Brixton news, rumours and general chat: Summer - Autumn 2018

[Nanker Phelge]

Used to be one of the go to barbers for a proper flat top...

R.I.P Andy

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

I liked her instant bans. Caught doing drugs in the toilet? That's a five week ban!

seems a bit harsh...but then i could imagine back then if a boozer in central Brixton got the reputation for being too tolerant on drug taking things could of gone down hill quite rapidly.

 

[Casaubon]

seems a bit harsh...but then i could imagine back then if a boozer in central Brixton got the reputation for being too tolerant on drug taking things could of gone down hill quite rapidly.

As I’ve mentioned here before, Pat once barred her son Chris for being in possession of a spliff.
She was, necessarily, a tough woman (a dragon, at times), but there are plenty of people who'll testify to her heart of gold.

Here’s Chris (4th from left) at the Kent Custom Show in the summer of ’89, with some Albert regulars.



Does anyone know where Chris is these days?

 

[nick]

Sad to hear of Andy - used to get flat tops there in the early 80s when up visiting my sister who lived above the launderette on the corner of Vining St / Atlantic road.
Unlike other barbers he would refuse to use those spirit level/ large comb things and would insist of doing it by eye.
Can't say I've used haircut sir? for 20+ years - but I'm glad to see it still there when going past on the bus

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Sad to hear of Andy - used to get flat tops there in the early 80s when up visiting my sister who lived above the launderette on the corner of Vining St / Atlantic road.
Unlike other barbers he would refuse to use those spirit level/ large comb things and would insist of doing it by eye.
Can't say I've used haircut sir? for 20+ years - but I'm glad to see it still there when going past on the bus

His Son and Daughter cut hair there now.

Andy was known as the king of the flat tops. I'm sure Face Magazine did an article on him back in the 80s....

A Brixton Buzz piece waiting to be written there...

 

[twistedAM]

Back then there was those who were regulars at the Railway and those ( me ) who used the Albert. Distinct groups.

I was very mostly a Railway type and one night I went into the Albert and Pat instructed one of the bar staff to follow me in to the toilets. I had known the guy before he started at the Albert so asked him what he was doing and he said Pat suspected me of doing drugs. Like why would I have left Brady's to do drugs???

Whenever I went in the Albert during the day sometimes she really was quite different - asking if I'd been back to Ireland and stuff like that. She was great!

 

[editor]

His Son and Daughter cut hair there now.

Andy was known as the king of the flat tops. I'm sure Face Magazine did an article on him back in the 80s....

A Brixton Buzz piece waiting to be written there...

I've never used a barber since I arrived in Brixton so didn't know him, but if anyone wants to write a piece, I'd be happy to publish it!

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I've never used a barber since I arrived in Brixton so didn't know him, but if anyone wants to write a piece, I'd be happy to publish it!

I'd quite like to just see that Face Article in full...I know there are bits of it framed in the Barber shop

 

[friendofdorothy]

Have to say I fucking hate this bullshit on the bridge.

View attachment 149305

Now it seems to say
'AY IN PEACE

whats it short for - away? say? stay? Is that even a saying?

 

[friendofdorothy]

The Albert was my regular for many years. When I first went there it was almost empty. The bar was in the centre. Pat had a hard life. When I first used it her husband ran it. He was alcoholic. I don't know what happened to him. She gradually took over.

Then somehow the Albert got really full. It was all the squatters and short life. Plus the local Bikers/ Hell's Angels. A very mixed crowd. I never knew what she thought of this. She was a women of few words. I got the feeling she liked it. She was old school Irish landlady. The pub was her life.

Unlike some establishments Albert was no nonsense boozer. I always liked Pat. I was one of the regulars who got invited for the lock ins.

And barring people. She never forgot a face. Come back a year later. I'm not serving you. I actually saw this happen. Everyone respected her. And unlike some places regulars would back her up if necessary. A well run pub. And unlike now no security people. She did it on respect for her. Sadly missing these days. Where hiring security replaces this.

I went to her funeral up on Brixton hill in the Catholic church. It was packed. All of us atheists/ agnostiics.

And she ran this pub when Brixton wasn't an easy area.

Saw Pat literally sweeping prostitutes off the front of the Albert with a broom one morning.

She single handedly threw a a big geezer out one quiet lunch time when I was there - her 5 foot nothing and him 6ft 6 - she got hold of him by the collar and marched him from the back of the pub, to out the front door. He apologised to her all the way out. It was a joy to see.

 

[editor]

Now it seems to say
'AY IN PEACE

whats it short for - away? say? stay? Is that even a saying?

It's going to say COME IN LOVE (fnarr fnarr) on one side and STAY IN PEACE on the other in bright colours. It's nearly ready to serve as a new 'Brixton icon' for Instagraming and featuring in in-flight magazines, property developers brochures etc.

 

[friendofdorothy]

It's going to say COME IN LOVE (fnarr fnarr) on one side and STAY IN PEACE on the other in bright colours. It's nearly ready to serve as a new 'Brixton icon' for Instagraming and featuring in in-flight magazines, property developers brochures etc.

View attachment 149356

I like the colours.

