Turning left outside Brixton station you would be forgiven for thinking you had stepped back in time to the 1960s.
It was not only the sprawling outdoor street market selling fresh produce and household goods that attracted shoppers, but the first department store, the Bon Marche, built in 1877 and the first shopping street with electric lighting in 1888, Electric Avenue, ensured that Brixton established itself as a home for the middle classes and creatives including Van Gogh and Charlie Chaplin.
In the two decades that followed, almost half a million people moved from Commonwealth countries to the UK, many of them coming from the West Indies and settling in Brixton.Etta Burrell was nine years old when she arrived in Brixton with her family from Jamaica."Every Saturday my mum would put the soup on the stove in the morning and then we'd make our way down to the market.
The Clash's hit 1979 song, Guns of Brixton, expressed the discontent that was building due to high unemployment, police brutality, crime and poor housing that eventually lead to theIn the 1990s, attempts were made to restore Brixton Village to its former glory, primarily through the City Challenge Programme.
This feeling was shared by Stafford Geohagen who came to the UK in 1999 and now runs the oldest restaurant in Brixton Village.Stafford and his wife Rosie have been running their restaurant in the Village for 20 years