Electric Avenue is a street in Brixton, London built in 1888. It was the first market street to be lit by electric lights. Today, Electric Avenue contains national retail chains (Boots, Greggs, and Iceland), plus 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 products. It is located just around the corner from Brixton Underground station (1972). The street originally had cast iron Victorian canopies over the pavement, which were damaged in World War 2 and removed in the 1980s.
Electric Avenue, after Baron Corvo, 1895
History
The road is referenced in Eddy Grant's 1983 single "Electric Avenue", which reached #2 on both the UK and US singles charts. The song itself was inspired by the 1981 Brixton riot.
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. 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. Afterwards, Grant was given one of the previous signs as a keepsake.