Being northern I think that should be - Come in, love

 

[friendofdorothy]

I think I only went to Bradys a couple of times, maybe to see a band, it was a very rough place. Back then very few straight pubs were safe places for lesbians.

I seem to recall it had sawdust on the floor - or is that my memory playing tricks?

 

[T & P]

I like the colours.

Being northern I think that should be - Come in, love

I'm sure painting in a comma would neither require being talented at painting/graffittng nor not much time to execute it. Just saying, like

PS But it would require trespassing on a railway line, or alternatively borrowing a cherrypicker.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

I met my Son's mum in Bradys...watching The Sexed Up Lambeth Boys....

I have mixed feelings about this....ha ha

 

[sealion]

I seem to recall it had sawdust on the floor - or is that my memory playing tricks?

It could well have been the residue from tables and chairs very rough place at one time!

 

[Jangleballix]

very rough place at one time!

One time 82-83 I walked past the side and two blokes were tussling over an AK47 in the street.
I blithely presumed it was a replica and walked on regardless.
Say what you like about gentrification this is unlikely to happen outside Wahaca.

 

[editor]

One time 82-83 I walked past the side and two blokes were tussling over an AK47 in the street.
I blithely presumed it was a replica and walked on regardless.
Say what you like about gentrification this is unlikely to happen outside Wahaca.

Now it's just city boys, entrepreneurs and gammons in pink shirts shouting and puking up in the street after too many pulled pork burgers and cocktails.

 

[sealion]

Say what you like about gentrification this is unlikely to happen outside Wahaca.

 

[sealion]

If Brixton is now seen and sold as edgy, i wonder what the lifestyle mags/ estate agents would have made of it 20 years ago.

 

[David Clapson]

What do, or maybe did, people find most appealing about living in Brixton?

Strangers talk to each other. Doesn't happen anywhere else in south east england.

 

[discobastard]

Strangers talk to each other. Doesn't happen anywhere else in south east england.

I fear that is a *slight* exaggeration.

ETA: Except in the context of people asking you for money.

 

[editor]

If Brixton is now seen and sold as edgy, i wonder what the lifestyle mags/ estate agents would have made of it 20 years ago.

They didn't gush about it then because they were too shit-scared to come down. Which was great for us locals.

 

[friendofdorothy]

Now it seems to say
'AY IN PEACE

whats it short for - away? say? stay? Is that even a saying?

See they've added the ST now.

 

[David Clapson]

They didn't gush about it then because they were too shit-scared to come down. Which was great for us locals.

The only visitors we had were journalists wanting a crime story. There was one article which described Coldharbour Lane and Somerleyton Rd as a terrifying no-go area, drugs den etc. There was a hole in the window of Granada Cars and the article said it was a bullet hole. Total bollocks. Just a flat lie. That article taught me a lot about journalism.

 

[David Clapson]

I fear that is a *slight* exaggeration.

In my experience it's very accurate! It's why I moved here from Fulham. If you doubt it, maybe that's because you don't talk to many strangers?

 

[discobastard]

In my experience it's very accurate! It's why I moved here from Fulham. If you doubt it, maybe that's because you don't talk to many strangers?

I talk to plenty! But not just in Brixton, that was my point.

 

[Gramsci]

Been reading the Resolve Collective who designed the new artwork on the Brixton bridge.

As an approach to exploring text, ‘Come In Love/Stay In Peace’ constitute the provisional text for this project. It is a play on the common saying ‘Come in Peace’, coalescing the action of coming and going in Brixton, by playfully interpreting both sides and directions of movement as the ultimate act of approach. Undertones of ‘love’, ‘neighborliness’, ‘homecoming’ and ‘peace’ act as a potent reminder of Brixton as more than an area, but a community

https://www.resolvecollective.com/brixton-bridge/5lbu77qnkh4cn7m30bztayvstsso54

Its all well meaning. And Resolve Collective sound interesting practice. Putting together architectural practise/Urban design with meaningful interventions in public space.

I cant help but feel this one whilst incorporating Brixton history and heritage does not represent the fact that change is altering Brixton entirely.

The Afro Carribbean community who made there homes here from Windrush are being pushed out. For example.

If the bridge design is about community and neighbourness in London these are relatively short lived as economic changes push one community out for another.

This the bridge doesnt represent.

 

[Gramsci]

https://www.resolvecollective.com/brixton-bridge/z3ivmf2njlfoyfmpkrjl3a5g0uuazd

Something Resolve Collective could have done with the Brixton bridge is celebrate how the community of the time fought racist police. The 81 riot. Or Uprising as some call it.

I was there at the time. There was general feeling amongst Afro Carribbean people that the Met got a well deserved kicking.

This of course would never get anywhere with a Council sanctioned competition.

I bring this up as imo sense of community isn't about just touchy feely "Peace". The phrases that Resolve Collective use. Sense of community is also built on violence and conflict. I'm saying this as someone who entered adult life with election of Margaret Thatcher and the eighties.

 

[mx wcfc]

I'd quite like to just see that Face Article in full...I know there are bits of it framed in the Barber shop

I have issues 1-99 of The Face. If you could give me an approx date, I could have a look and scan it. Might take a while to go through all of them.