Pride of Brixton: crafty shops pop up

We love local. Back in December London’s ailing Brixton Village – an increasingly vacant 1930s indoor market – was revived by the Space Makers Agency, who have crammed every nook and cranny with pop-up shops and community-driven businesses. Louise Black writes.
This juicy selection of vintage shops, furniture traders, crafty types and antique dealers is about to get even tastier with the launch of a new wave of cafes, restaurants and food shops purveying delicious dishes as diverse as the stalls and shops around them.

As part of the UK’s largest ‘slack space’ project, Dougald Hine and the people at the SMA have worked with Lambeth Council and LAP, the building’s owners, to fill the largely unoccupied shopping arcade and renovate it into an imaginative and vibrant shopping destination which will support both the local economy and the local community. Twenty units were made available, rent free, for up to three months for the most creative, enterprising and community-oriented projects and in just a few weeks they were magically transformed into a wintry wonderland.

Since its grand opening in December, Brixton Village (or Granville Arcade as it is otherwise known) has been bustling with tantalising traders from all walks of life, as well as a host of temporary galleries and workshops.

One hotspot to trot along to is Greenmystyle.com’s favourite Remade in Brixton Work-Shop where you can upcycle your old clothes into new, more fabulous ones!

But this is merely the beginning – Saturday 16th January sees the launch of a veritable smorgasbord of restaurants and food shops including Olive Tree, a Moroccan restaurant serving traditional North African flavours; and Etta’s Seafood Kitchen which will tempt shoppers away from the ker-ching of the cash desk with Caribbean-influenced seafood. Pop-up events will run all day including tasting sessions at several new venues and a one-day restaurant run by food bloggers Kelsie and Mel who write Travels with my Fork.

Brixton Village is just three minutes from the Brixton tube with entrances on both Atlantic Road and Coldharbour Lane. Follow SMA on Twitter at http://twitter.com/spacemkrs for news of events and openings.