Over a hundred and twenty years of Brixton history came to a crashing halt last night as the Canterbury Arms held its last-ever party.

The Victorian pub – which retains most of its wonderful original interior – is due to be flattened to make way for the now-inevitable upmarket private flats.

The closure was announced in an open letter to customers last month (see below), and the Canterbury Arms will sadly cease to exist from next Saturday, 5th September

An open letter to The Canterbury Arms community.

Dear friends,

It is with extreme sadness that I announce the demise of ‘The Canterbury Arms’ Brixton.

The bar will cease trading on the 5th September 2015, this closure reflects the insatiable appetite of property developers for backstreet corner sites that will be developed into flats for tenants who live in far off lands, and these developers call it progress which maybe so…
But where do local people who want to be part of a community and their friends and relatives go to socialise.

Over the years the Canterbury has celebrated weddings, christenings, birthdays, funerals and anniversaries from all cultures. There have been many club and music nights over the years, too many to mention, which have reflected the diverse communities which makes up the melting pot that Brixton personifies.

In my tenure as manager of this venerable establishment, my wife Mary, daughters Michelle and Mary-Lisa and of course Eamon have come to know and respect the locals and felt part of the community. We have made many friends and a few enemies, but that is life. So it is with extreme sorrow that we say goodbye to the pub that became home for me and my family over a very long period.

As I have said to the many friends and acquaintances who we have met over the years, through concerts at the academy, parties and celebrations – it has been a pleasure to know and serve you, even bar some of you on occasion.

There will be a final night of celebration with the legendary Gerry who has DJ’d for the last 20 years here and who is a great friend on Saturday, 29th August – you are all welcome!

Slán & Beannacht

Brian, Mary, Michelle, Mary-Lisa & Eamon

The pub has played a key part in the social history of Brixton, providing a friendly space where locals can get together and chat, drink and dance.

The venue has a strong connection with music and dancing. In the 80s it was a popular gig on the live music circuit, hosting punk bands like Snuff and the UK Subs, as well as experimental grindcore nights.

More recently it has seen regular club nights such as the long-running How Does It Feel To Be Loved and Time Tunnel, and before that, the Mule Club, PROD and the legendary Hat Parties.

Interestingly, it also played host to an evening put on by the long forgotten Brixton Socialist Club in 1978.

Last night’s closing party was a bitter-sweet affair, with many customers coming out to toast the pub and to wish its family owners the best for the future.

Scroll down to see more photos from the last party night at the Canterbury Arms.

We will miss the place very much indeed.

Chat about the Canterbury Arms on the Brixton forum.

Details:
The Canterbury Arms [map]
8 Canterbury Crescent, SW9,
Tel: 020 7274 1711
Nearest tube: Brixton

Read our review of the pub here.

When they call time at the Canterbury Arms in Brixton tomorrow night, it will mark the end of a popular local community boozer that has been serving locals for well over a century.

With the pub ceasing to exist after the 5th September, the well-loved Victorian local is scheduled for demolition with the inevitable luxury flats replacing it.

Last week we were at the final farewell party, and before that we’d gone along to document the last How Does It Feel To be Loved and Time Tunnel club nights.

Today, we popped in to take one last look at the beautiful original interior which will soon be lost forever.

So goodbye, the Canterbury Arms.

It’s nothing short of criminal that this pub has now been lost to future generation. we are sad, and angry.

Chat about the Canterbury Arms on the Brixton forum.

Details:
The Canterbury Arms [map]
8 Canterbury Crescent, SW9,
Tel: 020 7274 1711
Nearest tube: Brixton

Read our review of the pub here.

More:
View lost pub photo features on Brixton Buzz
Lost pubs of Brixton listing and features.

With Brixton’s Canterbury Arms serving its last customer today ahead of the pub’s demolition, the owners are holding a clear out sale in the backroom of the pub.

The sale will take place tomorrow afternoon (Sat 5th) between 12 -4pm in the back bar, and again on Sunday between 2-pm-4pm.

There will be lots of miscellaneous household, electrical, and furniture items, and maybe you’ll be able to grab yourself a piece of Brixton history before the pub gets crushed into dust in the name of gentrification.

Chat about the Canterbury Arms on the Brixton forum.

Details:
The Canterbury Arms [map]
8 Canterbury Crescent, SW9,
Tel: 020 7274 1711
Nearest tube: Brixton

Read our review of the pub here.

Digging through the archives of our sister site urban 75, we came across our Brixton Bar & Club Guide from 2001, and it was interesting to see what has – and what hasn’t – changed in the ensuing 14 years.

Although many of the venues are still with us, far too many have since been priced out, flattened into the ground or turned into supermarkets as property developers cash in on Brixton’s continuing gentrification – a process that seems to have accelerated recently with the closures of Kaff, the Canterbury Arms, the Grosvenor and the Queen’s Head.

We’ve reproduced the full original listings below, with our updates quoted in dark red text. The venues were originally rather unscientifically rated from one to five stars (* to *****), and some archive photos have been added to the feature – we hope you enjoy the memories!

Brixton Bar & Guide 2001 by urban75

** The ANGEL

354 Coldharbour Lane [Pic: Through the window at the Angel, Dec 2000]
2001 REVIEW: Thankfully untouched by the yuppification of Brixton, this predominantly black, traditional boozer hasn’t changed in a decade. Not a bar for pilled up, day-glo clubbers demanding techno, then.

UPDATE 2015: Closed in 2006, and bought up by eyebrow-raising millionaire property developers Lexadon and left empty for years. It was briefly used by the Brick Box art project, and after another long empty spell it opened up as the Mamma Dough pizzeria in September 2015.

*** BABUSHKA

40 St Matthews Road, SW9
2001 REVIEW: This was one of those dodgy old boozers where dominoes were as exciting as it ever got until receiving a trendy once-over. Now it’s got the de rigeur sound system, a wide selection of shorts and bottled lager and, on some occasions, hefty doormen. We quite like it.

UPDATE 2015: Babushka proved to be short lived, with the venue soon reopening as the popular Mango Landin’.  Sadly, it closed its doors for good in 2014, and the building was flattened in Feb 2015 to be replaced by the inevitable luxury flats.

*** BAZE II BAZE

10-12 Tunstall Road, SW9
Serving up excellent breakfasts and good value meals throughout the day, this restaurant/bar is handily situated opposite the tube station. At night it turns into a lively bar with over 70 cocktails on offer and salsa, Latin and jazz in the basement. Open till 12 most nights.

Closed around 2005 and is now a branch of US fast food chain Subway.

* THE BEEHIVE

407 Brixton Rd, SW9 7DG
Garishly lit Wetherspoons pub with hyperactive ashtray cleaners, security cameras tracking your every sip and hideous fake decor. Sure, it’s dirt cheap, the beer’s not bad and the food has reputedly got better, but it’s not a place we’d want to spend any time in.

Happily, The Beehive is still with us and has mightily improved over the years. It’s still as cheap as chips too. See our review.

BRADY’S (closed)

Atlantic Rd SW9
Brady’s remains closed and only those with long memories can recall the utterly mad nights of hardcore drinking and debauchery that used to go on there. This was one pub where the new Brixton trendies would never set foot in!

Despite a huge community effort to reopen the pub as a community resource, Lambeth went for the quick buck and flogged the building off to off shore developers. It’s now a branch of the Mexican themed chain Wahaca, with private flats upstairs. 

***BRIXTON ACADEMY 

Brixton/Ferndale Rd
One of the most famous major venues in Britain, the Academy plays host to regular major concerts and occasional club nights. We’ve had some blinding nights there.

The world famous venue is still here and still hosting big bands and acts 

**** BRIXTONIAN HAVANA CLUB

Beehive Place, SW9
An essential Brixton stop-off, the Brixtonian serves up a huge range of top rums and awesome cocktails (including the infamous ‘Brixton Riot’). It’s a very stylish bar and although weekends can get a little too packed, we like it a lot.

Even though it was popular with locals, the Havana soon vanished and little was heard of the site until it was relaunched in Nov 2014 as the ‘pop up’ Beehive Place restaurant.

