#Brixton Library

[downthetubes]

Brixton Library will host another Readers and Writers Zine Fair as part of Lambeth Literature Festival next month, with several comic creators

[matuklon]

Super grateful for having one of my #paintings featured in the new summer #exhibition at the #Brixton Library… and the local paper! Closing this week.

[klasewwkd]

14.06.2025

[julieconnelly]

Summer in the City

I spent a lot of my time this Summer in the City, I didn’t plan to spend the Summer in the city as such, but it turned out that I  spent most of the summer in the city of London and quite a bit of time in The British Library.  Usually, the desire would be to get out of London. Apart from my work, I have been studying at weekends at The  BRITISH LIBRARY. https://www.bl.uk I’m feeling the strain…

[educatedinyellow]

first lines

This meme is going around again, so why not? :)

(The invitation is to share opening lines from your 10 most recent stories. If you see this and want to play, please consider yourself tagged!)

conductor of light I can never forget the taste of desert shadows: the starkest, sharpest blacks, sand-warm and rich. When I’d pull them, hand over hand, from the lee sides of dunes or out from under rocks and slowly dying trees, they'd settle under my skin like a good stout—dark weight and bitters. (ACD Holmes)

when my mind is wandering (there I will go) Dying felt so familiar. So exhausting. (SPN)

do not stand at my grave Doctor Watson, I know not how to begin. For what I have withheld from you, and for what I have now to impart, I am equally sorry. (1994 Baker Street)

Spider stories What it is, right, I got my English sorted. The accent's dead obvious still. Always will be. But on paper, on a screen, there's no telling. Can't properly hear me, can you? All the fiddly little rules finally stuck, and as long as I don't sign my name, every word I put down'll sound native in your head. Got the articles straight and the verb conjugations. Swallowed the dictionary and learned to pretzel it, pub style. In writing, I could have lived here all my life. (221B Baker Towers)

moderate raptures Despite its popularity, the "Trousers of Time" metaphor is pants at capturing the complexity of the multiverse. (Discworld)

best things dwell out of Sight Having been away nearly a fortnight, I half-expected upon my return to find Baker Street a smoking ruin and my friend draped bare-chested across the rubble, lacking only a metropolitan eagle to feast obligingly on his liver. In the old days he would have reproached me with some such display, in the spirit if not in the flesh. Holmes had never hesitated to strike martyred poses when my attention was needed elsewhere. But these were not the old days, after all. (Ritchie Holmes)

The Talking Cure Sigmund Freud, February 1892; Library of Congress, James Madison Memorial Building, Manuscript Division; Sigmund Freud Papers: General Correspondence; Freud to Unidentified Recipient; MSS39990, Box 44. Item description: A single page of a longer letter, the beginning and end of which have been lost. (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution)

To Cast Light on Each The stifling, anguished atmosphere of the veiled lodger's lonely room followed us back to Baker Street. Side by side on the cab ride from Brixton, we leaned away from each other into our respective corners. The air was thick. A solitary gust stirred as we skirted Hyde Park, throwing up handfuls of grit and dust. If Watson's eyes spilled over once or twice before we reached home, he had good excuse. My eyes were dry, but I've always been one of those regrettable types whose distress shades more nervous than melancholy. (ACD Holmes)

Aphrodite's a Great Conversation Starter Friggin' Aphrodite. He'd pulled off Route 66 about 90 miles out of Santa Fe and checked into a fleabag motel. The stained tiles and worn mattress bugged him a lot more than they used to, but he was hard-wired to keep his overnight stays on the squalid side of cheap. (SPN)

The Better Part of Valour Dr Watson is as much a liar as ever, God be praised. In my heart I never lost hope that it was so. (ACD Holmes)

[misscammiedawn]

Signed up to the library streaming site and put in London (1994). It's a documentary where the narrator returns to tumultuous London after being absent for 7 years. I'd seen a clip or two on but never the whole thing. It's pretty much 80 odd minutes of footage from day-to-day life in the city I grew up in during the time I grew up.

Fact is when we visited again in 2018 it weren't the same. Not really. The old shit's still old but the vibe is off. It ain't home anymore. The past is a country I can't hop a plane to and have a holiday in. A topic that funny enough the docu actually goes over with its own subject's memories of places which are no longer in the city when it was recorded.

