As new communities move in, original residents ask what happened to the heart of Black Britain. THERE WAS a time in this country when the mention of Brixton symbolised the experience of Caribbean people in Britain.
While this is still true to a large extent – Brixton is home to the Black Cultural Archives, and rightly so – it seems to be the only legacy remaining.
For a significant number of the children of the Windrush generation, their lives were about Brixton: where they went to school, where they grew up and made lifelong friends and where they ran into various scrapes that finally culminated in clashes with heavy-handed police in 1981.
It was to Brixton that all black VIPs and celebrities from abroad, such as Nelson Mandela and Mike Tyson, flocked to for a taste and feel of the black experience when they came to these shores.
But things have changed rapidly within a decade or two.
There have been complaints by many people, particularly in the Caribbean community, that they are being excluded from Brixton through a process of gentrification. Indeed, there are suggestions that this has led to a departure of many black families from Brixton to nearby Croydon.
Croydon with 31,320 residents has now replaced Lambeth as the borough with the largest Black Caribbean population in London, closely followed by Lewisham.
gentrification UK style
