Brixton Market Listing Update

05/03/2010

English Heritage have changed their advice

Reliance Arcade and Market Row have been recommended for listing - but not Granville

After the DCMS turned down Brixton Market for listing last year, FBM along with a number of councillors, The Brixton Society, Transition Town Brixton, the Black Cultural Archives and the Twentieth Century Society, supported a review of that decision.  Against all the odds, the review was granted and we have been awaiting the result since then.

In another unlikely turnaround, we found out a few weeks ago that English Heritage, the advisory body to the DCMS, had ammended their original advice and were recognising the national significance that Brixton Market has to the African- Caribbean history of Britain. Whilst we are of course pleased to see that EH took on board the submitted evidence, we are deeply disapointed that only Reliance Aracade and Market Row have been recommended for listing. Granville Arcade, the only part of the market under threat, was excluded.

So we have once again sent our comments to the DCMS, explaining that Brixton Market is significant as a complete complex and should not be carved up in the listing.  And of course to dispute EH's claim that Granville is any less architecturally significant than the earlier markets.   We now have to wait for some more good news...