Stallholders will be accepting Brixton £s on the day so it’s a great opportunity to pick up the last (or, in my case, the first) of your Christmas presents. Shopping in the Dogstar – it’s got to be less stressful than Oxford Street!

On that note, we’d love to hear from anyone who’s decided to buy all their Christmas presents using Brixton Pounds. Simon Woolf did it last year and you can watch a video of him Christmas shopping here.

Watch this space for more hints and tips about how to support independent businesses in Brixton over the festive period…

The B£ Reusable Cup

We are very proud to have now launched our very own B£ reusable cup!

Designed and manufactured by KeepCup, light, sleek and environmentally friendly, this is the first barista standard reusable cup.

Not only you will be able to use our B£ cup in Brixton and get a lovely discount, but you can literally use it in any other coffee place you fancy, and help reduce the amount of packaging going to landfill.

The following cafes in Brixton are offering a discount to B£ cup users – please check in store for details:

Cafe Tana, 96 Brixton Hill, SW2 1QN

C@fe Brixton, 8 Brixton Station Road, SW9 8PD

Cafe Viva, Brixton Station Road, SW9

Cafe Sitifis, 11 Rushcroft Road, off Coldharbour Lane, SW2 1JS

Rosie’s cafe, 14E Market Row, Brixton Market, SW9

Wild Caper, 11-13 Market Row, Electric Lane, SW9 8LB

Rahel Cafe & Bar, 16 Acre Lane, SW2 5SG

Azmarino Cafe, 2 Atlantic Road, SW9 8HY

Opus Cafe, 89 Acre Lane, SW2 5TN

Bellantoni’s, 81 Fifth Avenue, Granville Arcade, SW9 8PS

Duck Egg Cafe, 424 Coldharbour Lane, SW9 8LF

Also, keep an eye out for ‘Use your B£ cup here‘ posters, which will alert you to any new coffee places on the scheme.

The B£ cup makes a stylish and handy gift, it comes in three colour combinations (see picture), and is available from the Community Shop (Unit 6, First Avenue, Granville Arcade, Brixton Market, SW9 8PR), as well as: C@fe Brixton, Wild Caper, Rosie’s cafe, Cafe Sitifs, Viva Cafe (next door to Brixton Recreation Centre), Bellantoni’s, Azmarino Cafe, Opus Cafe, and Duck Egg Cafe.

Yours for B£6 or £6.50.

Products available in the Community Shop

Pop down to the Community Shop (Unit 6, Brixton Village) and take a gander at the brand spanking new items for sale. All profits will be reinvested in the Brixton Pound project.

From left to right:

- Copies of The Wizard: a whole new Oz for our times by David Boyle, a fellow of the New Economics Foundation. Based on the the idea that Frank Baum actually wove his famous tale around the monetary battles of the 1890s, The Wizard is ‘a modern Wizard of Oz for the days of derivatives, sub-prime mortgages and Goldman Sachs.’ The book also includes David Boyle’s celebrated speech at the launch of the Brixton Pound.

- The latest album from The Soothsayers and the Red Earth Collective inculding the track ‘The Brixton Pound’. See our interview with Robin Hopcraft of The Soothsayers here.

- A range of tasteful hand-crafted silver jewellery from Full Moon Designs who can usually be found at the Brixton Arts and Crafts Market next to Morleys on Fridays and Saturdays.

- The ever-popular Brixton Pound Sauce. Locally produced and market ‘sauced’ (arf). Not available for purchase in the Community Shop but you can get your hands on a bottle just a hop, skip and a jump away at Brixton Cornercopia (Unit 65, 4th Avenue, Brixton Village).

- The new ‘Brixton Power’ T-shirts, available in men’s and women’s sizes, for patriotic Brixtonites. The T-shirts are made from 100% ethically traded organic cotton and feature graphics designed by a local resident. See one modelled by an unwilling volunteer here.

Make sure you pay in B£s, there are discounts available if you do!

Often referred to as ‘Brixton’s favourite giftshop’ Diverse aims to offer a range of products that truly reflects the varied community it serves: Afrocentric and contemporary greeting cards for all occasions, jewellery from every corner of the globe, recycled products and world music from Putumayo.

The downstairs gallery houses beautiful, affordable clothing by local label, Uma Jane, and a range of Australian designers.

Diverse has a permanent discount of 5% off for anyone using the B£, although during this feature-week B£ customers get 10% off both gifts and clothing (full-price items only; cards and gift-wrap not included).  So get down there, what are you waiting for?

Diverse
62 Atlantic Road
London
SW9 8PY
020 7733 1488
info@diversegifts.co.uk

Also on Facebook and Twitter!