**** BUG BAR

The Crypt, St Matthews Church, SW2
Situated in the crypt below St Matthews Church, the Bug Bar is a great starting point for a night on the town. Intimate, dark and friendly, there’s good nights with drum’n’bass, reggae and house on the decks along with the occasional live band and comedy night. Beer’s a bit expensive but it’s usually free to get in on weekdays and stays open till 2am (3am Fri/Sat, 2am Sun)

The Bug Bar went on to become a restaurant/bar called Babalou, which in turn was replaced by a Spanish themed bar and restaurant called Gremio Brixton in March 2013.

** CANTERBURY ARMS

8, Canterbury Cres, SW9 7QD
Lesser known Irish pub, untroubled by new wallpaper for some time. Occasionally puts on some good gigs in a largish events room.

Regular club nights such as the long-running How Does It Feel To Be Loved and Time Tunnel, and before that, the Mule Club, PROD and the legendary Hat Parties made the Canterbury Arms an important focus of Brixton nightlife. Tragically, this Victorian pub closed for good on the 5th September 2015 and will be flattened to make way for upmarket private flats 

****CLUB 414

414 Coldharbour Lane, SW9
One of our favourite clubs anywhere. Small, dark and relaxed, the 414 plays thumping hard house and techno from Thurs to Sunday, open till 6am with reasonable admission prices – especially if you get there early. Our favourite night has to be Nuclear Free with the Liberators – loud, hot and sweaty. Nice!

Still going strong – and playing pretty exactly much the same music – but now facing eviction as bloody gentrification continues to sweep through central Brixton.

**CLUB SALSA

Loughborough Hotel, SW9
Popular and long running Salsa night at the Loughborough Hotel on Fridays. It doesn’t rattle our maracas but others love it.

The pub closed around 2007 and has since been converted to upmarket private housing.

**** DOGSTAR

389 Coldharbour Lane, SW9
(Formerly The Atlantic). The Dog is one of Brixton’s most popular bar/clubs. In the week it’s free to get in and stays open till 2am (4am Fri/Sat) with the reasonably priced beer and excellent DJs pulling a very lively Brixton crowd. We recommended Sun to Thurs nights. Come the weekend, however, and it’s a very different story as the place is transformed into Cheesy High-Heel Disco Hell. Hordes of Cla’am Tamara’s and Tarquin’s descend en masse, leaping straight out of their taxis (no need to mix it with those nasty rough Brixton types) and into the drunken chat-up inferno inside. It is ghastly. Avoid at all costs.

The Dogstar is still here and pulling in even bigger crowds, with queues stretching for miles on the weekends. Read more in our review.  

**** DUKE OF EDINBURGH

204, Ferndale Rd, SW9 8AG [Pic: The pub in 2002]
A little off the beaten track, this pub rewards with an immense garden with a barbecue lending it a mini-festival atmosphere at times. A recently less-than-successful modernisation has spoilt the atmosphere a bit, but it’s still one of the best pubs around – although it can get hideously crowded on weekends.

It’s had its up and downs over the years, but the Duke is in fine shape these days, and its future is looking very secure thanks to a recent Grade II listing. 

***** EFFRA HALL TAVERN

Saltoun Rd, SW2
A winning combination of great Guinness, a friendly mixed crowd and superb live jazz on Sundays make this a highly recommended Brixton pub.

There’s been some changes inside – the two bars have now merged into one – but the regular jazz nights are still happening and the pub has retained its distinctly ‘Brixton’ vibe.

** THE FRIDGE

[Pic: Escape From Samsara at the Fridge, 2001]

1 Town Hall Parade, Brixton Hill [Pic: Topcats at the Fridge, 2003]
This used to be one of our favourite haunts, but the continuing heavy handed security, trickling water taps and overcrowding have made us less inclined to visit. If prancing around with a load of fluoro’d up tranceheads is your thang, you’ll probably like Escape From Samsara. If – for some reason – you find yourself with an unstoppable urge to “invoke the Celtic Tribal Spirit”, you should get down to Pendragon – once you’ve forgotten the cod-Arthurian tosh you should be in for a good night of banging techno and hard trance. The Fridge also hosts several popular gay nights. Admission varies but is generally around £8 – £12.

After several unsuccessful reboots, the venue was relaunched as the Electric Brixton in September 2011, and played host to our big Brixton Fightback show in June 2015. Locals still call it the Fridge, mind. 

*** FRIDGE BAR

1 Town Hall Parade, Brixton Hill
A small and friendly joint with a busy street level bar and a delightfully sleazy dark dance floor downstairs. It attracts a busy mixed gay/straight crowd on weekends, but we like it best as a chill out on Sunday nights.  Admission is free weekdays (open till 2am, 4am weekends). For the serious clubber, the bar opens at 6am on Saturdays with a charge on the door.

The Fridge Bar is still in business serving drinkers and clubbers, but its future is now seriously in doubt after we broke the news that Lambeth was serving a Compulsory Purchase Order on the building as part of their plans for the New Town Hall. It seems Lambeth didn’t bother telling the furious owners about their plans, as they heard it first on Buzz. 

THE GOOSE

Brixton Rd, SW9
Formerly the Flourmill and Firkin, this pub remains cavernous, empty and unappealing, we’ve never even been tempted past the front door. Maybe it’ll get better in time, but at the moment we can’t recommend it.

After they gave up on The Goose in April 2008, the bar became Ivan’s Retreat until Sept 2009 before settling on its final incarnation as The Rest Is Noise. A compelling mix of trendy and old school Brixton,  the bar put on some fine gigs and DJ nights before closing for good in Feb 2011. It’s now a branch of TK Maxx.

**** GEORGE IV

Brixton Hill, SW9
Although a bit of a hike up Brixton Hill, the George IV hosts some fine club nights and boasts the only 7 day license in Brixton.

It has a 2am alcohol licence every day of the week and it’s open till 6AM Wednesday – Sunday. Admission is usually around 4-6 quid.

Despite a valiant attempt by the local community to save the pub (called the Music Bar by the end) and its inclusion as an asset of community value, this fine Victorian pub closed in 2013 and is now a Tesco. It had been a public house and concert and dance venue since 1864. A real loss for Brixton. 

GREEN MAN (closed)

Coldharbour Lane, Loughborough Junction

Closed after escalating problems with drug dealers. Building expected to be converted into flats.

Once described as the ‘roughest pub in London,’ read our history feature here. . 

*** HARMONY (formerly MINGLES)

82, Railton Rd, SE24
Open Fri/ Sat only (but till 3.30am) Harmony is a modern brick pub (rebuilt after the 1981 riots) with a small dancefloor and a (rarely open) backyard/garden. Friday is usually packed out. The music is mainly lovers rock reggae, with a bit of ragga and soul here and there. Can have a terrific atmosphere if you’re a reggae fan, although a misguided ‘no trainers’ rule has been introduced recently – but hopefully that won’t last long!

Closed in 2013 after a very brief finale as La’Pearl, and has now been demolished to make way for private flats. See photo feature: Lost Brixton pubs: Harmony Bar/Mingles/The George on Railton Road, Brixton.

** HAMILTON ARMS

Railton Rd, SE24
Traditional estate boozer with basic food and Sky TV.

The pub closed in 2004 and is now a mini-mart. See photo feature: Brixton life ten years ago: The Hamilton Arms, 128 Railton Road, SE24

**** HOPE AND ANCHOR

123, Acre Lane, SW2 5UA
Friendly pub with big garden and particularly welcoming to families with kids. One of the best places to catch a full, traditional Sunday dinner in Brixton (although sadly not too many veggie choices).

Now polished up and rebranded as past of the shiny Grand Union pub chain.

**** HOBGOBLIN

Tulse Hill, SW2
This cavernous corner pub at the top of Effra Rd incorporates a separate club space and is open till midnight Monday to Thursday, 2am Friday, Saturday. Weeknights there’s a variety of events, from salsa classes, to open-mic singers nights, to poetry and comedy with uplifting house/ drum & bass nights. It’s a very down-to-earth, unpretentious pub with a busy outdoor area with food in the summer, attracting a genuine mixture of friendly Brixton locals, although there are reports of an increasingly heavy vibe.

