Destination Brixton by The Voice newspaper

BRIXTO N ROAD SW2 LAMBETH BOROUGH

DESTINATION BRIXTON 8-page special feature

18 | THE VOICE MAY 30 - JUNE 5, 2019

CLASSIFIED ADVERTORIAL

Lambeth Children’s Homes Redress Scheme Applications for compensation are open until 1 January 2020. Lambeth Council has set up a Redress Scheme for people who, as children, were abused or feared abuse at a Lambeth Children’s Home and/or Shirley Oaks Primary School. There are two types of compensation payment available: n

Harm’s Way Payment

Individual Redress Payment

To find out more about the Scheme, eligibility and to make a claim, visit lambeth.gov.uk/redress or email redress@lambeth.gov.uk

Below is a list of children’s homes that were run by Lambeth or its predecessor authority (and which subsequently transferred to Lambeth), either within or outside of their area, that provided accommodation for children in care. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

Shirley Oaks Almond House Hostel Angell Road Calais Street Chestnut Road / Robson Road Chevington House Cumberlow Lodge Garrads Road Gresham Place Highland Road Ingleton House Ivy House / Warham Road Knowle Close Lancester Avenue Lancaster Road Leigham Court Road Lorn Road

The homes were open from the 1930s to the 1980s and 1990s.

18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.

Monkton Street Mount Villas Nottingham Road Rathmell Drive Rectory Grove / Elaine Claire House Samuel House South Vale Southwood Southwood Discharge Hostel St Saviours Stephany House Stockwell Park The Elms Thornwick Nursery Tivoli Road Woodvale

MAY 30 - JUNE 5, 2019

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Black history and culture on display Black Cultural Archives going from strength to strength at its home in Windrush Square BY JEROME CONWAY

STABLISHED in 1981 and situated in its iconic building in Brixton’s Windrush Square since 2014, Black Cultural Archives (BCA) is the only national repository of black history and culture in the UK. It is a public institution open to everyone.

Its archive is a unique collection comprised of items and documents from the world of black British theatre, culture, dance and more. It includes historical objects such as a rare Roman coin, thought to be the earliest currency to feature a person of colour, and artefacts from the early Black Power movement.

INSPIRED They also have a public reading room and library, where materials from the archive can be viewed by appointment. Visitors can spend time in their exhibition space where there are displays about the black British experience. They can also pick up a treat from the gift shop, which has a range of African and African-

Caribbean books, inspired gifts, postcards and beautifully handcrafted items. Their café not only has freshly prepared soups, salads and delicious cakes, but gives visitors the chance to experience “a taste of home”. Their African and Caribbeaninspired menu includes salt fish fritters, jollof rice and jerk or curry chicken, alongside their newly launched ‘Fish Frydays’. In the coming months, you can expect a new programme at the BCA, which includes a display dedicated to the legacy of Windrush and a celebration of the fifth anniversary of their home in Brixton. You can find out more about the BCA at blackculturalarchives. org or sign up to their newsletter for regular updates.

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Destination Brixton HISTORY ON SHOW: Main, the new building in Windrush Square; below left, Prince Charles visits the centre; below right, mayor Sadiq Khan views exhibits; inset left, crowds in the BCA courtyard

20 | THE VOICE MAY 30 - JUNE 5, 2019

ADVERTORIAL

“Brixton is South London’s major evening and night time destination.”

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12 historic public houses within 1 mile of the underground station. No need to walk too far to sit in the sun with a drink.

Black Cultural Archives, Windrush Square and other historical sites and attractions commemorating the huge historical and social importance of Brixton. Attractive High Street shopping with independent boutique shops

rixton has long been synonymous with AfricanB Caribbean communities in the United Kingdom. Brixton has now evolved into a cosmopolitan town centre built and sustained by thriving hard working communities from the world over. This is evidenced in our markets and the culinary offers from our many restaurants and food-stalls; Columbian, Caribbean, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Jamaican, Ghanian, Lebanese, Greek, Moroccan, (to name a few).

here is much to see and much to do in Brixton, and when the Somerleyton Project, which is now fully underway, T is completed in 2020 with The Ovalhouse Theatre, there will be even more to see and do. ome and have a fun time with us.

MICHAEL SMITH

C Only in Brixton.

