ARCADES PROJECT

Reliance Arcade is Brixton’s own bit of Art Deco. There’s no grand entrance here, and it’s easy to walk right on past the front of this arcade on Brixton’s high street in south London, unless you spot the (almost) rainbow-themed decoration forming an arch over the way in, flanked by a very modern vaping shop and another selling phone accessories.

Delve into this narrow passageway, though, and you’ll find all the colour and exoticism associated with this part of London for several decades now. The travel agents in the arcade offer bargain flights to Accra and Abidjan; the wigs are definitely aimed at black and minority ethnic women; even the t-shirts are black; and one shop specialises in very particular underwear called a ‘waist trainer’.

There’s also a barbers, a hair salon, a dress maker, a vitamin supplement store, a brow bar and even a place to get your keys cut. So Reliance definitely comes under the category of ‘useful,’ ‘workaday’ arcade rather than arty, edgy or high-end.

Apparently, shopkeepers here are used to folk coming down taking photos. I was asked if I was an architect, as that apparently is the most likely person walking down this narrow passage without really looking to buy anything. One shop keeper – I think she ran the clothes shop in the arcade – came and chatted about how the land the arcade was built on used to be the back garden of an old Georgian terrace.

The shops on either side of the arcade can almost be touched at the same time if you stretch your arms out far enough, so narrow is the walkway here. But it has the classic glass ceiling with lamps hanging down to light what must get fairly dark on a cloudy winter’s day.

I loved the fact that the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the 1920s apparently inspired the decoration at the rear end of the arcade; it’s just a shame that the glass lettering of the arcade name was smashed at the time of my visit in January 2024, but you can more or less see what they were aiming for in terms of colour and feel.

Overall, I liked Reliance Arcade. It has spirit, life and is definitely part of the Brixton fabric.

My pick of the arcade’s past

There was a bit of a fight between two rival dress shops in the arcade in 1930, with both shopkeepers accusing the other of violence. A customer had made a complaint about a dress she claimed to have bought in one of the shops, though the male shopkeeper involved said it was not one of his; when he took the customer to the other dress shop in the arcade the disagreement became physical, with cups of tea split and a saucer thrown across the shop, allegedly. Both were found guilty, though sentencing involved them vowing to keep the peace for six months.

Another trader fell foul of the law in 1949, when caught with a shelf of betting paraphernalia under the counter in his café. Samuel Cohen ran Sam’s Snack Bar in the arcade, but was found guilty of allowing gambling in his café. “I only do it to oblige a few friends – local barrow boys and my brother-in-law,” he told the magistrate. He was fined £15 with 5 guineas to pay in costs.

The Brixton riots in 1981 appeared to spare the Reliance Arcade. Shops were boarded up to protect the glass fronts, but newspapers noted the defiant “Business as Usual” scrawled over the hoardings. “But for how long?” asked one reporter at the time… The riots in 1985 didn’t spare the arcade, though, with several shops being looted, and a photographer covering the riots being killed in the violence.

Sources for these stories from www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk and specifically: 1) Norwood News, 7 March 1930, Reach Plc; 2) South London Observer, 15 April 1949, British Library Board.

This arcade in films or books

With so many films and novels set in Brixton, there must surely be a reference to Reliance Arcade or a scene with the arcade in the shot, but I have yet to find any. So, come on readers, help me out here…

What memories do you have of visits in years gone by?

Have you got any good stories to add on the past of this arcade?

What’s your favourite shop in the arcade today?

My favourite shop in the arcade

I have to confess I didn’t buy anything from any shop in Reliance Arcade, but if I had, it would have been the black t-shirt shop, with some fantastic designs. I was intrigued, however, that a niche shop selling just waist ‘trainers’ gets enough business to keep going, but I guess a lot of Brixton waists need training…

Is there a website for this arcade?

There is indeed, a very nice website featuring the businesses operating in the arcade and with a bit of context about Brixton and some history of the arcade itself. Here is the link to the Reliance Arcade website.