A curious Scottish-themed rebranding in 2007 saw the former George Canning being renamed as Hootananny, but thankfully they soon abandoned the full on Caledonian music policy, and the venue now thrives as a hugely popular live music venue, with a strong reggae lilt.

THE JUNCTION

Loughborough Junc/Coldharbour Lane SW9
Currently closed.

One of many Loughborough Junction pubs to bite the dust, the former Warrrior pub is now a Tesco. It’s a shame too, as it was a bloody good boozer.

*** THE LANDOR

70, Landor Rd, SW9 9PH
Situated on Landor road over the railway from the Duke of Edinburgh on the cusp of Cla’am. This is one of the last unfussy pubs around, despite a curious refurbishment which stuck boats and similar daft trinkets on the ceiling. There’s a big beer garden, plenty of pool tables and even a theatre upstairs. It’s a great place for a relaxing drink with a friendly crowd.

Still up and running. Huzzah!

**** LIVING

443 Coldharbour La, SW9
(Formerly The Living Room) Starting life as a timewarp old fogies pub called ‘The Coach and Horses’ before being yuppified into the IsoBar in 1999, the Living Room comes as close to a New York bar as Brixton can get. Go there on a good night and you can have an excellent time, enjoying the quirky DJs, reasonable beer and laid back vibe. Go there on a (increasingly more common) bad night and expect to put up with masses of security, big queues, heaving crowds, hurling punters, loud cheesy music and even a “couples only” policy – and the prospect of admission charges. Open till 2am every night (free), weekends open till 4am free b4 10pm / £5 after.

After a curious spell around 2009 when the place was turned into a butchers and fishmongers (with hairdressing space above), it was successfully rebranded as Market House, and now features DJ nights packing in the punters over the weekend.

**** MASS CLUB

St Matthews Church, Brixton Hill, SW9 [Pic: Alabama 3 at Mass, Dec 2000]
Situated above the Bug bar, Mass is a sizeable venue with a good reputation for their hard house nights on the weekend. A converted church, its dark and dingy interior plays host to some of the best nights in London, although the two rooms can get a bit rammed.

Closed in 2012 in a blaze of debt.

** MUCKY DUCK

201 Coldharbour La, SW9
With unquestionably the worst pub name in Brixton, the (ahem) ‘Duck’ is an old fashioned, no-nonsense pub. There’s a very mixed crowd inside, of all ages, with some good ska/reggae/house DJs occasionally playing out (Open till 1am weekends). Free admission.

Originally known as The Crown, the pub closed in 2002 and was then briefly squatted before turning into a Co-op supermarket in 2014.

The PLUG

90 Stockwell Rd, SW9 9JQ
Currently closed.

Once an important part of the London jazz scene, the Plough was unsuccessfully rebranded as The Plug, with the owners hoping to capitalise on the popularity of nearby club bars like the Dogstar. Despite on-trend DJs being installed, the old locals refused to budge and the bright new things never showed up. The pub never reopened and – incredibly – it’s still empty today.

***** PRINCE ALBERT

418 Coldharbour La, SW9
Unquestionably, the finest pub in Brixton! Attracting a mixed and very friendly crowd, the Albert enjoys a fierce loyalty from its patrons who enjoy the cheap beer, extremely eclectic music selection and the firm but fair rule of its legendary landlady, Pat. Located next door to the 414 Club, this is the best place for a pre-club drink or just a pub night out. We recommend it. Any night! Every night!

Sadly, Pat died in 2006, but the Albert lives on and manages to retain some of the independent spirit of its glory years (although the eviction of a large chunk of its regulars took away something of its once indomitable community vibe)

*** PRINCE OF WALES

469, Coldharbour Lane, SW9
Another pub to get the glossy makeover treatment – now resplendent in a fetching ‘Mediterranean’ colour scheme – the POW has never had quite enough character to make it an urban75 essential stop-off, despite its late weekend opening hours (1am). Plus points are that it’s free and some of the DJs aren’t too bad, but this is offset by beery non-locals getting tanked up en route to the Fridge, or some of the bar staff who get extremely rude come 1am.

Surviving a slew of rebrands, the Prince is now also known as PoW and offers a ground floor bar, first floor club venue and roof terrace. Their Thursday night jazz nights are great.

** THE QUEEN

45 Bellefields Road SW9 9UH
Ever wondered where all the hard-core, dribbling alcoholics disappeared to after Brady’s closed? Look no further! With ne’er a frill in sight, this is a heads down, no nonsense, mindless drinking boozer for those with unquenchable thirsts.

This fine old bar bit the dust in 2006 and has since been demolished and replaced by private housing. See photo feature.

**** RITZY CRUSH BAR

1 Brixton Oval, SW2
This downstairs bar serves up a reasonable selection of beers for cinema goers, but the split level upstairs bar is the place to go with good beer, food and coffee. There’s often a DJ playing chilled tunes with the occasional late club night. Best of all, you can play table football there!

The table football has long been hoofed out, but the venue thrives, with the now renamed Upstairs At The Ritzy putting on regular live shows.

*** SUBSTATION SOUTH

9 Brighton Terrace
Gay/mixed bar with friendly crowd and DJs playing soulful deep house and garage.

This wild Brixton institution closed in the early-mid 2000s

**** SW9 Bar

Dorrel Pl, opp Brixton tube
Once a firm favourite with the urban75 drinking crew, it’s lost some of its appeal after the recent swanky refurbishment, change of staff and reduced opening hours. It’s still a good place for a chilled out drink though. (Open 11pm weeks, midnight weekends)

Still open and pretty much unchanged over the years

**** THE TELEGRAPH

[Telegraph, early 2003]

228, Brixton Hill, SW2 [Pic: urban75 party at the Telegraph, 2001]
Situated miles up Brixton Hill, this pub looks like it was last decorated back in 1970 and although the main bar is absolutely ghastly, you can get some good nights in the surprisingly club-like back room.

Closed for good around 2010 after noise battles with neighbours. Now a Christian centre.

****TONGUE AND GROOVE

Atlantic Rd, SW9 [Pic: view from the sofa, 2002]
Very stylish, friendly, laid back cocktail bar with an unusual ‘soft porn’ theme. Stretching all the way to the back of the bar is comfy, soft leather seating with a big leather bed by the door: great fun to slump all over after a few beers! It’s only going to be ‘open house’ for a short while before it moves to a membership only club, so get there quick! Bloody expensive beers though.

The bar is no longer with us, being replaced by a pawn shop which has since closed.

*** TRINITY

45 Trinity Sq, SW9
Nice friendly pub in a very pleasant square with a new beer garden. Can get a bit ‘rugby shirt’ at times, though.

Still open and still serving ale – and now with its own secret garden.

**** WHITE HORSE

94 Brixton Hill, SW2
Great bar with DJs throughout the week playing a wide mix from d’n’b, techno, house and jazz with the occasional late licence. Also sports screen and tapas. The bar is due for a much-delayed rename/refit at the end of Sept 2001.

Now a popular late night club/bar.

***** WINDMILL

22, Blenheim Gardens, Brixton Hill, SW2 5BZ [Pic: Vic Lambrusco at the Windmill, 2001]
Serving reasonably priced pints, this no-nonsense pub has a very lively atmosphere. One of the last of the true Brixton watering holes, it hosts a variety of sounds on different nights, with the DJ policy being, ‘come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough’. Nights are advertised with alarming restraint on Brixton Hill. Recommended!

Happily still with us and still an essential part of Brixton’s live music scene.

*** Z BAR

30 Acre Lane, SW2
Small and friendly bar on Acre Lane serving up cocktails, music and food with a soul/r’n’b vibe. Open till midnight, 7 days a week.

Turned into the Fiesta bar and then the Veranda Bar which was closed in 2014 after a shooting on the premises. The Barrio bar chain will shortly be opening up in the premises. 

More:

View lost pub photo features on Brixton Buzz
Comprehensive lost pubs of Brixton listing and features

See urban75 Brixton pub/club listings from 2007

Join in with the discussion! Add your memories and comments below or join the thread on urban75.

