[Music]
>> Julian: Marvelous. Pip-pip.
Twiddly-d. Tally-ho.
Joolz Guides here, in which
I wander around London and
tell you fascinating facts,
and today –
no, I thought my nose might be
bleeding because I've come
south of the river again,
but, yeah, I am indeed
south of the river.
We're in Brixton,
and Brixton comes from
Brixi, or Brixistane or
something like that.
It's like a stone,
boundary stone, it was up at
the top of Brixton Hill there
which was a meeting point
for the hundred local parishes,
but towards 1816,
they started building these houses
down these main roads.
Actually, the main roads
are old Roman roads.
This is Brixton Road.
I think, you eventually,
you come to Croydon and then
you end up in Brighton. Okay.
So joining us for today,
he's reckless, ribald, rollicking,
romp, special guest for today, Matt,
who played keyboards in Brass,
wrote the theme tune to the
90s version of Top of the Pops-
>> Matt: -Co-wrote.
>> Julian: -Co-wrote and produced,
‘Don't Bogart That Joint’
for the film, Mr. Nice,
which also featured Lil’ Lost Lou
on background vocals.
Now this is very beautiful
1911 listed building, the Ritz,
who used to be called the Electric Pavilion,
and this is actually one of the
first purpose-built cinemas in the UK.
They actually have an organ in there
for accompanying the silent movies.
Originally, there was a theatre here.
This is the foundation stone of the
theatre which was here which got
hit by the Luftwaffe.
>> Matt: Oh, I see.
>> Julian: Yeah. Frank Matcham,
he was a famous architect.
This Frank Matcham architect,
he designed loads of these big
Victorian theatres around London.
But, yeah, that's the only bit that survived.
And the Ritzy cinema just took over the
extra bit of ground.
I rather like having you in it
not saying anything. He's just standing
there looking very suspicious
like he’s my bodyguard or something.
He will say some, now wait,
you will say something.
>> Matt: I will say something.
>> Julian: Excellent. Henry Tate,
who was famous for having introduced sugar
cubes to Britain,
famous for donating his art collection
to the Tate Gallery --
which is a why we have Tate Modern
and Tate Britain. He opened up this
library here, but in 1806 there was
a law that said you weren't allowed
any erections between, within 150 feet --
down boy -- of the London Croydon Turnpike
which is that road there.
Now I think it’s Brixton Road.
I guess if you walk from there,
to there, it's probably about 150 feet.
Do you know what the difference is
between that one there,
with the pipe coming out of his mouth,
or there's a lion Maisie with things --
with a big moustache?
The gargoyle is the one that
has water coming out of his mouth.
>> Matt: Okay. Right.
>> Julian: Because I think they’re called
grotesque.
They're only gargoyles if
they've got water coming out of them.
So that one there, is a gargoyle,
I would say. I think it's from
the French or something.
The throat in French which is where
we get the word gargle from of course.
>> Natalie: My name is Natalie
but I go by natural right because
I've had natural hair since I was eight.
>> Julian: Another poet, another poet.
What is it with Brixton and poets?
>> Natalie: Well, there's a lot to express.
There's a lot to talk about.
Brixton is the place where
culture and history of politics collide.
In the 1940s and 50s,
the Windrush breeze blew
my grandparents generation here.
Their stories are memorialized in
the black history archives right here
in Windrush Square.
The Windrush was when, like,
my grandparents generation came over.
First boat was the Windrush.
>> Julian: From Jamaica?
>> Natalie: Yes.
>> Julian: To rebuild Britain, I suppose,
after the war. 1948.
So that's the year that the Windrush came
over.
>> Natalie: They also served in the war as
well,
which they're not really --
they didn’t get recognition for that as
well.
If you look over here
you've got the monument to the
service women and men that died.
>> Julian: And just next door is
the Black Cultural Archives,
which opened in 1981 and it's the
only repository of black culture
and history in the UK.
>> Natalie: Fantastic.
There's so much knowledge
and information in there.
The poetry night is Wednesday,
poetic unity, is really, really
powerful night. I've performed here
a couple of times.
I haven’t been here for a while though.
[Music]
>> Diana: Hi Julian.
>> Julian: Hello. Excellent
>> Diana: Okay.
>> Julian: Manly handshake.
This is Diana and we’re actually
allowed to film in here.
Super. Thanks so much.
>> Diana: There are five markets,
obviously, in Brixton, both markets
are Grade II listed.
Buildings are normally listed
because of their architectural beauty.
