Brixton Archives - Brockley SE4

Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers in Brixton (1992) – as reported by undercover police

Mar

30

2025

Bobby Seale was one of the founders of the Black Panther Party in the USA and like many of its activists bore the brunt of repression from the American state. Infamously in the 1969 trial of the 'Chicago 8' Vietnam war protestors he was ordered by the judge to be bound and gagged to prevent ...

Railton Road Radical Histories Mural

Feb

6

2025

The 'wall of respect for the radical histories of Railton Road' was painted in 2021 by the RAD Mural Collective on a wall at the 198 art space at 198 Railton Road. Designed by Jacob V Joyce and Monique Jackson, it packs in a lot of local historical detail, referencing black, queer and other radical ...

Edward Said visits C.L.R. James in Brixton

Oct

16

2024

Just been reading Timothy Brennan's 'Places of mind: a life of Edward Said' in which he mentions the great Palestinian/American intellectual visiting Brixton in 1987, 'Paying his respects to an ailing C.L.R. James in Railton Road... Said had made the pilgrimage, in fact, to honor James's contributions to art and to black liberation. But even ...

The Tidal Year

Oct

26

2023

Freya Bromley's 'The Tidal Year: a memoir on grief, swimming and sisterhood' sees the author travelling around Britain's tidal pools in the aftermath of her brother's untimely death. Along the way she visits some of my favourite swimming spots including Walpole Bay in Margate, Clevedon Marine Lake (on the Severn Estuary) and Dancing Ledge in ...

Brixton Hill Clinic Defence Campaign – defeating anti-abortionists in 1990

Jun

28

2022

The anti-abortion movement in the UK will no doubt be emboldened by recent events in the United States, and while the scope for them to challenge current laws seems to be limited there is a risk that they may step up direct action against health services. In recent years anti-abortionists have picketed St John's Medical ...

The Peanut Factory: squatting in South London in the 1970s

May

25

2022

I really enjoyed reading 'The Peanut Factory' by Deborah Price (Guts Publishing, 2022), her memoir of life in South London squats in the 1970s and early 80s - and specifically the scene in the Crystal Palace/Norwood area. Must admit that despite myself being a Brixton squatter later in the 80s I had no idea how ...

The Peanut Factory: squatting in South London in the 1970s

May

25

2022

I really enjoyed reading 'The Peanut Factory' by Deborah Price (Guts Publishing, 2022), her memoir of life in South London squats in the 1970s and early 80s - and specifically the scene in the Crystal Palace/Norwood area. Must admit that despite myself being a Brixton squatter later in the 80s I had no idea how ...

Joy Crookes – South London Songs

Nov

15

2021

Joy Crookes at Queens Road, PeckhamSinger Joy Crookes has a new album out, Skin, and very good it is too. She's been compared to Amy Winehouse, but she has a great voice of her own and her songs are rooted firmly in 2020s London. Joy grew up at Elephant and Castle and her songs reference ...

Black Lives Matter in South London, one year on

May

25

2021

'ACAB' 'Floyd' - Albert Embankment SE1, April 2021A year ago today the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis sparked off the latest round of the global Black Lives Matter movement. The UK movement really started off with a march in Peckham on the 30th May and today Black Lives Matter activist ...

Gill Roth and Andrew Clarke – Make Believe (and 30 years of making things happen in London)

Aug

29

2018

Opening this week at Lewisham Arthouse, Gill Roth and Andrew Clarke present their joint exhibition 'Make Believe' Gill and Andrew 'make work that blurs the edge between abstraction and representation, where the observable world meets the environment of the imagination. While drawing forms the core of Gill’s practice, Andrew’s figures emerge through a process of ...

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