Brixton Village

Last Sunday Jackie and I decided to walk to Brixton. It's a suburb not too far from us but we don't go there very often. Brixton is probably best known for the Brixton Riots from 1981.

Image from the Brixton Riots

One of the main market streets in Brixton is Electric Avenue, some of you may recognise the name from the Eddy Grant song from 1982...

Jackie used to go to Brixton sometimes on her commute to her last job. This sometimes meant she was walking through the streets of Brixton early in the dark winter mornings, not a particularly enjoyable experience for her. 

Anyway, last Sunday we had a different experience in Brixton by following a recommendation I'd had at work to visit the Brixton Village market, which is very close to Electric Avenue. Specifically I'd been told about Federation Coffee, one of the growing number of New Zealand cafes turning up in London. We were well rewarded as there were several interesting independent cafes, shops, bakeries and restaurants. 

Jackie bought a 'jammy dodger' (similar to the Shrewsbury in NZ) from the Wheat and Gluten (WAG) free bakery.

Below are a few photos of Brixton Village:

One of the Avenues with cool lampshades

I'm not quite sure what they specialize in now, but they used to specialize in Jamaican and Caribbean groceries, it's a very Afro-Caribbean community with lots of butchers, fishmongers and greengrocers.

One of the restaurants will cool signage, all the shops/cafes etc had interesting hand painted signs

We decided to eat at a cafe which I decided to call Toastmasters. It didn't have a name that we could see but it was a very specific experience. Basically you order a platter of bread, you have your own toaster and you get to pick from a range of spreads. You can order eggs, bacon, sausages etc to go with the bread at an additional charge but we just stuck to the spreads. So basically toast and spreads. Only £2.50 for a platter of yummy breads or £3.50 for the non wheat breads. We had one of each and a cup of tea. 

Jackie tucking into the rye bread platter

Our toaster, I was in charge of the toasting.

A great idea and cheap too, less than £10 for the two of us and we were quite full by the end of it. The Aussie couple (we figured from Melbourne) that ran the cafe were both really nice too. 

I picked up a coffee from Federation Coffee, it was good. I've had better but good by London standards. 

I think we'll be back to Brixton Village again soon to try out some of the other cafes.