Brixton Library

The Ritzy is a cinema in Brixton, London, England. It is a Grade II listed building. It is managed by Picturehouse Cinemas, who were bought by Cineworld in 2012. The cinema opened on 11 March 1911 as "the Electric Pavilion". It was built by E.C. Homer and Lucas for Israel Davis, one of a noted family of cinema developers, and was one of England's earliest purpose-built cinemas, seating over 750 seats in the single auditorium. Like many cinemas of the period, it was fitted with an organ. It was seen as a 'scruffy relation' to the nearby Palladium, and was known as the 'flea pit'. Sound films began showing in 1929.The neighbouring Brixton Theatre was completely destroyed by bombing in 1940, which allowed the Ritzy to expand into the vacant space.In 1954, it was renovated by noted cinema architect George Coles, who installed CinemaScope: the cinema was renamed "the Pullman" and the organ was removed. It was later renamed "the Classic", before closure in 1976. After this, it was re-invented as "The Little Bit Ritzy", run in collaboration with London Cinema Collective. A collaboration between Lambeth Council and the management of the time ensured the cinema's survival, with the facade being rebuilt and restored to near-original condition.During the 1980s, the cinema developed a reputation as having a left-wing agenda, so much so that the incumbent manager was motivated to place an advert in the local press advising potential patrons that not every film that the cinema screened was "left-wing or gay".Today, the cinema is owned by Picturehouse Cinemas, and operates as a multi-screen complex with bar and café facilities. Its official name is now "Ritzy Picturehouse" although it is still commonly known as the Ritzy Cinema. In 1999, Albion Ventures invested £8million in Picturehouse to help fund the development of several of their cinemas, including the Ritzy. In 2009, the decor and colour scheme was restored from its original style and a live music venue was added, called Upstairs.

The African and Caribbean War Memorial in Brixton, London, is the United Kingdom's national memorial to African and Caribbean service personnel who fought in the First and Second World Wars. It originated with a project for a memorial to Caribbean Royal Air Force veterans of World War II who arrived in Britain in 1948 on the MV Empire Windrush; this was an extension of the commemorative plaque and sculpture scheme run by the Nubian Jak Community Trust to highlight the historic contributions of Black and minority ethnic people in Britain. The memorial was originally to have been placed at Tilbury Docks, as part of the commemoration for the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. However, as the project began to evolve into a larger tribute that included both World Wars and commemorated servicemen and women from both Africa and the Caribbean, it was agreed by the memorial recipient – the Port of Tilbury – and the project organisers that a new, more accessible location needed to found. The memorial was ultimately permanently installed and unveiled on 22 June 2017 in Windrush Square, Brixton.

Windrush Square is an open public space in the centre of Brixton, South London, occupying an area in front of the Brixton Tate Library that was originally known as the Brixton Oval, and then Tate Gardens. In 1998, the square was renamed to recognise the important contribution of the African Caribbean community to the area, marking the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush. It was the Windrush that in 1948 brought to the United Kingdom from Jamaica the first large group of post-war West Indian migrants (almost 500), who on arrival were temporarily housed less than a mile away from Coldharbour Lane in Brixton.The organization Black Cultural Archives is now housed at 1 Windrush Square in a Grade II-listed Georgian building, the former Raleigh Hall.On 22 June 2017, the African and Caribbean War Memorial – devised by the Nubian Jak Community Trust as the United Kingdom's first national memorial to African and Caribbean service personnel who fought in the First and Second World Wars – was unveiled in Windrush Square.Windrush Square is a pedestrianised open space. The land is protected from development as it was formerly part of Rush Common.

Raleigh Hall is a building in Windrush Square, Brixton. It is now home to the Black Cultural Archives, after being derelict for many years.The building was originally two houses built in 1824, and is a Grade II listed building.The hall had been used by the Cinema Museum in the mid 1980s. It had also been home to Klitsa Fashions, Omegas Fashion Dress Manufacturers, Arkwrights Ltd and the Raleigh Workshop.It was placed on the English Heritage Register of Historic Buildings at Risk in 1992.

