculptor, born in Brixton *

AJ Tracey Ché Wolton Grant (born 4 March 1994), known professionally as AJ Tracey, is a British rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is from Ladbroke Grove, West London. Tracey rose to popularity in 2016 and was listed by ''The Guardian'' i ...

, rapper, born in Brixton but raised in

Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given ...

. *

Dillian Whyte Dillian Whyte (; born 11 April 1988) is a British professional boxer. He has formerly competed as a kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He held the WBC interim heavyweight title twice, between 2019 and 2020, and again from 2021 to April 2022 ...

, Jamaican born boxer; immigrated to Britain as a teenager and grew up in Brixton. * Dave, rapper, born in Brixton but was raised in Streatham. *

Bob and Alf Pearson Bob and Alf Pearson were an English musical variety double act, consisting of brothers Robert Alexander Pearson (15 August 1907 – 30 December 1985) and Alfred Vernon Pearson (15 June 1910 – 7 July 2012), who were mainly known for their singi ...

, a British musical double act, lived on Electric Avenue in the late 1930s. * Deno, rapper.

References

External links

Urban75: A resource of Brixton information, features, articles, contemporary photography and "Brixton then and now" comparisonsLondon Borough of Lambeth's Draft Brixton Conservation Area Statement
{{Authority control Districts of the London Borough of Lambeth History of the London Borough of Lambeth Major centres of London