Brixton Market was actually
listed for its cultural relevance,
so the diversity that you see
in regards to the people,
the retail mix, the type of food
that we have here, has been retained
and restored in the cultural listing.
Yes, this is one of our,
we call them, traditional traders.
>> Julian: This is a very
suspicious-looking vegetable here.
>> Diana: Yam.
>> Julian: I’m sorry.
Sorry about that. I’m very juvenile.
Huge, suspicious yam.
Kola nut bissy, this prevents fatigue,
tonic for the heart, stomach upsets,
diarrhea, poisoning. Dog blood?
What's that? Do they actually…?
What’s that? Control inflammation,
cancer, fever, jaundice, stomachache.
Oh, this is dog blood. Look at that.
>> Natalie: Just what it’s called. Yeah.
>> Julian: Jack in the bush:
cold, fever and flu. Pimento leaves,
pepper elder, periwinkle, eucalyptus.
I feel like I'm in Harry Potter.
>> Natalie: And this is called Irish moss
and bizarrely somebody's just
messaged me on Facebook.
I said you've got to try some
Irish moss for your skin problem.
>> Male Voice: Boil it for like
six to seven minutes.
What's going to happen is
this is going to froth,
it’s going to froth full of boiling water.
Do you want to have it as a drink
or what do you want to do?
>> Louisa: Yeah that’ll do. Yeah.
>> Male Voice: And what -- the thing is,
pour all of it out, but what happens
is if you leave it for like
10 or 15 minutes, this will turn into a gel.
>> Louisa: Oh right. Okay.
>> Male Voice: And that’s how-
>> Louisa: So I can put that on my face, can
I?
>> Male Voice: Yeah.
>> Louisa: Oh, well, that’s what I’ll
do. Yeah.
>> Male Voice: Yeah. If you can handle the
–
some people can’t handle the smell.
>> Louisa: Oh, I can handle the smell.
[Music]
>> Natalie: Yeah.
>> Julian: What kind of cloths are these?
>> Natalie: So they'll be West-African,
a mixture of Ghanaian and Nigerian,
and the cloth is called kente.
[Music]
>> Julian: Thanks so much, and by the way,
remind me again how you hurt your leg.
>> Natalie: It was a limbo competition.
>> Julian: Straightforward.
Straightforward limbo competition.
So in 1986, Kevin Atherton sculpted these
three figures. I feel there’s only two
at the moment because I saw one of
those being renovated, but they were the
first sculptures of black British people
anywhere in the UK in a public place.
The models were just local people
waiting for trains and stuff.
[Music]
>> Julian: It’s mad. How do you –
>> Matt: I think it’s brilliant, really.
>> Julian: I mean, it is lovely,
isn’t it though.
Look what they've done, it’s so clever?
>> Matt: It always reminds me of
Blade Runner. Do you know what I mean,
those sort of scenes where it's
all a bit indoor and outdoor at the same time.
>> Julian: And it's quick to get here.
You don't have to be scared of
South London, South London isn't a
dirty word, is it?
Wow. What have you got here?
[Music]
>> Julian: I think they've got one of
the biggest stages in Europe,
the Brixton Academy. You've probably
been to see a band there,
but I mean it opened in 1929ish.
It was a theater and a cinema.
Police, Dire Straits, everyone basically.
They even recorded the video for
‘Wake Me Up Before You Go, Go’ in there.
>> Matt: Yeah. Kraftwerk,
I've seen Kraftwerk there.
>> Julian: Yeah.
>> Matt: Yeah and I've even
played on the stage myself.
>> Julian: Have you?
>> Matt: Oh, in 1989, I think it was.
Yes, a decade of style, they called it.
Chaka Khan Smiley Culture.
>> Julian: A decade of selling –
you mean, what a dickhead of style was.
>> Matt: A dickhead of style.
>> Julian: A dickhead of style.
You look quite a star in the outfit.
Can you do the dance?
[Music]
>> Julian: This bin, at 40 Stansfield Road,
is very important. Because that bowie bin,
that belongs to the people who live
in the house where David Bowie was born.
Bow your head, you lowly dog.
Bowie was born in this very house,
and outside he's got the Bowie mobile,
in really dark black. Look at that black.
Amazing color. The cool thing about
getting from David Bowie’s house
to the mural is, in order to get there,
first of all, you have to turn to the left,
and then you got to turn to the right.
Profession, we are the goose gone
and the comic..
Still don't know what I was waiting for,
and my time is running wild.
A million dead end streets.
>> Julian: Singles now next week.
>> Matt: It's rumored that the Major Tom,
who was the sort of ground control,
to Major Tom --thank you -- was in fact,
Major Tom, was what? John Major's father.