Normally this popular Brixton pub would be busy with Christmas parties and locals getting in the mood for the festive season, but here’s the sad sight of the Canterbury Arms as it stands today.

Boarded up and ready to be demolished to make way for yet more more private luxury flats, the pub serves as a reminder of just how much Brixton is losing to gentrification as developers continue to snap up valuable community assets.

A pub has stood on this site since Victorian times, and it has served as an essential community resource ever since.

The month before its closure in September 2015, long-standing pub landlord Brian Fitzgerald signed off with a heart-wrenching open letter to his customers:

It is with extreme sadness that I announce the demise of ‘The Canterbury Arms’ Brixton.

The bar will cease trading on the 5th September 2015, this closure reflects the insatiable appetite of property developers for backstreet corner sites that will be developed into flats for tenants who live in far off lands, and these developers call it progress which maybe so…

But where do local people who want to be part of a community and their friends and relatives go to socialise. Over the years the Canterbury has celebrated weddings, christenings, birthdays, funerals and anniversaries from all cultures.

There have been many club and music nights over the years, too many to mention, which have reflected the diverse communities which makes up the melting pot that Brixton personifies.

The pub has played a key part in the social history of Brixton, providing a friendly space where locals can get together and chat, drink and dance, and its loss has already been felt by many.

The pub’s ground floor doors and windows have all been boarded up, prior to the demolition team starting work.

The entrance to the main bar. They won’t be showing sport here any more.

The bar had a wonderful Victorian interior that had barely been altered over the decades (see below).

The entrance to the pub’s function room.

The venue had a strong connection with music and dancing over the years. In the 80s it was a popular gig on the live music circuit, hosting punk bands like Snuff and the UK Subs, as well as experimental grindcore nights.

More recently it has seen regular club nights such as the long-running How Does It Feel To Be Loved and Time Tunnel, and before that, the Mule Club, PROD and the legendary Hat Parties.

Interestingly, it also played host to an evening put on by the long forgotten Brixton Socialist Club in 1978.

[Last party at the Canterbury Arms, Aug 2015]

The pub may have been stripped out and boarded up, but a few banners remain on the outside like this one for the 2015 RBS Six Nations. The Canterbury was one of the last sports pubs in Brixton, and had a strong focus on Irish games.

Metal door protects the former entrance to the function room.

Chat about the Canterbury Arms on the Brixton forum.

Details:
The Canterbury Arms [map]
8 Canterbury Crescent, SW9,
Tel: 020 7274 1711
Nearest tube: Brixton

Read our review of the pub here.

More:
View lost pub photo features on Brixton Buzz
Lost pubs of Brixton listing and features.

Here’s another set of archive Brixton photos, all taken ten years ago in December 2005.

Above is a scene from Granville Arcade/Brixton Village. Despite some attempts to rewrite its recent history, the place was never near-derelict or almost empty. There’s always been activity around these markets.

However, it had been intentionally run down by get-rich-quick developers trying to push through an awful redevelopment that was firmly rejected by the community (ooh, if only that were possible now).

The sad sight of two pubs simultaneously disappearing in Loughborough Junction. To the left is the old Green Man pub (now the Green Man Skills Centre), while to the right is the Junction/Warrior, now a Tesco and private flats.

Read the full depressing story here: The lost pubs of Coldharbour Lane, Brixton and Loughborough Junction.

Also: From The Warrior to Foxtons and a supermarket: a depressing Brixton vision.

The majestic Loughborough Hotel was once an important part of the local music scene.  It’s now luxury flats.

Read more: Lost pubs and venues of Brixton: The Loughborough Hotel.

As we reported in 2013:

The pub occupied the ground floor with a large ballroom upstairs..

The space was used by the Exploding Cinema in the mid-1990s, it was the venue for the indie bands Woodentops first ever gig in 1983 and also hosted a ‘Johnny Kidd Memorial Show‘ with Screaming Lord Sutch and Wee Willie Harris on vocals in October 9th, 1976.   ‘Dance Salsa’ nights were also hosted there until the early 2000s.

Another lost pub, another supermarket.  The Russell Hotel was built in 1906 on the corner of Brixton Road and Caldwell Street, Brixton North, and closed in December, 2003.  It’s now a Tesco.

Read more in our Lost Pubs Guide.

The stark, brutalist lines of 336, Brixton Road.

Built as a warehouse for Chadesley Investment Ltd (now part of Greycoat plc.), the building ended up being used as a computer centre for the upmarket private bank, Coutts & Co in 1971.

Read more: Brixton and the unexpected Coutts Bank connection

Despite closing some time around 2001, the Plough in Stockwell Road is still empty, although flats have been built against the north side of the building.

The pub was once a major player on the London live jazz circuit, but after a disastrous attempt to remodel itself as a DJ bar called The Plug in the mid 90s, there’s been no sign of life from the building for well over a decade.

Read more: The lost jazz pub of Stockwell: The Plough/Plug, Stockwell Road, SW9.

Perhaps one of the most tragic pub losses was Bradys/The Railway in Atlantic Road. Despite a huge effort to reopen the venue as a community resource, Lambeth shamefully went for the quick buck and flogged it off to offshore property developers.

It’s now been absorbed by the Wahaca restaurant chain.

Read about the History of Railway Hotel/Brady’s or discuss Brady’s on our bulletin boards or check out our Lost bars of Brixton feature.

Loughborough Junction arches.

‘Quinney’s Fantasy Island.’

Originally known as The Crown and renamed as the ‘Mucky Duck’ in the 1990s, this Coldharbour Lane pub closed around 2002, and was briefly squatted for some time shortly after.

Anti-war and anti-police slogans were painted on the windows. The former pub is now a Co-Op supermarket.

A misty look along Wyck Gardens.

To commemorate the end of Routemaster buses running through Brixton, several vintage vehicles were on the streets. Some were to return ten years later.

A Routemaster bus climbs up Brixton Hill. In the late 19th century, cable propelled trams used to be seen on this route.

Locals came out to bid goodbye to the much-loved Routemaster buses.

The Viaduct development on Coldharbour Lane took an age to be built.

Once the site of a smart cinema theatre and then the Camping Centre, 101 & 103 Brixton Hill has since been occupied by a succession of swiftly disappearing businesses.

Read more here:
Cinema history photo feature
Read the history of the cinema and see archive posters here
Lost theatres and cinemas of Brixton

Buggies galore at the Ritzy.

The SEM cafe in Loughborough Junction is happily still with us. Read a review here.

Barrington Road view.

Lambeth’s town hall as it looked in 2005. It’s currently being redeveloped as part of a controversial scheme.

Steel drums in Windrush Square.

Atlantic Road view.

Brixton Station Road.

The much loved original premises of the Phoenix Cafe on Coldharbour Lane. The cafe moved to shiny new premises along the road in 2014.

The former premises of Brixton Cycles in Coldharbour Lane were turned into a popular arts squat in October 2004. See feature here.

Most of these predictions turned out to be very accurate indeed.

Inside the art gallery in the squat.

Haircut, sir?

Atlantic Road scene.

The Duke of Wellington,  Acre Lane awaits its fate. It was demolished in 2011. See feature here.

Former Pie & Mash shop, Coldharbour Lane.

More: Brixton’s Lost Eel And Pie House, Coldharbour Lane SW9

Brixton tube station.

A look at Clapham Common on a chilly December dusk.

See more Brixton history:
On this blog
On the boards
On the comprehensive urban75 Brixton history archives
Lost pubs of Brixton

Here’s another selection of archive photos of Brixton, this time from a decade ago in January 2006: a month that ended with the Arctic Monkey’s, “When The Sun Goes Down” topping the singles chart.

Now the Electric Brixton, the Fridge was founded by Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington in 1981, and was originally located in a small club at 390 Brixton Lane, before moving to premises above Iceland in Brixton Road in 1982.

With growing crowds, the club moved to the former Palladium Picture House – a converted 1913 cinema on the Town Hall Parade in 1985. Note the fridge doors adorning the venue’s façade. The sign advertises, “TOTAL MAYHEM” on Friday and “COLOURS” the next night.

