Brixton Beach

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Suffused with the sights, sounds and scents of Brixton Market, Electric Avenue is a street with a lot to say for itself.

The novel revolves around Alice Fonseca and her family; at the beginning of the novel she is nine and living in Sri Lanka; she has a Tamil father and Sinhalese mother. The first half of the book takes place in Sri Lanka and has the feel of an idyll at the very beginning. Alice spends a good deal of time with her grandfather Bee, collecting on the beach and watching him in his studio, learning a love of art. However the storm clouds do begin to gather. The civil war gets closer and more dangerous, Alice’s mother loses a child at birth owing to the negligence of a Sinhalese doctor (further alienating Alice’s Tamil father). Bee and his wife assist Tamil refugees and put themselves in danger. The descriptions of light and place clearly mark Tearne as an artist and this is one of the great strengths of the book:This open space fronting the Brixton Tate Library has a name charged with meaning for the UK’s Afro-Caribbean community. The war began drumming again. After months of silence it marched in two-four time; a two-conductor orchestra without direction”.

Brixton Jamm has become a staple party venue for Brixton and South London bringing all kinds of great music to the people for over 10 years, cementing them as one of South London’s must-visit venues. P.s. this is one of the best places to go for a rooftop bottomless brunch in London so don’t miss out!) 2. Upstairs at The Department Store Those lights used to hang from a continuous glass canopy that traced the shopfronts, but sadly this was damaged in the Second World War and was eventually removed.The mill produced flour with wind power from 1816 to 1862, when its sails were taken down and it was used as a storehouse. I’ve rounded up the very best rooftop bars in Brixton so have a look through and book into your favourites! 1. Lost in Brixton

Roma Tearne is a Sri Lankan born artist living and working in Britain. She arrived, with her parents in this country at the age of ten. She trained as a painter, completing her MA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. For nearly twenty years her work as a painter, installation artist, and filmmaker has dealt with the traces of history and memory within public and private spaces. She started to write while working at the Ashmolean Museum. Her first novel, Mosquito (2007), set in Sri Lanka, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the Kiriyama Prize. Her second novel is Bone China (2008) and her third, Brixton Beach (2009). Later the mill was revived with steam and ten gas engines, and Ashby’s Mill supplied wholemeal flour to many of the top West End hotels and restaurants. As a visual artist, Tearne instinctively thinks in terms of texture and colour. Yet more often than not her metaphors have a musical value. She writes of tension on the island "stretched like a cello string", or of Alice's footprints "marking the sand like musical notation". The conflict itself sets a discordant tone: "The war began drumming again. After months of silence it marched in two-four time; a two-conductor orchestra without direction."Affectionately known as “Brixton Beach”, this large concrete skate park has an international reputation and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2018. Fronted by modern housing and Victorian terraces, the park is plastered with graffiti and street art and is a honeypot for skateboarders, rollerskaters, BMXers, photographers and people just hanging out. While they don’t have a rooftop garden per se, their beer garden is one of the best in Brixton by a mile. As the daughter of a Tamil father and a Singhalese mother, an autobiographical element often found in her fictional families, Tearne experienced the divisive effects of the conflicts in her family microcosm as both her parents were made outcasts by their own relatives. In her writings Tearne is particularly interested in documenting the effects of the civil war on her characters’ personal lives and the ensuing traumas of migration and diaspora to the United kingdom. While Tearne’s fourth novel, The Swimmer (2010), is set in East Anglia and is less concerned with a Sri Lankan locale than her three previous books, the civil war still shapes the life of Sri Lankan doctor and asylum-seeker Ben. As other post-colonial writers concerned with the consequences of the end of the Empire in their own countries, Tearne interweaves highly personal and intimate narratives within a larger political and social context. Tearne’s books are rich in metaphorical language and visual imagery that the writer borrows from her work as a painter. Brixton’s dining offer is the definition of 21st-century London, and almost impossible to sum up in one paragraph. London. On a bright July morning a series of bombs bring the capital to a halt. Simon Swann, a medic from one of the large teaching hospitals, is searching frantically amongst the chaos and the rubble. All around police sirens and ambulances are screaming but Simon does not hear. He is out of breath because he has been running, and he is distraught. But who is he looking for?