Social Heritage Report

This report is a collation of material gathered through a participatory research process carried out by Anchor & Magnet from October 2012 to the present, primarily through a 4 month research residency in Brixton (October 2012 - January 2013) and a series of events organised in 2013 including the Brixton Exchange (February 2013), and Learning from Neighbourhoods (October 2013). Anchor & Magnet is an artists collaboration lead by Barby Asante, Katy Beinart and Kate Theophilus. We initiated the project in 2012 in response to an ongoing dialogue between ourselves about the situation in Brixton and an interest in how we could use artistic methods as research tools. Our intentions were to document the ‘largely unheard’ public debate about current changes in Brixton’s physical and social fabric; to collect memories of Brixton past; and reflect on how these could feed into current debates and regeneration processes. In this report, we draw together the many conversations and opinions we have heard and engaged in, with specific information about stories, memories, sites and objects. The aim of this report is to provide a context for potential projects which explore heritage to draw from, and react to. It is by no means a comprehensive picture of Brixton past and present, but by giving personal and specifc stories and points of view, our hope is that some of the rich and diverse history and social/cultural/political life of Brixton can be articulated through the mirror of the ‘complementary heritage projects’ brief and responses to it.