The club closed in March 2010 and reopened as the Electric Brixton in September 2011.

In 2015, some of the original signage from the Fridge went up for sale on eBay.

Read more about the history of the Electric/Fridge:
Fridge history in photos
Palladium Cinema/Fridge (1915)
Palladium Cinema/Fridge (1945)
Brixton Ace flyer (1983)

The large Viaduct development on Coldharbour Lane under construction. Owned by multi-millionaire, uber-capitalist developers Lexadon, there’s ne’er a whiff of social housing to be found here, obviously.

The old and much missed original Phoenix cafe on Coldharbour Lane.

Two quality meals at the Phoenix, but nothing will match the tasty might of their toasted halloumi salad sandwiches. They were bloomin’ lush.

Once the site of a smart cinema theatre and then the Camping Centre, 101 & 103 Brixton Hill has since been occupied by a succession of swiftly disappearing businesses.

Read more here:
Cinema history photo feature
Read the history of the cinema and see archive posters here
Lost theatres and cinemas of Brixton

Old sign revealed on Town Hall Parade.

Looking over Windrush Square, with the Tate Library dominating the scene.

The much missed Brixton Woolworths bit the dust in January 2009, and is now part of the H&M chain with a Premier Hotel currently being built on top.

Happily the adjacent – and lovely – Reliance Arcade is still with us.

One of Brixton’s long-lost pubs, the Black Horse on Brixton Road.

Very little archive material seems to be available for this pub – please get in touch if you have any related photos or documents.

The old pub is now a branch of the Halifax Building Society.

Very few places are missed as much by old school Brixtonians than Bradys/Railway on Atlantic Road.

Despite a long and sustained effort by the community to reopen the venue, it’s now been swallowed up by Mexican-themed restaurant chain, Wahaca.

Night view, Brixton Station Road.

Valentia Place.

Wobbly memorial at St Matthews church, Brixton.

‘Be Alert’ warned this scrolling LED sign on Brixton Hill. ‘This is a burglary hotspot area.’

Police board on Brixton Hill asks for witnesses after shots were fired at the Mass nightclub, which was located at the top of St Matthews church.

See feature: Shooting boards of Brixton.

Knackered sign. Although the Mass nightclub is long gone, and the Bug Bar is now Gremio, the White Horse pub (not ‘whitehorse’) is still in business on Brixton Hill.

Windrush Square scene.

Police warning on Brixton Road about da yoot on bicycles grabbing mobile phones from inattentive pedestrians.

It’s something that’s still going on today.

Heavy manners on Atlantic Road.

Roof detail, Brady’s.

26 Brixton Station Road, which once housed the Pleasure Land cinema (capacity: 150) in Edwardian times.

Read more:  Lost Brixton: Lost cinemas of Brixton.

A wet afternoon on a deserted Station Road

Busy scene on Pope’s Road.

Railway arches off Valentia Place. Still home to long standing community of artists – and host to some bloody amazing parties back in the day – the entire area faces massive gentrification.

222, Atlantic Road, once the home to ‘Stones Television and Radio’. See photo feature here.

Morris Minor pootles past Electric Avenue.

The former premises of black newspaper, The Voice, this building right next to the Cooltan Arts squat on Coldharbour Lane was briefly squatted and turned into a venue for weekend raves.

After remaining derelict for the best part of eight years, the building was finally demolished in summer 2007, along with Cooltan next door. The site is now occupied by the Milles Square/Brixton Square private housing development.

See more Brixton history:
On this blog
On the boards
On the comprehensive urban75 Brixton history archives
Lost pubs of Brixton

Above is the sad sight of demolition work taking place on the former Canterbury Arms pub in Brixton, which will shortly be flattened and replaced by a private, nine-story residential development with zero social housing.

The pub had stood here for over 120 years, with last orders being called by the Fitzgerald family, who had run the business for over 20 years.

With the roof pulled down, you can see the exposed timbers of the pub’s function room.

For decades, generations of Brixtonites from all cultures had used the space for weddings, wakes, christenings, funerals, anniversaries, club nights, live entertainment and parties.

[Last party at the Canterbury Arms, August 2015]

It was once a popular gig on the live music circuit, and had hosted punk shows featuring bands like Snuff and the UK Subs, and more recently been the venue for regular club nights such as How Does It Feel To Be Loved and Time Tunnel, and before that, the Mule Club, PROD and the legendary Hat Parties.

Scaffolding is now covering the building ahead of demolition work. The former function room is nearest the camera.

[Audience applauds the last song played at the final How Does It Feel club night, August 2015]

Lost forever: the wonderful Victorian interior of the Canterbury Arms main bar as seen in the pub’s final days.

Original wooden fittings and etched glass in the main bar.

Old and new: the sight of the Pop Brixton “business park for the 21st Century” next to the doomed Canterbury Arms.

Above: Nine story residential building which will replace the Canterbury Arms on the corner of Canterbury Crescent and Pope’s Road in Brixton. See more illustrations here.

[Interior detail, Canterbury Arms]

The Canterbury now joins a growing list of lost pubs and bars in the area: Kaff on Atlantic Road closed in July 2015, while areas like Loughborough Junction have seen almost all of their pubs wiped out.

Other recent closures include Mango Landin, The Telegraph, George IV, The Grosvenor,  The Queen, Hamilton Arms and The Angel – and there’s many others currently facing an uncertain future.

Chat about the former Canterbury Arms on the Brixton forum.

Details:
The Canterbury Arms [map]
8 Canterbury Crescent, SW9,
Tel: 020 7274 1711
Nearest tube: Brixton

Read our final review of the pub here.

More:
View lost pub photo features on Brixton Buzz
Lost pubs of Brixton listing and features.

The last vestiges of Brixton’s much-loved pub, gig and club venue, The Canterbury Arms, are fast disappearing as demolition work continues on this once-splendid Victorian pub.

Despite a petition to save the Canterbury Arms attracting 1,350 signatures, Lambeth Council decided the community’s interests would best be served by demolishing this fine community asset and replacing it with yet another private residential block with the social housing provision set at zero.

After the council rubber stamped the deal in May 2014, the pub hosted its final party in August 2015.

The beautiful original Victorian interior has now been lost to the people of Brixton forever, along with a fine example of solid Victorian architecture. The best thing that can be said about the new building that replaces it is that it is inoffensive.

The roof has been completely removed.

Front of the pub.

Old and nu Brixton, side by side. The Canterbury Arms vanishes as Pop Brixton, the council’s pet ‘extra-vibrant’ project, thrives.

Of course, the pub could have been saved if there’d be enough political will in Lambeth’s “co-operative” Council, but instead we’re losing an historic pub and gaining expensive private apartments that no normal Brixton resident could ever hope to afford.

Viewed from the Pop Brixton car park, you can see what’s left of the function room. The bar was through the opening, while the dancefloor has a huge skip on it. .

For decades, generations of Brixtonites from all cultures had used the space for weddings, wakes, christenings, funerals, anniversaries, club nights, live entertainment and parties.

In the daytimes, others had used it for rehearsal spaces, kids parties, record fairs etc – but given the sky-high rental prices of new places like Pop Brixton – and the closure of similar community spaces – there’s barely anywhere left for these people to go now.

Chat about the former Canterbury Arms on the Brixton forum.

Details:
The Canterbury Arms [map]
8 Canterbury Crescent, SW9,
Tel: 020 7274 1711
Nearest tube: Brixton

Read our final review of the pub here.

More:
View lost pub photo features on Brixton Buzz
Lost pubs of Brixton listing and features.

Here’s a look back to Brixton’s past, as seen through our photo archives from February 2006 – ten years ago.

Market Row has always been a busy shopping area for locals – here’s how it looked before gentrification took a firm grip.

Although some of the old shops survive – including Ralph’s Gift Box and Express cafe – the recent influx of well-heeled Shoreditch food chains, multi-national frozen yogurt chains, charcuteries and antique shops suggest that some of the current traditional traders may struggle to keep their place.

