A Brixtonian tree

There are strange trees in Brixton.
Outside the police station there is a large tree that looks like any other tree at first glance.

But as you get closer to the tree, you can see that the trunk is full with lanterns, notes and pictures in memory of Sean Rigg who died in police custody at Brixton station.

 

 

We should not have to have trees like this in Brixton!
However, I suspect we will continue to have them as long as the racist Metropolitan Police force is allowed to kill our young men without any legal actions against the killers.

• Video: Sean Rigg

Door problems

I have the bad luck to live on top of the main entrance of my block of flats. Sometimes it can be good thing because I get to hear a lot of gossip. People tend to forget how well sound carries when you are standing next to a wall. However, most of the time it’s a menace!

First of all, there is a door phone that with a metallic voice shouts out which flat number any visitors pressed for Queen and country to hear. I had a friend that used to say it was unsafe. I think he might have been slightly paranoid though. The mechanic call outs are okay during the day but not at 4am when I am firmly at sleep or rather tries to be at sleep!

Secondly, there are the youngsters that can’t bother to announce their arrival so they simply kick the door phone and let themselves into the building and help themselves to one of the bikes in the entrance hall. So much for security.
The other day I heard a cunning neighbour trying to scare the youngsters from stealing bikes from our house with a story of a crazy man living in the house that sometimes have a go at people with a huge knife. At least I hope it was a made up story - I never have seen such man.

Thirdly, when people kick the door phone or play with the door, which some of the little kids in the house like to do, they sometimes knock off the shield for the emergency alarm and sets off its high pitched siren. I then open my window and tell them to put it back but usually they don’t know how to do it so I end up having to go down and fix it myself. This is a hassle since I have a bad knee at the moment and struggle to climb the stairs. Next time I just have to shoot them at sight!

Today the gas and electric goes up with 20% and 18%. I have a feeling it will be a very long and cold winter for most of us in the house. I spoke with Simone about it the other day and we said we have to buy one of those Slankets and maybe a pair of slippers for both feet. Sod looking good!

I really hope I don’t get any surprise visitors this winter.

We might be cold in our flats but Brixton is certainly still burning under the surface. The footlocker store started to burn again after the riots. They put the fire out last week but yesterday the fire had started again. The fire in Brixton will go on burning until the police stop killing our young men on the streets!

Holiday

Just came back from a holiday in Sweden and it was like being on a different planet! The weather was great every day and I got myself a tan as if I have been to a Mediterranean country rather than the cold North.
Here in England I live in poverty but my family and friends in Sweden are firmly middleclass. All the houses I go to there are fantastic;

The nature is amazing;

And my lovely family are the best! (Thank you all for a fantastic holiday!)

I arrived at Arlanda Airport late in the night and my sister and her husband picked me up and we drove through the summer night to my dad’s country house. The trip took 40 minutes and we managed to see two badgers, two owls and one deer. Now they even have street signs warning for wild boar!

I had a really good time and my family spoiled me rotten, thank you! But I still can’t get over the contrast in living standards.

I arrived home during the riots. Home Sweet Home, or?

Rubbish

I don’t know if it’s only me but it seems like the council has cut down on the rubbish collection and our bins are always filled to the brim nowadays. I suspect it’s not only the people in my house that uses our bin; I think other households on the street dump their rubbish in our bins. No wonder we got mice!

 On top of it the whole street smells of sewage! Luckily, the stink is not right outside my house but as you walk towards the junction and the corner shop you need to cover your nose with a bandana, which can explain why so many people in Brixton uses bandanas.


The other week I decided to clear up the garden for the season. The maintenance guys have dumped loads of broken furniture in the garden during the winter. I tried to sort it out and make it look less messy but there is just so much you can do about rubbish. My neighbour has been on their backs for months to get them to clear the rubbish from the garden but alas, it’s still there.
I picked up all garbage from the floor and swept it with a broom, including all used condoms and cotton buds. I have no idea how these condoms end up in our garden. Do we have prostitutes working in the house? Is it the neighbours that use their bathroom windows as rubbish shuts, or what’s going on?
When I finished cleaning the garden I put a nice bright table cloth on the table and some flowers. I was very proud of my work.


Three days later I went to the garden for a coffee and the first thing I saw was a used condom. We should install CCTV and bust the dirty beggars!
I will not give up! I just have to bring a bin when I go there and tidy up a bit before I use the garden.


In the weekend I took my deckchair to the garden and sat down in the sun with a good book. Suddenly, the wind shut the door and I found myself locked out. I knocked the door and shouted, ‘hello’. A dude answered my call and told me to use the front door! Seriously, I don’t understand how people think. It took me about five minutes to explain to the guy that I was locked out and needed him to open the door for me. When he finally did open and let me into the house, he looked very grumpy.


I think I give the garden another go today...