>> Julian: Yes.
>> Matt: Because that was his professional
name.
His entertaining -- he was it in the
circus or something wasn’t he?
>> Julian: John Major was from Brixton.
He was brought up in Brixton
and his dad was a musical entertainer
and David Bowie apparently was walking past
the post that one day,
when he saw Tom Major’s name
that gave him the idea for Major Tom.
>> Matt: And John Major was famously
the first person that ran away from the
circus to become an accountant.
>> Male Voice: I met David himself,
by the way, when he opened up the
Brixton community Centre. He said to me,
“Tell me something,” and said,
“Do you dress like this all the time?
And you walk around?” I said, “Yeah.”
He said, “Well, how come I can’t walk
around Brixton and walk around.
I get mobbed.” I said,
“Yeah, but David, there's one big difference.
I'm not you.” I heard the news he’s died;
I thought, now I'm dreaming.
I just went down there to pay my respects,
you know, and I thought,
next time I come down here,
I'm going to bring a boom box.
I ended up doing two years there
every day playing Bowie's music.
>> Matt: Every day? You do this every day?
>> Male Voice: Yeah.
>> Louisa: Shake that man’s hand.
That is the dude.
[Music]
>> Julian: Well in the 1920s,
Brixton had become one of the
most popular and fashionable places
to come do your shopping.
And there was a fella called James Smith,
who won a load of money on horses at
Newmarket and he invested it
rather wisely by opening up Bon Marche,
which is the first department store
in the whole of the UK.
He then used these buildings here,
I think it was these ones here,
for accommodation for the employees
at Bon Marche. And there's actually
a tunnel that goes underneath
the ground and up to, up to the
accommodation there. Morley's here,
this is another one of those
wonderful old shops that was here
sort of at the late 19th century,
unlike Bon Marché, this one's still trading.
So we're just off to go and meet
a poet called Michael Groce.
He's a poet and community activist.
>> Michael: I love Brixton.
All the different foods it has to offer.
I love the different faces of
my sisters and my brothers.
I love Brixton.
>> Julian: This was already quite
a busy shopping district quite
a famous shopping district around
the end of the 19th century,
but in 1888, Electric Avenue over there
got its name because it was
the first market street to be
fully lit by electricity.
And it was very beautiful.
It had these wonderful Victorian canopies.
I think the Nazis hid a bunch of them
and eventually they all decayed.
They should bring them back.
So we are now going to rock down
to Electric Avenue. And after that-
>> Matt: Are you going to take it
higher, Julian?
>> Julian: We will definitely take it higher-
>> Julian: Obviously, I wanted to use
‘Rock Down to Electric Avenue’
by Eddy Grant but I couldn't or
I’d get a copyright strike.
So, instead, you can hear Lil’ Lost Lou’s
homage to Electric Avenue.
All about how it was the first
market street to be lit up by electricity.
[Music]
And it used to have, like in
Victorian times, it had these
beautiful iron sort of, kind of,
canopy’s hanging over.
>> Michael: They tried to save them,
you know, they wanted to --
part of regeneration was to bring back
the canopy and give it the old-style feel.
>> Julian: Yeah.
>> Michael: But that just went
out the window. We don't know
what's going to happen.
They’ve done the first phase,
which is what you might call
pedestrian lighting the whole place
and you could walk through --
because this used to be roads.
>> Julian: Yeah.
>> Michael: You could drive through here
but man it stopped.
So it's much cleaner,
much easier.
[Music]
>> Julian: When I think of the 80s,
for me, I have an image of Arthur Scargill,
Margaret Thatcher, the miner strikes,
but also, we had this massive
Brixton riot in 1981.
So what was the last straw
that actually sparked it off?
It really kicked off?
>> Michael: There was two straws.
There was a fight that happened in
Brixton in ’81, and the police
allowing him to go to the doctors
and everything. They took him into
custody getting him back of there,
that caused the fight and then it
just escalated. It was -- my mum got shot.
That touched a deeper court
within the community. That’s someone's mum.
>> Julian: So word spread pretty fast,
I guess.
>> Michael: Very fast, but by the time
that would spread, there was
a gathering outside my mom's house,
and I think someone -- I know the person
who threw the first one,
threw the first bottle at the window.
This is way –woah. More than just racism
but there also -isms going on
because you have the Irish problem
as well, right?
>> Julian: Yeah, because they had signs
saying no blacks, no dogs.
