Brixton Market is a buzzing ethnic mix of outdoor street stalls and indoor arcades. Filling the streets around the Tube and train stations, it’s vibrant and colourful and whatever you want to buy is probably here somewhere – from pyjamas to pig’s trotters, wigs to watch batteries.
SHOPPING HUB
The market goes back to the 1870s just after the railway came to Brixton, turning the rural community into a commuter hub for central London. Pretty soon Brixton was South London’s premier shopping district and home to the city’s first purpose-built department store. In 1880 the main street of Brixton Market changed its name to Electric Avenue as it became one of the first in Britain to have electric lighting.
TROUBLED TIMES
Following the Second World War, a large West Indian community grew up in Brixton and the market reflected that change. Then during the ‘Brixton Riots’ of the early 1980s, racial tension erupted into clashes with the police on the streets around the market. Eddy Grant’s famous song Electric Avenue was written in response to the riots and became a huge hit.
IN FASHION
Over the last decade, various spaces in and around Brixton Market have been transformed, and today it’s one of the coolest spots to hang out in London.
BRIXTON COOL
Stuart Horwood (known as ‘Stuart the Watchman’) started selling watches as a street trader in Brixton Market in 1984. Now involved with the running of this now-trendy South London market for over two decades, Horwood explains that at any given time there are about sixty or seventy different stalls set up that sell everything from fruit to vintage clothes. Brixton Market is incredibly international, he told Speak Up, but it is a place with a strong sense of community.
Stuart Horwood (London accent): So we’ve got traders from all over the world and we’ve also got customers from all over the world as well. Brixton’s always had wide open arms for welcoming people from all over the world. So there’s a very established West Indian community around here. There’s a lot of African people live in the area. There’s a big Portuguese community. There’s a big South American community around here as well. And there’s people from everywhere.
FISH AND MORE
Brixton Market has a reputation for great food, whether raw ingredients, street food or cosmopolitan cafes. Horwood talked about some of the gastronomic highlights.
Stuart Horwood: I always tell people: ‘If you’re coming to Brixton Market, come hungry!’ Because there’s all sorts of food. We’ve got some of the best fish stalls in London. I don’t know anywhere in London that’s got a better selection of fish, this is definitely ‘the’ place to come for fresh fish. We’ve got at least twenty different butcher’s in the market area offering all sorts of different types of meat. We’ve got fruit and veg from all over the world so you’ll find cassavas, yams, plantains, green bananas. You name it, we’ve got it here, basically. So there’s literally food from everywhere around here. Plus there’s all the cafes and bars that have influences from Brazil, from the West Indies, from all over the world.
THE PEOPLE
There are plenty of other markets in London offering different specialties, from food to fashion, so what makes Brixton Market so special?
Stuart Horwood: It’s the community that makes it different. It’s the locals that use the market. And the fact that it is a working-class market. It’s not a tourist place. It’s definitely a place where people still come to do their shopping. Any visitor to Brixton market will see that there’s people shopping and buying all sorts of things in the market area. So that’s really what makes it different. It’s still one of the few surviving London street markets that are left, and yeah, so it’s unique in London.
AN EARTHY PLACE
Horwood goes on to explain how important the market is to locals.
Stuart Horwood: It plays a really strong role in the community because obviously it’s somewhere for people to come and shop and it’s also a place where people come and work. On top of that, we’ve got people that may just come down to the market for one Saturday a year and sell all the stuff that they’ve got in their attic. So it serves a really important role in the community. The community have a real strong connection with the street market because it’s an earthy place to come and spend your time.
FOREVER COOL
We then asked Horwood whether he was worried that Brixton Market might be getting a bit too fashionable and losing its working-class roots.
Stuart Horwood: Brixton’s always been trendy. It’s always been one of the ‘in’ places in London and it’ll continue to be that way. It’s got such a rich history in London that it’ll be trendy forever and it’ll always be a cool place for people to come and hang out.