What's it like to live in Brixton / Brixton Borders

they do look like they've just stepped out of a kooples ad. fair do's, and it was a fucking shit-hole of a pub on a particularly grim and featureless one way gyratory so hats off if they've made something out of it. can't imagine people from beyond sw2 making a point to go there, then again i said shoelaces would never catch on.

fuckinell look at the size of that! like a baby cut in half.

why don't they put that on their housepage? fools!

why don't they put that on their housepage? fools!

Otherwise it'll be full of Ron Swansons.

Which is the best LBS to use in Herne Hill out of Bon Velo and HH Cycles? Need to give my commuter a good going over

bon velo is good can be pricey but very friendly and the mechanics are good in there.

hh cycles run of the mill cycle shop good if a little gruff (think i may have just caught him on a bad day)

if you want the best of both worlds head to stockwell road for Brixton cycles

on another note im leaving the Brixton stockwell borders for pastures new! i will miss stockwell/brixton, dispite the race to gentrification (of which i am part of) its still a great place to live.
i will miss the marquis- one of the last back street pubs left.

Oi!

Looking for a moderately priced rental property down south? An old friend/colleague is renting his one-bed flat in Camberwell, it's opposite the art college on Peckham Road... He's looking for around £1kpcm... Let me know if you're interested and I'll put you in touch... x

Can I check it out?

Yup... PM me your email address and I'll send it onto him...

Does anyone know of any LBS in the area that does bike box hire? I know Herne Hill Cycles and Bon Velo don't

Sent, tell him I'm a good egg. Lie if you have to.

Can I have second dibs?

Network Rail are 'redeveloping' the arches on Atlantic and Station Roads (Brindisa will be unaffected, obvs), all businesses will be advised when they'll have to vacate their premises by the spring of 2015... No guarantee of being allowed back either... Looks like I timed this move just right... :(

does this mean All-Saints comes to Brixton? Finally!

It's not just the Atlantic road arches. I was chatting to the baker in Ye Olde Bakery, HH, last week and they have all been told the same thing. There is some fluff about it on Herne Hill Forum apparently. I tend not to go that forum though, it is pants.

BTW, in case you were wondering, Ye Olde is the best bakery in the area. IMO

+1 for Ye Olde

I read about this on twitter yesterday, absolutely gutting if it plays out in the predictable let's turn everything into a Pret, All Saints and Starbucks way.

Post Office Bakery on Landor Road kicks Ye Olde Bakery in the pants, IMHO... Way cheaper too...

But I'm repeating myself...

Ye Olde Bakery is only the best in the area because the competition is fucking shit.
The cakes are shit, and overpriced, the bread is shit too.
Blackbird bakery is creaming off the "oh 4 pounds for a sourdough roll, yes please" market.

Anyway.

The arches. What a pile of shit.

This.

I got some sourdough starter from they that they're happy to give me, which is nice.

Their sourdough rye are awesome, but like @Chalfie said, very little in way of competition.

The best shop along that strip is the greengrocer, very friendly chaps and they sell dirt cheap samphire.

thread has gone from 'angry anti-gentrification rant' to 'who makes the best sourdough bread in SW2' in three posts.

Read this last night. If true it's totally unforgivable. Coming on the back of the rape of Denmark Street it's enough to make me want to up sticks of f*ck off somewhere that values it's culture like, well, almost anywhere else in Europe. Anywhere with rent control. Seriously, fuck this country.

Just spent a week in Paris, and while there's plenty not to like about Paris, there's a lot of real positives too. A lot of what is great about it stems from the huge majority of small and independent shops, restaurants, cafes and businesses, many of which have been there for generations with reputations built on consistent quality. All but the mainest of main boulevards are chain free. Even right into the centre of town. That and the affordability of central living means that Paris feels like a city for people to work, live, shop, and eat in. The affordability of rent means that businesses are able to exist on much more realistic turnovers and the entire quality and pace of life feels much more sustainable.

Compare that with the homogenised, glass fronted tourist park that is the centre of London where all but the biggest chains get priced out. Nobody lives there, hardly anybody works there except those in the tourist and chainstore retail trade. It's hugely overcrowded, entirely shit, impersonal and bland. And it’s getting worse at a frightening pace. Waterloo and Vauxhall are next btw. There’s a meeting happening next to me right now discussing the new layout. I suspect there will be fewer voices of dissent over that but there you go.

I might suggest that we’re in the process of killing the goose that lays the golden egg by destroying the very thing that that London a cultural tourist destination in the first place but I fear that the big ticket attractions (the royal stuff and misc/ "proper" history) will override the loss of real, personal history of real London and the place will continue it’s transformation into a fucking medieval themed tourist attraction and giant glass fronted shopping mall. I fear it’s already too late for any form of rent control to control or reverse the damage already done. It’s fucking tragic really.

But the free market! That will help. It really will.Wait! Come back.

It's not the developments themselves that are the issue. London's so overcrowded and the travel infrastructure deperately needs the overhaul it's currently undergoing; it's the total lack of stewardship of the cultural life of the city that accompanies the developments. Rent control. Rent control. Rent control.