Pizza restaurant Franco Manca – still trading by the Electric Lane entrance – has since expanded to ten locations around London with owner Giuseppe Mascoli doing very nicely for himself, with his business being bought up for £27.5m in March 2015.

Electric Avenue – the real beating heart of Brixton.

Brixton tube station. With more commuters now living in Brixton and an immense increase in tourist-luring restaurants, shops and bars, passenger traffic has soared over ten years.

The much missed A&C deli on Atlantic Road.

Read the full story of the store’s demise here: Brixton’s A&C Deli: the inside story of a small business destroyed by gentrification, Network Rail & Lambeth Council

Pope’s Road market scene.

Seen by some as the driving force behind Brixton’s recent changes, Brixton Village (Granville Arcade) has been transformed in recent years.

Formerly The Atlantic, The Dogstar was one of the UK’s first DJ bars and is still hugely popular. Read the history of the pub here.

Once a huge part of the Brixton music scene, Brady’s (Railway Hotel) lay empty for over ten years, despite several attempts by locals to reopen it as a community asset.

In 2013, Lambeth flogged it to offshore property developers and it now hosts a branch of the Wahaca restaurant chain.

The homely interior of the Phoenix cafe on Coldharbour Lane. Once the best cafe in Brixton, it lost much of its down to earth appeal after moving several doors down the road to shinier, glitzier premises.

Waiting for the rain. Station Road.

Saturday night in the Prince Albert, Coldharbour Lane. The place is immeasurably busier on weekends now.

The Viaduct private housing development under construction.

Man down!

The less than glamorous sight of the car park on Station Road/Pope’s Road.

Demolished in 2011, the site was briefly used as an ice rink until 2014, with Lambeth Council and the Market Traders’ Federation inviting locals to submit bids for the use of the land.

Two bids were short-listed for the Meanwhile competition, with Grow:Brixton – a partnership between Carl Turner Architects and The Edible Bus Stop  – given the go ahead for a project that led heavily on gardening, food growth and community involvement, a speciality of the Edible Bus Stop.

A few months later the Edible Bus Stop pulled out over a “difference in the style of management,” with the project – now renamed Pop Brixton – taking a very different direction.

Coldharbour Lane view with the old Texaco garage in the foreground.

‘Street Robbers Operating In This Area’ warning sign on Brixton Road.

Chairs for sale, Coldharbour Lane.

Market trader, Pope’s Road.

See more Brixton history:
On this blog
On the boards
On the comprehensive urban75 Brixton history archives
Lost pubs of Brixton

This is a sad sight and one that angers us here at Brixton Buzz.

The function room of the Canterbury Arms has now been demolished as work continues to completely destroy this Victorian public house and replace it with luxury flats.

For over a century, locals have gathered here for gigs, club nights, family occasions, dances, celebrations, weddings and birthdays, but all that community history ended after Lambeth Council approved plans to flatten the pub and replace it with a nine story private residential block.

The pub’s main bar retained all of its beautiful Victorian fittings – no doubt some well heeled entrepreneur is currently on a right little earner flogging them off to upmarket buyers.

The dancefloor.

Here’s how the pub looked at its last party in August 2015.

Rubble on the dancefloor. How many memories were made here?

To absolutely no one’s surprise, the developers have now quietly announced that they intend to squeeze in even more private flats, upping the total to 37 apartments – with no social housing, obviously.

Chat about the former Canterbury Arms on the Brixton forum.

Details:
The Canterbury Arms [map]
8 Canterbury Crescent, SW9,
Tel: 020 7274 1711
Nearest tube: Brixton

Read our final review of the pub here.

More:
View lost pub photo features on Brixton Buzz
Lost pubs of Brixton listing and features.

Here’s the last remains of the 140-year old Canterbury Arms pub in Brixton as it’s being flattened in advance of a block of luxury flats being built on the site.

How we’ve reached a situation where long-standing community assets are crushed into dust for the sake of unaffordable flats for the few defies logic, but we sincerely hope that at some point in the future, the people responsible will be called to account.

It would be quite a crowd too, including the cash-in developers, planners, entrepreneurs, the council and councillors and all the rest of the self interested feckers who have now deprived Brixton of an important social hub. 

This first set of photos was taken on Sunday, 14th Feb, and it shows parts of the shell of the ground floor still standing. The wooden front doors and panelling of the main bar can still be seen.

Two days later the entire front of the pub would be reduced to rubble – as documented in photos at the bottom of this piece.

The pub remains as seen from the Pop Brixton car park.

Pope’s Road view.

Former function room entrance.

Front entrance.

Tues 16th February: nearly gone

Two days later and the entire front of the pub has been pulled down, with just a part of the side wall facing Pope’s Road still standing.

Nothing remains of the entrance to the main bar.

[Canterbury Arms, June 2014]

[Current view]

Chat about the Canterbury Arms on the Brixton forum.

Details:
The Canterbury Arms [map]
8 Canterbury Crescent, SW9,
Tel: 020 7274 1711
Nearest tube: Brixton

Read our review of the pub here.

More:
View lost pub photo features on Brixton Buzz
Lost pubs of Brixton listing and features.

Here’s another selection of photos from our Brixton archives, this time showing scenes around Brixton and the last hours of The Queen public house that once stood in Bellefields Road, off Ferndale Road, SW9.

The much delayed Viaduct private housing block takes shape on Coldharbour Lane. The block’s construction was taken over by the all-conquering Lexadon Property Group, owned by husband and wife team Jerry and Jenny Knight.

The couple made made their vast fortune converting ex-council homes  in Clapham and Brixton. Jerry Knight’s wealth was recently estimated at £50m [—].

The development looks completely out of scale compared to the buildings around it, and overshadows the historic Angel public house. All that history was lost when the Victorian pub closed in 2010 and was later subsumed into Lexadon’s growing property portfolio.

The ground floor now hosts an upmarket pizza business, with the rest of the building – and its mews – turned into flats with no affordable provision.

Unit for rent, Brixton Village.

Soapy forecourt at the Texaco garage, Coldharbour Lane.

Loughborough hall, built in 1913 and now in the hands of the Loughborough Evangelical Church.

The former Wickwood Tavern on Flaxman Road. Read about its bohemian past here.

Formerly known as The Enterprise and the Coast Bar before being turned into a Vietnamese restaurant, 171 Coldharbour Lane has thankfully returned as a pub, and now hosts the rather excellent jazz-themed Junction bar.

Loughborough Junction view.

Grove Press at 9 Flaxman Road, SE5 9DL. The business appears to be longer here.

Gordon Grove arches.

Quite possibly Brixton’s thinnest building, on Coldharbour Lane.

Loughborough Junction view.

Loughborough Junction has lost a lot of its pubs. Here’s the former Warrior/Junction being converted into private flats and a Tesco.

A real loss to Brixton was The Queen on Bellefields Road, which was flattened in March 2006. See photo feature here.

This scene is still being repeated in Brixton today – Brixton’s Canterbury Arms reduced to rubble, luxury private flats to come – in photos

Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell end. To the left used to stand the imposing Metropole Theatre, which opened on Monday the 29th of October, 1894 and was demolished nearly a century later in 1993.

Parking space on Coldharbour Lane. This has now been redeveloped.

Artwork, Brixton Village (Granville Arcade). Painted shop shutters are almost always a portent of impending gentrification.

In 2006, our Offline Club was putting on monthly gigs at JAMM in Brixton Road. Here’s Molly in action.

Mark Mace Smith onstage.

The local legend Vic Lambrusco spins some verse.

No answer to this, really.

See more Brixton history:
On this blog
On the boards
On the comprehensive urban75 Brixton history archives
Lost pubs of Brixton

So here’s what’s left of the Canterbury Arms, Brixton. Nothing.

After serving the community for over 140 years, the site has now been flattened ready to make way for yet another set of luxury flats for the few.

Long term Brixtonites will recall drinking in the bar, seeing live bands in the backroom or attending the many regular club nights, which saw locals dancing to anything from soul to punk to ska to traditional Irish tunes.