Brixton BID Managing Director

ondon is still the most visited destination in Europe (92 million bed nights in 2017, beating Paris into second). Brixton has seen an influx of tourism, bringing with it a new wave of businesses catering to visitors from all over. Brixton is the perfect destination with something for everyone: rixton developed from a little backwater village to a desirable middle-class suburb way back in the 19th century after the opening of the Vauxhall Bridge. People living on and visiting Electric Avenue, Brixon will know that Electric Ave became the first street in London (1880) to be given modern electric street lighting, allowing visitors and residents alike to enjoy the area after dark. Electric Avenue gained fame again almost a century later when Eddy Grant penned that famous platinum single hit ‘Electric Avenue’ (1982). Today, Electric Avenue is a bustling day-time outdoor market offering visitors a welcoming introduction to Brixton.

rixton still also has a great reputation for its live music venues outside of Central London. It has now become a B desirable South London evening and night time destination with a rich mix of restaurants, bars, pubs, cinema, clubs as well as live music and Dj’s. Brixton is a safe, lovely, summer destination to spend your evenings and late nights both indoor and out-doors, roof-bars or basements. Dance, drink, dine or do them all at some our famous venues listed in our map. The Brixton fare is remarkable and offers something for all day and night.

• • • • •

Extremely good transportation links with the all night tube on the Victoria Line. This makes it easy and safe to get to and from Brixton all day and all night An Evening and Night-Time Economy that is being compared to the West End’s

A historic market town with indoor and outdoor markets selling produce that would be hard to find anywhere else A currency (The Brixton £) that is as famous as the town, with the only ‘pay-what-you-feel’ social enterprise café we know Exceptional music venues, where an exhaustive list of great artists have played

A Business Improvement District (BID) is a not-for-profit collective of local businesses who have come together to help improve their immediate area. There are currently over 60 BIDs in London, each of whom creates, develops and funds projects that benefit local business and the community.

ADVERTORIAL

MAY 30 - JUNE 5, 2019 THE VOICE | 21

SPEND YOUR SUMMER NIGHTS IN BRIXTON

1. O2 Academy Brixton 211 Stockwell Rd SW9 9SL 2. Electric Brixton Town Hall Parade SW2 1RJ

3. Hootananny Brixton 95 Effra Rd SW2 1DF

4. Phonox 18 Brixton Rd SW9 7AY

4 11

5. The Brixton Windmill 22 Blenheim Gardens SW2 5BZ 6. The Blues Kitchen Brixton 40 Acre Ln SW2 5SP

16 16 8 19

10 9

7. Dogstar 389 Coldharbour Ln SW9 8LQ 8. The Prince of Wales 467- 469 Brixton Rd SW9 8HH 9. Rum Kitchen Brixton 437 Coldharbour Ln SW9 8LN

10. Market House 443 Coldharbour Ln SW9 8LN 11. Pop Brixton 49 Brixton Station Rd SW9 8PQ 12. Effra Social 89 Effra Rd SW2 1DF 13. Gremio de Brixton Effra Rd, Brixton SW2 1JF 14. White Horse 94 Brixton Hill SW2 1QN 15. Effra Hall Tavern 38 Kellet Road SW2 1EB

12 3 14 5

16. Brixton Village and Market Row Coldharbour Ln SW9 8PS 17. Brixton Jamm 261 Brixton Rd SW9 6LH 18. Canova Hall 250 Ferndale Rd SW9 8BQ 19. Upstairs at the Ritzy Brixton Oval SW2 1JG

22 | THE VOICE MAY 30 - JUNE 5, 2019

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Art, food and much more at Brixton’s annual extravaganza

selection of international food stalls for you to choose from. All sales during the weekend will help raise funds for charity partners who this year include two local schools and the Southside Rehabilitation project – so make a date in your diary for some al fresco art this summer.

CHARITY As well as providing affordable and credible exhibition space for south London artists, the event also raising money for local good causes. Artists will be donating 10 per cent of their sales to charity partners who this year are Holy Trinity School, Jubilee Primary School, Southside Rehabilitation project and the Anchor Group.

Charity partners also provide the marshals during the weekend and more information about the work they do can be found

“Sutton started the event frustrated by a lack of space for exhibitors” at the information desk. Please note that the event has been moved this year to the first weekend in July to avoid clashing with Wimbledon finals weekend. The man behind the event… Timothy Sutton, the organiser has always enjoyed the craft,

GROMYKO AMEDU SOLICITORS

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www.voice-online.co.uk A PATH OF COLOUR: Brixton’s Josephine Avenue is transformed every July thanks to the borough’s Art Fair

Josephine Avenue will once again play host to more than 120 exhibitors from across the creative spectrum RT hits Brixton on July 6-7. Celebrating its 18th year, south London’s treelined Josephine Avenue will once again be transformed into a bustling open air Art Fair. Entry is free and the show runs from 10am to 6pm. With more than 120 exhibitors this is a great opportunity to buy work directly with the participating artists and discover a wealth of creative skills, including painting, photography mixed media and street art. Exhibitors range from the novice to the established and with prices to match this really is an event for all art lovers, whatever your budget. There will be a mouth-watering

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method and technique of mark making. He originally trained as a graphic designer and his early works were purely abstract. However in 2002, frustrated by a lack of exhibition opportunities in the borough and Brixton, he started the annual Urban Art street fair in Brixton’s leafy Josephine Avenue where he lives. Later, inspired by Damien Hirst’s The Elusive Truth paintings, he started to explore the techniques of oil painting and the style of realism which he now uses to create his impressive photo-realistic commissions of pets and people. Find out more by visiting urbanart.co.uk and timothysutton.com

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Destination Brixton

So what makes Brixton tick?

