Brixton

DAY 2

YAY I am so happy we finally got here! Seriously. Really happy. This was my favourite day of the whole itinerary.

It started off with a trip down to neighbouring Brixton, 10-15 minutes’ walk from my house. It’s an area I’ve visited many, many times to get my grocery shopping done and library books borrowed (Stockwell doesn’t have the amenities Brixton does in that regard), but I’ve never really done the whole tourist wandering about thing here.

Not the best weather either that day, as you can tell. Anyway, this is the main thoroughfare of Brixton Road, where the tube station is. It’s the southernmost stop of the Victoria line. Brixton has an even more notorious reputation than Stockwell does: it’s been called the drug capital of London (honestly, some days you can smell weed on every corner), and in the mid-1990s Coldharbour Lane in the heart of Brixton had the gloomy statistic of 3 shootings per week. Gun crime in the borough of Lambeth is the highest in the whole of London as it is, but in Brixton this was particularly pronounced until recently. It’s a lot better now I think, after tougher crackdowns on crime. In any case, I’ve never felt particularly in huge danger while walking rond Brixton, and the neighbourhood buzzes with an almost bohemian vibrancy.

The Ritzy Cinema is an institution. Open since 11 March 1911, it was one of London’s first purpose-built cinemas for seating a large number of people (>750) in a single auditorium. Formerly independent, it’s now owned by Picturehouse Cinemas, and still screens a nice mix of mainstream and indie films. It also has a very nice cafe where I frequently availed myself of free wifi before my internet was hooked up.

Filed under: photos , brixton, ritzy