>> Michael: And now that's just on a
poem for them, it goes:
Let the Guinness flow my friends,
to black and white together,
for the history of our paths will be
entwined forever, from the Irish seas
to the Celtic shores, to distance roots
for mother Africa, is the inspiration
for our source, for we tell the same story.
>> Natalie: Well, I'm going to get
a salt fish patty and cocoa bread.
>> Julian: Lovely, jubbly. What is this?
>> Natalie: You've got a lamb patty
and coco bread.
>> Julian: Okay.
>> Natalie: So it's like hard dough bread,
making bread.
>> Julian: Good. We should have been
Blue Peter Presenters.
>> Natalie: Yeah, we should’ve.
>> Julian: Mmm.
>> Male Voice: Do you enjoy my lovely patty?
>> Julian: Is this yours? You made this? Good
job.
>> Male Voice: You like it?
>> Julian: Yeah. It's good.
It's good. It's a bit hot actually.
One of the places that got hit in the
riots in the 90s, was The Atlantic Bar
which was this one here.
It's now the Dog Star.
What was it called back then?
The Atlantic?
>> Michael: It was called The Atlantic.
Yeah.
>> Julian: What was it like in there?
>> Michael: No, but you couldn't
go down unless you knew someone in there,
and if the police come,
it was confrontational, you know.
You couldn’t go like that.
>> Julian: No, no.
I can’t go many places like this.
>> Michael: We be like this our cousin.
This a police officer.
You can talk to him as much as you want.
Nah, man, that’s the police, brother.
There's police. And he's one of the
results of them, the original
menthem came to Brixton.
>> Julian: Just do a quick bit of
translation there because I believe
Michael just used the word menthem.
>> Michael: The menthem, those men..
>> Julian: Oh.
>> Michael: That’s what it means.
Menthem, but we just reversed it.
[Music]
>> Julian: This is Southwyck House,
or they call it Barrier Block.
It was it's from the 1970s,
one of those brutalist,
it’s called brutalist architecture,
like, like the Trellick Tower.
You know, Trellick Tower,
the Goldfinger guy who designed
these things it’s kind of typical 70s
type building. And it was actually
originally designed to go alongside
a six-lane motorway. They had developed
this idea to have this six-lane motorway
cutting all the way through Brixton.
It was a Polish architect
I've forgotten her name.
>> Matt: Because the motorway was
going to be coming past it,
so the way around that was to have very,
very small windows. And that's why
it ended up looking like a prison.
Lots of people think that’s Brixton prison.
It’s for good reason, you know,
do you know what I mean?
>> Julian: Can I just say that
Joolz Guides does not condone,
necessarily, the views of people
who appear in our films.
>> Natalie: I actually quite liked it
I think the windows are cute.
Look at that.
[Music]
>> Julian: 406 doesn't look like much.
This fascinating shopfront is
actually 406 ColdHarbour Lane.
It's actually a really important
location in the Brixton community.
>> Matt: This this used to be
Blacker Dread Records.
>> Male Voice: He was like the kingpin guy,
around here, for the reggae stuff,
you know, like, they all used to
go there to buy, like, their imports
from Jamaica and whatnot, you know.
>> Michael: Blacker Dread sound system
was in there as well.
He produces the music.
He puts on the shows.
It brings over the artists.
>> Julian: Blacker Dread was a
real pillar of the community
of young people who come and hang out
here and give them advice on
how to stay out of gangs and
not get into drugs and stuff.
>> Matt: After his son died,
he became much more involved
in politics and through that he began to,
you know, get more involved
in the community. And he set up the
Brixton Splash festival, music festival.
>> Julian: Brixton Smash started as
a few hundred people outside
his shop here with a sound system.
Then it grew into being a major
yearly street carnival it is today.
It's the first Sunday of every August.
>> Matt: Unfortunately, the shop
shot in 2013, when financial irregularities
came into play and he had to go
elsewhere to stay for a bit.
>> Julian: Before he went to prison,
he also announced to all his customers,
that he had closed the shop.
He just got a bit of a A4 paper
and stuck it on the, these shutters here
that said, “Oops.”
[Music]
>> Julian: In 1822, Thomas Bailey,
was desirous of establishing an asylum
for pious-aged women. And in fact,
you had to prove that you really did
believe in God in order to stay here.
And if you were aged between 57 and 67,
you counted as an aged person.
They could only house 12 aged-pious
women here but I believe it
still has people in those-
>> Matt: Yeah I think so.
[Music]
>> Julian: That’s the town hall over there,
and now, those sculptures are
science, art, literature, and justice.
Someone took a long time to
carve those in there.
So it's quite nice to know what
they actually represent.
This is St. Matthews Church.