Black Cultural Archives (BCA) was founded in 1981, by educationalist and historian Len Garrison and others. BCA's mission is to record, preserve and celebrate the history of people of African descent in Britain. The BCA's new building in Brixton, opened in 2014, enables access to the archive collection, provides dedicated learning spaces and mounts a programme of exhibitions and events.

Brixton Market comprises a street market in the centre of Brixton, south London, and the adjacent covered market areas in nearby arcades Reliance Arcade, Market Row and Granville Arcade (recently rebranded as 'Brixton Village'). The market sells a wide range of foods and goods but is best known for its African and Caribbean produce, which reflect the diverse community of Brixton and surrounding areas of Lambeth. The Street Market is managed by the London Borough of Lambeth. The covered arcades have always been in private ownership, although substantial public funding was provided for their refurbishment under the Brixton Challenge grant scheme.

Brixton is a London Underground station on Brixton Road in Brixton in the London Borough of Lambeth, South London. The station is the southern terminus of the Victoria line. The station is known to have the largest London Underground roundel on the network. The next station is Stockwell.

Morleys Stores is a group of eight department stores in Greater London, a business-to-business furniture supply subsidiary called Morley's of Bicester Ltd and a department store & furniture centre called Camp Hopson of Newbury in Newbury, Berkshire. The group is named after the original store that opened in Brixton, south London as Morley & Lanceley. Note that the firm is unrelated to the London fast foods restaurant chain. In the year to January 2014 group profit was £5.6 million on turnover of £90.6 million.

Electric Avenue is a street in Brixton, London. Built in the 1880s, it was the first market street to be lit by electric lights (The first street to be lit by an incandescent lightbulb was Mosley Street, in Newcastle upon Tyne). Today, Electric Avenue contains various food and domestic provisions retailers, and hosts a part of Brixton Market which specialises in selling a mix of African, Caribbean, South American and Asian products. It is located just around the corner from Brixton Underground station (1972). The street originally had elegant cast iron Victorian canopies over the pavements which were removed and destroyed in the 1980s.

Lambeth Town Hall, also known as Brixton Town Hall, is a municipal building at the corner of Brixton Hill and Acre Lane, Brixton, London. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Lambeth London Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.

Brixton Road is a road in the London Borough of Lambeth (south London, England), leading from the Oval at Kennington to Brixton, where it forms the high street and then forks into Effra Road and Brixton Hill at St Matthew's church at the junction with Acre Lane and Coldharbour Lane. Brixton Market is located in Electric Avenue near Brixton Underground station and in a network of covered arcades adjacent to the two railway viaducts. The market arcades were declared listed buildings in 2009 following controversial proposals by Lambeth Council to replace them with a large US-style mall. The former "Brixton Oval" is at the southern end with Lambeth Town Hall, the Ritzy Cinema, the Brixton Tate Library (with a statue of Henry Tate outside) and St Matthew's church. The space was renamed Windrush Square in 2010, in honour of the area's early Caribbean migrants and the HMT Empire Windrush, which in 1948 brought 492 passengers from Jamaica to London.Brixton Road dates back to the Roman era when it was part of the London to Brighton Way. The River Effra used to be visible near Lambeth Town Hall, but is now underground, serving as a storm drain. Fronting Brixton Road at the north end is the Neo-Byzantine style Christ Church, opened in 1902. For much of its length Brixton Road remains lined by Regency period terraces of houses that once made a virtually continuous frontage from Kennington to Brixton. These had become semi-derelict by the 1970s when some were replaced, but many were refurbished by the Greater London Council, mostly as social housing. Brixton Road is part of the A23. In the 1887 detective novel A Study in Scarlet, an abandoned house off the Brixton Road is the very first of the numerous crime scenes appearing in the Sherlock Holmes books and stories.

Lambeth was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in south London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part of the County of London in 1889. The parish of Lambeth became a metropolitan borough in 1900, following the London Government Act 1899, with the parish vestry replaced by a borough council.