Brixton To Get A New Theatre: Brixton Empire

My beloved Brixton has many great things going for it - concert venues large (O2 Academy) and small (Electric Brixton), a great cinema (Ritzy), clubs (Plan B, Mass, Brixton Clubhouse Terrace & Bar and Jamm to name just a few); and more bars, cafe's and restaurants than I have the time to list. 


Throw in the wonderful markets, Brockwell Park and the Lido and it really has everything. Well nearly everything; what its lacked is a great theatre space. Until now that is.

St Matthews Church

I am very excited that Brixton is now to get its very own theatre space. Opening in October, Brixton Empire will be situated in the vast St Matthews Church building - which also hosts clubs Mass and Babalou as well as being the venue for the brilliant Samba classes run by Paraiso.

Brixton Empire, will have a capacity of between 150 to 200 people, with plans for a cafe and bar and even an extension into a bigger studio (with a 400 capacity) if all goes well. 


Brixton Empire is the brainchild of Daljinder Singh, who directs the opening play 'when the chickens came home to roost', a play about Malcolm X, set in the 1960's and written by Laurence Holder. It featured Denzel Washington as Malcolm X long before he played the role in the Spike Lee film of the same name. 

The play is a taste of what is to come from the Brixton Empire it seems. Speaking to 'The Stage' magazine, Singh said; "We're not going to be programming very traditional work - for instance period pieces, Chekhov or Shakespeare. There are fantastic companies out there that do that work superbly, so we're looking at other kinds of work that have that unique edge to it that symbolised the spirit of Brixton. We chose this play because we thought it was a fantastic play and despite being set in the Sixties it very much reverberates into the present - there are many parallels with the issues that are coming up today."


The theatre is currently looking for front of house volunteers, who will benefit from getting to see plays for free. If you are interested in volunteering check out the theatre's Facebook page.


'When the chickens came home to roost' is on from October 5 to November 4. Details can be found here. Tickets can be bought here. Get out and support this new local theatre!


Brixton Empire
St Matthews, Brixton Hill, SW2 1JF


I'll be reviewing the the theatre space and the play here on Mr Musing soon.

Is Twitter Fueling the London Riots?

Last night as I was winding down, getting ready for a night in front of the TV I logged onto Twitter to get an update on the Tottehnam riots. I was surprised to see Brixton trending.


Brixton had been hosting the annual Brixton Splash only hours earlier, an event I had planned to go to but unfortunately missed. Looking earlier at the photo's of people enjoying themselves en masse, dancing, eating, drinking, socialising and generally having a brilliant time, I was pleased that the event had taken place without any major incident. 

Brixton Splash

Brixton Splash was an event celebrating multi-cultural Brixton, even more poignant having read and watched the events unfolding in Tottenham only the night before.


But Brixton wasn't trending only because of the Splash. There were literally hundreds of posts about a supposed riot kicking off in Brixton, post stating that gangs of youths had descended on Brixton and were causing trouble. 


Locals were quick to point out that actually there was no trouble, that they were in fact in Brixton at the time and apart from people milling about as expected after a festival there was nothing particularly newsworthy going on.


That didn't stop the rumours though. It was becoming a frenzy at this point. Windows were being smashed, shops looted and police were battling to stay in control. Except it wasn't happening. Pictures emerged of a looted H&M, which was actually miles away in North London. 

The next thing I know, it was actually kicking off for real. The looting, the fires, the smashing of shop windows was actually happening for real. In the UK at least this is the first real rioting of any substantial size that has taken place during the Internet generation and it felt last night, like the Internet, in the absence of any credible, accurate and up to date information from the media was the place to turn to get an update.


Social media can be a brilliant tool - I have witnessed campaigns ranging from saving a local cinema to taking action against the stoning of an Iranian women but it can have it's downsides too. The hysteria building on Twitter last night about supposed riots in Brixton, long before anything had even kicked off was nothing short of a red rag to a bull. 

So is Twitter and other social media fuelling the London riots, pouring fuel onto the proverbial and literal fire?


Today, similarly to the events of yesterday, locations around London appear to be trending, with tweets about riots taking place long before they actually seem to happen - Croydon, Deptford, New Cross, Lewisham, Brockley. Is it really that social media is the quickest way to get news out there or a self-fulling prophecy, waiting to happen because the rumours on Twitter say it is? I fear the latter.


The police have said that they will be looking at Twitter to see if there is evidence of people inciting violence and encouraging the looting and rioting that has spread across the capital. I guess that will be like looking for a needle in a haystack, what with the tweets, re-tweets and suchlike that occurs on the site.


It's not that I blame social media entirely. The saying goes that there is no smoke without fire and there have been brilliant efforts by people today to re-tweet messages of how to help and get involved in the clean-up in Brixton. As I said at the start social media can be a tool that has positive uses. But it is worrying. 


What do you think? Has social media - Twitter, Facebook etc played a part in these riots? 

Short: Film Premiere - Robots of Brixton

I am really gutted that whilst I'l' be sunning myself on a beach in Puerto Banus tomorrow the premiere of the amazing looking Robots of Brixton will be showing at Brixton Village market. Okay so maybe not that gutted, I badly need a holiday after all but after hearing and becoming excited about this film it will be a shame not to see it. So someone please check it out for me!


Robots of Brixton is a short animated film, created by Kibwe Tavares, an architecture student from London. It depicts a dystopian future, years from now, when robots do man's dirty work and are discriminated against by human's. Tavares used the riots of Brixton in the 1980's as a reference point for the film and inspiration for some of the scenes.


He created the film for his Masters in Architecture and this shows in the impressive imagery (he would like to combine animation with architecture). The robots in the film live in shanty town like structures tacked onto buildings and Tavares has transformed the Barrier Block, AKA Southwyck House, in Brixton and the Town Hall. 

A imaginative reworking of the Barrier Block (Southwyck House)

The film has attracted lots of attention, the BBC even ran a feature on it and it would surprise me if we didn't hear a lot more from this obviously very talented young man.


The film will be shown tomorrow night, Saturday 25th June, at 7pm at Brick Box, Brixton Village (formerly Granville Arcade).


There is a short trailer from the film below. Check it out and let me know what you think of it?


From Kibwe Tavares on Vimeo.

Brixton: Bringing the Shutters Down in Style

Until recently, like in many areas of London, if you walked through the streets of central Brixton after the shops had closed you'd be met by rows of imposing grey steel shutters.


Many businesses rank the protection of their livelihoods higher than any aestetic impact and these ugly looking barricades, whilst offering security, make many of our streets look like barren ghost towns after dark.


Recently however, the drab-looking shutters along the streets of Coldharbour Lane and Atlantic Road in Brixton, South London have been brightened up.

Shops such as Brixton Wholefoods, Atlantic Meat Market, BEM Music and Clear Prints Digital have been transformed with colourful and interesting grafitti art.


The man responsible, Malarky, is a street artist, originally from South London and his work has been featured on shop shutters in Madrid and Barcelona, where he lived until recently.


I think that they are great and bring an interesting dimension to the streets of Brixton. Hopefully some of the other businesses will follow suit.