Summer notes

Brixton notes

            At the end of July, beginning of August, Montse and I took a week’s break in London, renting a small room in Brixton, wandering around by bus, by tube, on foot, together in the excitement of the August crowds—new impressions of London after the Olympics—a London filling up with new architectural wonders.

            Brixton’s high degree of multi-ethnicity brings with it a rhythm, a kind of rocking beat that’s passed along, a feeling you can’t miss, I’d say. Browsing in an old Everyman’s Library edition of John Stow’s The Survey of London told me that Lambeth, the borough where Brixton is located, was previously known as Lambhithe, or Lambith. Hythe, hyth and other variations are Old English words for haven or landing place.

Brixton isn’t indexed in Stow’s Survey, although the earlier name Brixtane has existed since as early as the eleventh century. Elizabethan Stow may have omitted it because the oldest building in Brixton dates to 1812 (info in the Urban 75 Guide, online at http://www.urban75.org/brixton/history/history.html). The district’s recently opened Black Cultural Archives, re-exploring Black British history, is an attractive new democratic space on Windrush Square, a couple of minutes’ walk from Brixton underground station (architectural info online at http://www.gum.uk.com/portfolio/history-centres/black-cultural-archives-brixton).

So that is one particular hyth we found, helped along by the fair weather—sunny days and cool nights, with lots of culinary delights. “Wherof,” if I may be so bold as to copy Stow, “in another place shall be spoken.”