Brixton vibes

If you like to take ‘a walk on the wild side’ I can recommend a walk on Coldharbour Lane. It is the large road that goes from Camberwell Green to Brixton and it takes about 30 minutes to walk its full length, depending on your speed. If you start from Camberwell you will find the first bit quite average for South London and even slightly on the boring side. It's just a ordinary street with houses, some building sites and a few off-licences and a couple of pubs.
After about a 15 minutes walk you reach Loughborough Junction with its train station and fast food shops. In daylight the junction is just a junction of four roads but by night it turns into the Wild West and you are on your own! There are a lot of small alleys where dodgy things go on and as a woman it's best to keep as close to the traffic as it's safe to do.


When you have passed Loughborough Junction it's almost as you have reached a warmer climate and find yourself in the Caribbean. Dreadlocks walking on the road and dancehall queens struts their booty. The cars have sexy lights and filmed windows and you can hear the base beat long before you actually see the car. As the car passes you, the reggae music hits you so hard that you can actually feel the beat on your skin. People dress in brighter colours and life suddenly feels happier!

Shortly after the junction, on your left hand side you will see the Brixton Sports and Social Club. The name make it sound as it's some health club or something but actually in the daytime it's a day care centre. Sometimes they hold family days in the front garden with balloons and inflatable moonwalk jumpers for the children. But in the night it turns into a bar and night club. In the entrance hall there is a closet with two big doors that open up and turn the whole thing into a bar. The name Brixton Sports and Social Club, reminds me of my brother in law’s club that is called Gubbängens Art and Swim Society, which in reality is a bunch of men meeting regularly to take a sauna and drink beer. It has nothing what so ever to do with sports!


After the sports club you come to the big brown estate, called Southgate House that looks a bit like a huge turd of shit. But actually, the flats are rather nice on the inside. However, the local gang of youths lime outside the main door or rather they used to but they have now been dispersed by the police when they started to post an officer there 24/7. Nowadays the boys move around on their bikes instead and have become a mobile menace rather than stationary.

In front of the turd there is a bit of grassed area with a low wall around it. The wall is perfect for sitting on and in the summer you have huge groups of men, and a few women, sitting on the walls drinking beers and smoking ganja. Across the road there is a William Hill where gamblers bet their money and there is usually a big lime going on outside. Music roaring from a parked car and a cloud of ganja smoke fills the street.
After the betting store there is a sort of wine bar or something, My Father’s Place, that looks very secretive and do not really invite you to pop in and have a drink. It gives a feeling of a member’s only club. God knows how they make their money!
In the corner you have Angel Bar and Restaurant, which in the summer hold parties that have a tendency to spread out to the street and give it a feel of carnival in the air.
Then suddenly, in the middle of all that there is a newly built block of luxury apartments that nobody local can afford to live in. I wonder who it was attended for, Cameron and his rich friends?


If you walk a bit further down Coldharbour Lane you come to Brixton Village where the smell from the jerk chicken BBQ fills the air. The chicken is made on a huge metal pan made into a BBQ grill. Reggae music is played all over the place. Behind the Brixton Village is the large in-door market with all its food stalls and vintage shops. In Brixton market you can buy anything, if it's not there it does not exist!

Then you come to the coolest fruit and vegetable stand in Brixton, Natural Valley that is managed by a Rasta family and they have great paintings on the outside. Jah man!
Then you cross Railton Road/Atlantic Road and to your left you can see the old Weather Man shop that used to play Nation of Islam’s anti-white propaganda on big speakers outside the shop. The shop is now, thankfully, closed. You can hear the music from the shops at Atlantic Road.
In the corner you have the famous pub Dogstar that is a popular waterhole on weekends.


After that you come to the part of Coldharbour Lane that I like to call the Barber’s Corner because of all the barbershops. The barber shops are the main hang out place and they are always filled to the brim with men and women liming and fixing their hairs. As an Anthropologist it would be a great fieldwork project to study the linage system between the different barbershops, they make the heart of Brixton. Except for the Chinese nail artists there are only blacks in the shops and it seem to be some tension going on between the Caribbean shops and the African ones. In the midst of all the barbers you will find Blacker Dread record shop. Sadly, for a white woman to enter the shop is a bit like it most have been for a black man to enter a white only bar in southern states of America in the sixties. All activity stops and all heads turn and stare at you in silence, very uncomfortable. This means I have to buy my records in the market instead.


Across the road there is a huge squat of some kind with a big horse head over the door. One wonders who actually owns the huge house and if they forgotten that they own it.
Then you have to squeeze pass the roadblock of people waiting for bus P5 before you come to The Prince Albert, mainly white pub and Satay Bar across the road for mainly black people. But towards the end of Coldharbour Lane you finally find a bar that has a mixed range of people, The Prince.
On the other side of the road you find Ritzy cinema that I visit as often as I can afford. You then come out to Brixton town centre with all the bus stops and KFC, McDonalds and the big Lambeth Town Hall with its tower clock. In the end of Coldharbour Lane they now have a police officer protecting law and order.


I might be mad but I love Brixton!