Electric Avenue

This article is about Electric Avenue, Brixton, London. For other uses, see Electric Avenue (disambiguation).

Electric Avenue is a street in Brixton, London built in 1888.[1] It was the first market street to be lit by electric lights.[2][3] Today, Electric Avenue contains national retail chains (Boots, Greggs, and Iceland), as well as various local food and housewares retailers. It also hosts a part of Brixton Market, which specialises in selling African, Caribbean, South American, and South Asian[4] products. It is located just around the corner from Brixton Underground station (1972). The street originally had cast iron Victorian canopies[5] over the pavement, which were damaged in World War II and removed in the 1980s.

History

The road is referenced in Eddy Grant's 1983 single "Electric Avenue", which reached #2 on both the UK and US singles charts.[6] The song itself was inspired by the 1981 Brixton riot.[7]

On 17 April 1999, the neo-Nazi bomber David Copeland planted a nail bomb outside a supermarket in Brixton Road with the intention of igniting a race war across Britain.[8] A market trader became suspicious and moved the device to a less crowded area of Electric Avenue, where 39 people were injured in its explosion.

In 2016, Eddy Grant was invited to switch on a new illuminated street sign installed as part of a £1 million refurbishment.[9] Afterwards, Grant was given one of the previous signs as a keepsake.[7]

References

  1. ^ "History". Brixton BID. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  2. ^ "Eddy Grant To Switch on Brixton's Electric Avenue Lights". Londonist. 7 October 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  3. ^ "life-of-a-song: electric-avenue". Financial Times. 21 September 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  4. ^ Mayne, Marcia (8 February 2016). "Rocking Down Electric Avenue, Brixton". InsideJourneys. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  5. ^ "The History of Brixton's Most Diverse Market". Brixton Village. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  6. ^ "Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue" Lyrics Meaning". Song Meanings and Facts. 17 November 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  7. ^ a b Simpson, Dave (3 September 2018). "How We Made: Eddy Grant's Electric Avenue". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Profile: Copeland the killer". BBC News. 30 June 2000. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  9. ^ "Eddy Grant to switch on illuminated Electric Avenue sign in Brixton tonight, 17th Oct". Brixton Buzz. 17 October 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
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