They call them the Waterloo Church,
to commemorate Waterloo.
To lift the spirits and celebrate,
they decided lets build a load of churches
because all these expanding towns
and stuff -- like, Brixton was really
pretty new back then and they needed new,
more churches. But these days I don't,
I think it's-
>> Matt: -torture garden.
>> Julian: Yeah, torture garden.
I thought so. Yeah, a fetish nightclub,
with whips, chains, leather,
all that sort of stuff.
And it's quite remarkable that it went
on in a church. Perfectly normal
if you ask me. And it wasn't unheard of
to see a zebra drawn carriage down
in Brixton either. I think it turned out
they belonged to a musical artist
called Gustav Grais or something.
He lived around the area --
because this whole area used to be
occupied by actors. Anyway, he was
one of them and I think that
zebra was actually part of his stage act
or something but he'd often be
seen riding it around.
Anyway, I also believe Lord Rothschild
had won, whoever he was.
>> Male Voice: -he showed it to me.
>> Julian: Ah, a fan.
>> Male Voice: Yeah.
>> Julian: A fan.
>> Male Voice: We’re from Canada and
studying in the UK right now.
>> Julian: Oh, great. Excellent,
and now you're in a Joolz Guide about Brixton.
>> Male Voice: Dream come true.
>> Julian: Thanks so much.
>> Julian: This is Effra Road and
underneath there is The River Effra,
which now forms part of
Joseph Basil Jets Victorian sewer system,
which actually rises in Crystal Palace,
and flows all the way down Brixton Water Lane
and out into The River Thames
over at Vauxhall. Now there was a story
in Victorian times about a coffin
that was seen floating down
the river and into The River Thames.
When they checked the blokes
name on the coffin, they saw that it
had come from West Norwood Cemetery,
and the cemetery staff were completely
freaked out because the tomb had been
completely undisturbed. They were wondering
how on earth this coffin had ended up
floating down the river.
But what had happened was that the
ground had subsided beneath
West Norwood Cemetery and --
causing the coffin to fall into
the river beneath the Effra.
So it floated off down The River Effra
and into The River Thames and
legend also has it the Queen Elizabeth I
was also seen frequently sailing down
The River Effra on her way to go
and visit Sir Walter Raleigh
who actually had a house here on
Brixton Hill just at the end of
Blenheim Gardens. Oh, Sir Walter, really.
[Music]
This is Blenheim Gardens.
I do like this old post-office here.
Look at this nice old original --
this is still a post office since 1891
when they built it. And I do love a postbox.
All around Brixton and I've seen
Elizabeth, I've seen George which is,
this would be George V, I think.
George VI was Second World War wasn’t he?
>> Matt: Yes, he is.
>> Julian: I've seen Victoria ones,
Elizabeth ones, and Edward VII.
All around this neighborhood
you see the man who do too much,
like Alfred Hitchcock. You know the
church at the end of that he has to
go to the Ambrose Chapel. That's right.
Yeah. Jimmy Stewart, yeah.
You know that kind of prisoner
inside a church at the end,
that was filmed just, just there in --
amongst here. They knocked all
those buildings down. The church
still remains, but the church hall
where they filmed it,
everything else is gone.
It's all changed.
But look at this terrific windmill.
Superb. A real functioning windmill.
This was built in 1816.
That’s a proper -- it's actually,
the Ashby family who, who owned it.
Would have just stood in a field back
in those days and had proper sails
there and it was run by the actual wind
and it produced flour for the local community
and they sold it and what-have-you.
But, sadly, when they developed the area,
it became less windy and so
they couldn't operate it.
And so they installed a generator,
which worked properly until about 1934,
supplying flour to hotels and what-have-you.
Funnily enough, actually,
behind there was the Brixton House of Correction,
built in 1820 which was the
first prison to introduce the treadmill.
And so they could produce flour
and that was also sold. Yeah.
They could actually make money out of it.
So it's quite interesting that
they've got Brixton Prison
right next to the windmill
that used to make flour.
>> Simon: I don't typically tread in
dog poo, you know, I'm quite an
observant person, but the last three times
I've trod in dog poo,
have been while I'm out filming you.
>> Julian: It’s not my bloody fault.
>> Simon: You’re summoning them. [Laughter]
[Music]
>> Julian: Cheers, everybody.
Cheers. Thanks, sir.
Thanks for watching and don't forget
to hit the subscribe button.
And if you’re interested,
you can check over my website,
JoolzGuides.com, where you can find out
more about me and do a whole lot of
other things but, above all,
have a beautiful day.
[Music]
