{"id":3428,"date":"2011-02-15T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T10:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=3428"},"modified":"2011-02-15T10:22:46","modified_gmt":"2011-02-15T10:22:46","slug":"archive-brixton-as-seen-in-reggae-britannia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/archive-brixton-as-seen-in-reggae-britannia\/","title":{"rendered":"Archive Brixton scenes from Reggae Britannia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Archive<\/p>\n

Still available on BBC’s iPlayer<\/a> (if you’re quick enough) is Reggae Britannia,<\/a> an excellent documentary charting the impact of reggae on Britain’s music scene, featuring interviews with greats like Big Youth, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jerry Dammers, Dennis Bovell, Janet Kay, Aswad and Steel Pulse.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Naturally, Brixton features\u00a0prominently\u00a0in the\u00a0story, and I managed to bag a few screengrabs from the\u00a0programme which included some local street footage from the late 1970s\/early 1980s.<\/p>\n

In the photo above, you can see Brixton Road looking south.\u00a0The top of\u00a0Lambeth\u00a0Town Hall can be seen to the right above the railway bridge, while the long-since vanished footbridge<\/a> is in the middle distance.<\/p>\n

Coldharbour Lane<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Archive<\/p>\n

Looking east along Coldharbour Lane from close to the junction with Brixton Road.<\/p>\n

In the distance \u00a0can be seen scaffolding around the top of the then-unfinished Barrier Block<\/a> (Southwyck House), while the entrance to\u00a0Woolworths is on the left.<\/p>\n

The Brixton Woolworths was one of the company’s larger UK stores, with other entrances on both Brixton Road and Electric Lane.<\/p>\n

By the 1990s the\u00a0store\u00a0had reduced considerably in size, before finally closing for good in early 2009<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Atlantic Road\/Electric Avenue<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Archive<\/p>\n

A rather murky night scene looking up Atlantic Road towards\u00a0Coldharbour Lane.<\/p>\n

The lights\u00a0above\u00a0 the shops belong to Brixton railway station<\/a>, while the\u00a0six sided clock tower of the legendary Railway Hotel\/Brady’s bar<\/a> can be seen silhouetted\u00a0against\u00a0the night sky. The ornate railway bridge has since been rebuilt – here’s a better view of it <\/a>with Michael Caine walking past in a scene from the seminal 60s movie, ‘Alfie.’.<\/p>\n

\"Archive<\/p>\n

A day time view of Atlantic Road, \u00a0looking towards the junction with towards\u00a0Coldharbour Lane. There seems to have been a lot of shoe shops in Brixton in the 70s\/80s!<\/p>\n

\"Archive<\/p>\n

Corner of Atlantic Road and Electric Avenue<\/a>, with a\u00a0tantalising\u00a0glimpse of the street’s once\u00a0famous\u00a0cast iron\u00a0canopies\u00a0which ran the entire length of the street.<\/p>\n

The corner shop nearest the camera – advertising ‘overcoats from \u00a33’ – now serves as a fruit and veg store, with the building above being in a very poor state.<\/p>\n

\"Archive<\/p>\n

Another view of Electric Avenue. You can see that the canopies on the right hand side of the road have already been demolished, and the shops look in a bit of a state<\/p>\n

Sadly, all of the canopies have now been\u00a0removed, although if you look hard enough, you can still see bits of the original cast iron supports above the shops.<\/p>\n

Barrier Block<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Archive<\/p>\n

Two more views of the Barrier Block, with Somerleyton Road to the right. The phone boxes and letter box are still there.<\/p>\n

\"Archive<\/p>\n

Granville Arcade<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Archive<\/p>\n

Opening time for Granville Arcade<\/a> (now Brixton Village<\/a>). Note the ‘Record Shack’ sign to the left.<\/p>\n

\"Archive<\/p>\n

A final photo taken from the excellent Babylon film of 1980 showing a scene inside the arcade.<\/p>\n

Discuss the Reggae Britannia series here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Still available on BBC’s iPlayer (if you’re quick enough) is Reggae Britannia, an excellent documentary charting the impact of reggae on Britain’s music scene, featuring interviews with greats like Big … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,17,193],"tags":[1191,289,272],"class_list":["post-3428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brixton","category-photos","category-places","tag-brixton","tag-brixton-village","tag-reggae"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/brixton-70s-80s-reggae-bbc-01.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-Ti","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3428"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3431,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428\/revisions\/3431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}