Others may have been to the pub for family events, wakes, birthdays, record fairs, rehearsals or any one of the many uses that such a community space lends itself to.

2013 view of the solid Victorian architecture.

Late Victorian view.

Here’s an illustration of the bland private housing block that will soon stand on the site of the pub.

Many original fittings remained in the pub.

Not a trace remains now remains.

Some memories of what has been lost:

The last St Patrick’s dance, March 2015.

Audience applauds the last song played at the final How Does It Feel club night, August 2015.

Last party at the Canterbury Arms, Aug 2015.

The Canterbury now joins a growing list of lost pubs and bars in the area: Kaff on Atlantic Road closed in July 2015, while areas like Loughborough Junction have seen almost all of their pubs wiped out.

Other recent closures include Mango Landin, The Telegraph, George IV, The Grosvenor,  The Queen, Hamilton Arms and The Angel – and there’s many others currently facing an uncertain future.

Chat about the former Canterbury Arms on the Brixton forum.
Read our final review of the pub here.

More:
View lost pub photo features on Brixton Buzz
Lost pubs of Brixton listing and features.

While much loved community pubs and venues continue to be closed down all around Lambeth, Wandsworth council has taken the bold step of protecting such important community assets by removing permitted development rights from 120 of the borough’s taverns.

[The much-loved Canterbury Arms was demolished this year and currently sits under Pop Brixton]

Wandsworth is the first local authority in the country to publish ‘Article 4 Directions,’ which ensures that local venues can no longer be converted into mini-supermarkets, estate agents, homes or shops without the need for planning permission.

A huge number of inns and taverns around the country – some of them viable and thriving businesses – have been converted into other uses with councils finding themselves powerless to prevent the conversions, as owners have ‘permitted development rights’ allowing them to make the change without the need for planning permission.

[Stockwell’s wonderful Grosvenor pub closed in late 2014 and still remains empty]

Following Wandsworth Council’s ground breaking move, owners of 120 pubs in the borough will now have to seek approval from the town hall before changing the building use or knocking it down.

In preparation for the Article 4 Directions, the council has already approved new planning guidance which specifically recognises the historic, architectural and community value of Wandsworth’s pubs.

[Mango Landin makes way for luxury flats]

Deputy council leader Jonathan Cook said:

Wandsworth’s pubs are now the best protected in the entire country and have a genuine defence against the relentless spread of mini-supermarkets and estate agents. We know how much our residents love their locals and in many cases they really are the epicenter of community life. I’m proud and delighted we’ve found a way to protect them.

I very much hope that other councils will follow our lead by adopting pub-friendly planning policies and then stripping away permitted development rights from their local inns, bars and taverns. This could be a real turning point for our nation’s superb but vulnerable pub trade and Wandsworth is more than ready to share its approach with other authorities.

[George IV on Brixton Hill is now a Tesco]

Geoff Strawbridge, Greater London CAMRA Regional Director, said:

I would like to see every planning authority in the country follow Wandsworth’s exemplary initiative in protecting its pubs and bars by removing permitted development rights.

[Loughborough Hotel, now private flats]

The Article 4 Directions were published on 12 August 2016 and should come into force in August 2017, which begs the question: why isn’t Lambeth doing the same? 

If a Tory council can come up with this wonderful, community-minded scheme, why the hell is Lambeth’s ‘co-operative’ council sitting idly by and continuing to rubber stamp the closure of iconic pubs and venues that will be missed by the community forever?

Discuss this here.

More:

Lost pubs of Brixton – feature
Save Your Local pub – info, links and guides to protect your local pub
Brixton’s legendary Club 414 threatened with closure and redevelopment

Exactly one year ago, Brixton lost one of its last true community pubs, with the Canterbury Arms throwing an emotional farewell party.

The Victorian pub – and its beautiful, original wood panelled interior – would soon be smashed into smithereens, and a part of Brixton life lost forever.

Originally, we were told that the pub had to make way for a bland, nine story luxury block of flats, but somewhere along the line, Pop Brixton was allowed to temporarily expand their business over the ruins of the Canterbury.

The irony of a trendy sports bar with a supposed ‘community’ ethos sitting on top of an actual community sports bar was not lost on some Brixton residents.

And so we at Brixton Buzz raise our glasses to the Canterbury Arms, yet another victim of Brixton’s rampant gentrification, where short term gain always trumps long term community interests.

Perhaps if the pub had been in neighbouring Wandsworth it could have stood a chance, but with Lambeth Council seemingly always ready and willing to do the developers’ bidding, the Canterbury Arms has joined an ever increasing list of community assets lost to Brixton forever.

RIP The Canterbury Arms. You’re still very much missed.

Chat about the Canterbury Arms on the Brixton forum.

More:
View lost pub photo features on Brixton Buzz
Lost pubs of Brixton listing and features.

The last party at Brixton’s Canterbury Arms as gentrification claims another much-loved community asset
This pub has 24 hours to live – the end of Brixton’s Canterbury Arms
The last ever How Does It Feel To Be Loved club night at the Canterbury Arms, Brixton – photos

We’ve had another shufti around our Brixton photo archives and pulled out this collection of shots from fifteen years, showing a selection of scenes from around town including this  raver from the now-closed Telegraph pub.

Burnt out scooter, Loughborough Park.

Before Lambeth Council killed it dead, the annual Brockwell Park firework display were a real community highlight.

Brixton Village, formerly Granville Arcade, which stands on the site of the Lambeth Carlton Club.

Coldharbour Lane’s Gresham Cafe is long gone and My Fathers Place has been gentrified into the upmarket Shrub & Shutter cocktail bar.

Another sad loss is George’s barbers. His premises are now occupied by the considerably more expensive Tidy Hair.

These premises on Coldharbour Lane seemed to change owners every six months or so. One of the longer running businesses was the Juice Bar. It was good too.

A look inside.

Par Voi Res (aka Part Worn Tyres). The slowly deconstructing sign of this tyre shop was documented here.

Urban75 party in the long-gone Telegraph pub on Brixton Hill.

Despite music events being put on on the pub for 125 years, newly arrived residents (and Lambeth councillors) conspired to close down the venue in 2009. It’s now used as a Christian centre and flats. God 1 Clubbers 0.

Dancing at the Telegraph.

The former Voice newspaper building in Coldharbour Lane was briefly squatted before being secured by bailiffs.

Now buried under the Brixton Square private gated apartment block, Cooltan was once the beating heart of Brixton’s arts and activist scene, with the buildings providing accommodation for campaign groups such as Reclaim The Streets, Freedom Network, Earth First!, the Green Party, Lambeth Green Party and London Friends and Families of Travellers.

The squatted former unemployment office also housed rehearsal rooms, cinema screenings, yoga classes, galleries, studios and a cafe. The venue put on some incredible all night benefit parties – some attracted up to 1,500 people – where you might find a hardcore rave in one room, pastoral folk and jazz in another and bizarre performance art in another. It was a wonderfully eclectic and inclusive place.

Read: History of Cooltan Arts.

Full on fluoro rave coming up at the Fridge (now the Electric Brixton) with Escape from Samsara and Pendragon lined up.

Quiet scene at the Prince of Wales, Coldharbour Lane.

Looking west along Coldharbour Lane. The former Angel pub to the right (on the corner) is now an upmarket pizza joint.

Works on Brixton tube station went on for an eternity.

A car speeds along Coldharbour Lane.

Formerly the Helter Skelter restaurant on Atlantic Road, these premises hosted the late bar Tongue & Groove for several years. Our 2001 Brixton Bar and Club Guide offered this review:

Very stylish, friendly, laid back cocktail bar with an unusual ‘soft porn’ theme. Stretching all the way to the back of the bar is comfy, soft leather seating with a big leather bed by the door: great fun to slump all over after a few beers! It’s only going to be ‘open house’ for a short while before it moves to a membership only club, so get there quick! Bloody expensive beers though.

Diners at one of the regular urban75 Curry Club events, at the wonderful Khans on Brixton Station Road.

Barrington Road view.

Market stalls on the move, Coldharbour Lane.

Loughborough Park.