THE BLACK EXPERIENCE: Rashid Nix, right, on Atlantic Road in Brixton along with a member of the older black generation

The black culture and history of Britain flows through the iconic south London borough BY RASHID NIX

RIXTON IS the second most famous black community in the world; Harlem’s first. Here are two equally famous – sometimes infamous – neighbourhoods that members of the diaspora have proudly chosen to call home. Steeped in culture and history, if you want to know how the black community is really doing, jump on the Victoria Line and head southbound where your senses will be overloaded by the vibratory vigour of a neighbourhood which hosts hustlers, bustlers, dreamers, plenty of schemers blessed with that intangible attitude which is unique to the BX – we

think we’re the best! My Brixton love affair started before I was born. My pops, Harry Nicholls, arrived in UK from Barbados in 1961 and headed straight for Somerleyton Road, Brixton, before moving to the middle class promised land of Crystal Palace. However, that still meant a weekly pilgrimage to Brixton Market for ‘back home’ food and trips to the record shop and barbers on Coldharbour Lane. I was a wide-eyed toddler; excited by the colour and sounds of SW9. I knew this place was different to where I lived and I knew it was where I wanted to be. For my dad, coming from a bougie Bajan family, his first real experience of Jamaican culture was Brixton and up till this day he still shakes his head

at how Jamaican patois flows from my lips! Brixton, like Harlem, is the microcosm of the black experience balled up into one geographical location. Our hopes and fears packed into rows of terraced housing and a sprawling mass of housing estates.

EXPERIMENT I believe we were merely a social experiment in urban management by forces that are slowly displacing a proud black community. So what makes Brixton tick? You are talking about the heartbeat and pineal gland of the black experience. We came to Brixton searching for opportunities; not necessarily work! That’s the key difference. There was the official economy for the strivers, but there was also the unofficial economy of the hus-

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tlers. The slickest ones straddled both. The older hustlers I remember from my childhood are the stuff of urban legends; fearless, confident and the sharpest dressers. These characters went on to change the face of British culture. So, three miles south of Big Ben there was an independent colony, inhabited by the descendents of slaves who operated under their own codes and rules. Then in 1981, 300 of the Met’s finest were hospitalised in the riots and it was clear- Brixton was not an average London neighbourhood. Plus there were legitimate

community leaders who headed up organisations committed to our upliftment. Urban depravation, check. Social ills? Check. Rampant racism; check. It’s as if there was one huge, never-ending drive to keep black people down. As we began to stake a claim through home ownership, Lambeth – the local council – slapped a Compulsory Purchase Order on entire streets of black-owned homes. Once snapped up, the council proceeded to demolish and build brutal prison-like council blocks that looked like

something from communist East Germany. This sowed the seeds of destabilisation. And then came drugs; the 1990s changed everything. Fast-forward 20 years and Brixton is now synonymous with gentrification, hipsters, soaring property values and some of the worst teenage gang crime. But fear not, our young people will tap into their history and recreate themselves and their culture to bring about something special. To paraphrase John’s Gospel: “What good could ever come out of Brixton?” Wait and see.

24 | THE VOICE MAY 30 - JUNE 5, 2019

Destination Brixton EXCELLENT REPUATIONS: Philcox Gray joined forces with Hornby & Levy in April 2018

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Legal firms committed to offering help to everyone Since joining forces last year, Hornby & Levy and Philcox Gray solicitors have gone from strength to strength, providing a high quality service to all BY JEROME CONWAY

ORNBY & LEVY, a niche firm of family solicitors established in Brixton, joined forces with Philcox Gray in April 2018. Hornby & Levy, prior to the merger, had served the community of Brixton and beyond for nearly 30 years. Philcox Gray has served the communities of south London for over 100 years. The new practice has built on the excellent reputations of the two firms. It offers a high quality comprehensive service in all aspects of family law and housing law on a legally aided and privately

funded basis to all of the communities of south London and beyond. Over recent years the Legal Aid scheme has suffered severe

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Both teams have been listed in editions of Legal 500â&#x20AC;? cuts, however the practice remains committed to providing a Legal Aid service for those who continue to qualify. The practice has long established links with local housing advice and domestic violence support services.

Both teams have been listed in the 2018 and 2019 editions of the Legal 500 for their Family Law and Housing Law work. The firm has offices in both Brixton and Elephant & Castle.