See more Brixton history:
On this blog
On the boards
On the comprehensive urban75 Brixton history archives
Lost pubs of Brixton
Fourteen years of drinking: a Brixton bar and club guide from 2001

We’ve had another dip into our extensive Brixton photo archives, and pulled out this selection of scenes taken around town in January 2007 – ten years ago.

Above is a scene from Granville Arcade (Brixton Village). The wig shop is thankfully still with us.

Run down shop in Atlantic Road. Two years later, the broken sign at 222 (right) would be taken down to reveal the remains of the neon sign of its former occupants, Stones Television & Radio. See photo feature here.

Cooltan Arts – once a huge part of the Brixton arts and music scene – was still quietly rotting away in this Jan 2007 view.

Local legend and long term squatter Des Madden made a video inside Cooltan at the end of 2016.

Station Road.

Old and new signage at the Fridge Bar.

New housing on Brixton Hill facing Rush Common.

Opening in March 1911 as the Brixton Hill Cinematograph Theatre, these premises have since changed hands multiple times, and been used as a camping centre, church, restaurant and more. Read more here: Lost Brixton: Empress Scala Cinema/ New Royalty Kinema.

Delightfully untrendy, Reliance Arcade continues to serve the people of Brixton.

See the discussion on urban75: Reliance Arcade goes on the English Heritage At Risk list.

Formerly the Coach & Horses, this Coldharbour Lane pub has enjoyed a colourful recent history.

Looking to cash in on the popularity of the nearby Dogstar, it was relaunched as the groovy Isobar in the mid-1990s, then it turned into the Living Bar, before being closed down in 2007 and then reopening as a fishmonger and Vintage Shop in 2009.

Relaunching as The Market House in April 2011, it’s since proved a great success.

Valentia Place. Soon, an oversized nine-storey private housing development will soon dominate this view.

The Viaduct (right) took an age to build.

Snow in Brixton. Looking east along Coldharbour Lane.

A real loss to Coldharbour Lane was the Post Office, which closed in May 2003 (see feature here).

A local shopkeeper recalls the tenacious Mrs Roy, who kept order in her shop, no matter what:

She was one tough little cookie. I have never seen a braver little lady than her.

She would give it to the junkies and nutters from behind her steel screen, and they would go ballistic and scream at her and smash on the screens and swear to kill her – and the next minute she was outside taking that little rat of a dog for a walk.

And she was as short as the bloody dog!

See more Brixton history:
On this blog
On the boards
On the comprehensive urban75 Brixton history archives
Lost pubs of Brixton

Another dip into our Brixton archives has rewarded us with this selection of photos taken in and around Brixton ten years ago, in March 2007. Scroll down and see what you remember!

The least hotel-like hotel in Brixton: the sign tells its own story.

The hotel at 411-417 Coldharbour Lane occupies part of the former temperance hall, which was in use as a Continental Foods supermarket in 1975.

Looking up Station Road. The Portman Building Society ground floor is now occupied by the popular San Marino coffee bar.

The sad sight of the closed Bradys pub. After a concerted  local effort to turn the old pub and hotel into a community resource, Lambeth decided to flog it off to an off-shore company who have since rented it out to the Wahaca restaurant chain.

This strange “THEY WANT YOUR POD!” advertising campaign sprung up around Brixton.

It was soon subverted

Police Landrover with LED sign warning visitors that ‘Thieves operate in this area.’

Atlantic Road, early evening.

Station Road.

Wild beasts in the arcade.

Whatever happened to Happy Crepes in Brixton?

The old concrete bridge linking the Brixton Rec with the car park on Station Road. The site is now occupied by the foodie-luring Pop Brixton.

The markings on the floor were for the stall pitches that once ran all the way up Station Road to Valentia Place.

Discarded Christmas greeting.

Valentia Place. The site is currently being cleared for more luxury private housing.

Police shooting board on Moorland Estate.

After trading from the same landmark premises on Coldharbour Lane for 119 years, the Walton Lodge Laundry closed in June 2014.

It’s now being redeveloped for more upmarket, social housing-free private flats.

The wonderfully named Majestical Lips.

Sam The Wheels on Railton Road. A crowdfunding campaign is currently underway to digitise the remarkable short films he made around Brixton.

The former Hamilton Arms pub on Railton Road, now a supermarket – see our photo feature here.

The former Grand/Pullman cinema opposite Herne Hill station.

Inside the Escape Bar, Herne Hill.

Herne Hill view. The hairdressers to the left went under the curious name of Shotgun Reloaded, sparking some discussion on the forums.

Railton Road shops, close to Brockwell Park.

Brockwell Park in the Spring.

Intricate railway bridge by Brockwell Park.

Railway tracks, Herne Hill.

Teddy bear down! Abandoned car on Coldharbour Lane.

Loughborough Junction.

The former Green Man pub in Loughborough Junction.

Another lost pub in Loughborough Junction – the former Warrior/Junction, now a Tesco supermarket.

Originally known as The Crown and renamed as the ‘Mucky Duck’ in the 1990s, this former pub is now a Co-op supermarket.

See more: The lost pubs of Coldharbour Lane, Brixton and Loughborough Junction

Dilapidated building, Coldharbour Lane.

Brixton Woolworths was to go in January 2009.

‘Leave it on show, expect it to go.’ Sheer poetry.

Station Road.

A truly shonky photo taken on a Palm Treo of the Elm Park Tavern during one of the quiz nights. The Australian quizmaster with the really strong accent was always a source of wonderfully mis-pronounced British place names. The pub has now been extensively refurbished.

More pod stuff.

As reported in a 2007 photo feature, these plant pots with strange painted messages were located by Brixton Police Station:

Lined up outside Brixton Police station can be seen this strange selection of plant pots, all bearing bizarre, God-squad-tastic hand painted slogans.

They’re actually on police land, so presumably they don’t mind.

Don’t stand here, OK?

Inside Brixton Village.

Only Bargains, Pope’s Road/Atlantic Road.

A well graffiti’d Lambeth sign.

Budget Carpets – still here and fighting to stay in the arches.

Snow in March!

Loughborough House: now redeveloped and stripped of all character and identity.

Botched up looking conversion in Loughborough Junction.

Inside the much-missed Phoenix Cafe on Coldharbour Lane. It’s now a trendy chicken joint.

Happily, Reliance Arcade is still with us.

Our Offline Club night in the Prince Albert. The club is still going strong!

There was a lunar eclipse, so drinkers came out to squint at the night sky.

Dancing in the Albert.

The mindbendingly good Hacksaw at our Jamm Offline show. Read a review here.

See more Brixton history in photos:
On this site
On the boards
On the comprehensive urban75 Brixton history archives
Lost pubs of Brixton

Another delve into our photo archives has unearthed this series of Brixton photos taken fifteen years ago, in April 2003.

The old Part Worn Tyres shop on Coldharbour Lane, now buried under the Viaduct housing development.

The former Temperance Hall. Read the full story here: The old Temperance Billiard Hall on Coldharbour Lane, Brixton

Tate Library.

Brixton Road with the Virgin Megastore.

Pope’s Road market.

Busy scenes on Station Road.

Derelict building that now houses the Black Cultural Archives.

Close up detail.

Read more about the building here: Raleigh Hall, Brixton – scenes of dereliction from the 2000s

Foot Locker, which was burned down during the major disturbances of August 2011

The former fire station. Read more: The old Fire Station, Ferndale Road, Brixton 1906 – 2014

Former premises of San Marino coffee shop.

Ritzy cinema.

Electric Avenue.

Loughborough Junction views.

The old Green Man pub.

Barney’s cafe.

St Matthew’s church.

The Fridge, now the Electric.

Brixton mural.

Herne Hill station. Note the “Beckham’s blast for Arsenal” headline.

The much-missed Woolworths.

Former Bon Marche buildings now being used as a fancy showcase for architects to the super-rich, Squire & Partners.

Site for the former Empress Theatre.

Electric Lane view.

See more Brixton history

Brixton Buzz’s features on Brixton’s history
Brixton History discussed on the Brixton forums
View the comprehensive urban75 Brixton history archives
Lost pubs of Brixton