I reckon London's just like that, though? Something about the ancient history of a city that has been alive so long you can still feel its pulse and the new and old mingle so seamlessly that it haunts you with its familiarity juxtaposed with its strangeness. Like an old friend you've not seen for decades. The voice has changed, the way they carry themselves is different, the light in the eyes ain't the same but the eyes themselves are. Eff knows I know that well. I grew up noting the scar tissue of The Blitz, still apparent in where history was wiped out in an explosion and you see Edwardian structures and modern chic glass monoliths protruding like new growth in an ancient specimen.

Makes me feel even more of an expat to know the London I grew up in only exists in film. For better or worse I grew up a stones throw from "Cardboard City" the homeless settlement which is now home to the UK's biggest IMAX. My home was within the grimey nostalgia of a piss soaked graffiti stained city. It was just second nature-- as was the constant threat of IRA bombs.

I don't think I miss the messy old piss and cigarettes of the town I grew up in. Not really. But I identify with it. Call it home.

I think London just has that effect on people.

I don't glorify that shit. Na, on the contrary, I recognize it was a small hell that's been sanitized as best it could be. But I feel at home with the imperfections. It's kinda making me a tad homesick, y'know?

To take a touch to actually sit with that and kind of think about why this docu catches bits of the place in my memory that I can't see even walking down those same streets I wanted to go through the film and take a couple screenshots of places I'd been to in my childhood that show up and show them in the film versus how they look on Google Street Maps today. See that vibe change I mentioned.

Movie on the left, Google on the right.

Vauxhall Park

Brixton Market

Spitalfields Market

Elephant and Castle

and ...Fuck...

I had no idea they took down The Elephant. This is legit how I'm finding out about it. I clicked about to see when it happened and get a shot with the elephant statue to prove it was the right spot. Here's an image from 2020 with the shopping centre and statue still standing.

My memory is in locations. I close my eyes and I see places. That damned area is always with me. I can still see the giant billboard for 1994's The Mask next to the old swimming pool that used to be there. I remember before I even left England seeing a social media post about the frog slide being tossed in a skip and people of the area mourning a childhood memory.

Guess it all has to go in the end. Elephant just got wrecked. First with the big bougie flats then the Heygate Estate getting taken down and I guess the old shopping centre's gone too, ey?

And so it goes.

But yeah, the photography in the film was gorgeous and caught a slither of a world condemned to the past. To quote the movie "There is no town in the world which is more adapted for training one away from people and training one into solitude than London." She raised me and part of me will always be there, wandering the halls of the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre; a place that can only possibly exist in memories.

Anyway-- that's a big ole wander down memory lane. I love my city. One day I'll see her again.

[talentforlying]

YOUR MUSE'S INVENTORY.

rules: list the things your muse carries in their pockets or bags in their everyday life. (optional: explain their significance.) repost, don’t reblog.

tagged by: @inhericurse thank you!! tagging: you!

carton of silk cut cigarettes — breast pocket of his shirt / suit. he thinks it's funny when he gets the ones with the most obvious warning labels / infographics, but he's not picky enough to ask for them specifically. there's usually a picture of kit ryan tucked into the back of whichever one he's carrying at the time.

1-2 toothpicks — also breast pocket of his shirt / suit. he has zero compunctions about smoking indoors, but once they started passing laws about that sort of thing, he had to pick up something to soothe that itch when he can't get away and light up.

paper clip — also breast pocket of his shirt / suit. for picking locks. he had a set of actual lockpicks at some point, but lost them between flats and hasn't bothered to get more. he figures there's more plausible deniability in a paper clip, anyway.

leather billfold wallet — back right trouser pocket. holds his ID, oyster card, library card, a playing card (for glamours, usually the ace of spades), one motel keycard per-country-recently-visited (which he can get to work on any empty room with a little bit of magic; his living situation tends to be up in the air, people just don't appreciate magical infestations / loud-ass music in the middle of the night / generally weird shit like they used to), and several strips of printer paper he's cut to be the approximate size and shape of pound notes (so that if he's ever short on cash, he can glamour them to fill the role. nobody's end-of-day till count is safe). holds upwards of a hundred quid when he's found a bookie that doesn't know his name, but that's getting harder and harder these days.

silver lighter — interior suit pocket / right interior trenchcoat pocket. his current one was a gift from his friend rich, after they got to talking about the phenomenon of anti-tourism matchboxes; it's engraved with a lighthouse and has PISS ON IT scratched in underneath, probably from a key.

outdated, badly cracked mobile phone — interior suit pocket / left interior trenchcoat pocket. i keep saying it's a flip phone, but i'm starting to consider that he defaults to a blackberry instead, and the only thing standing between him and a breakdown at any given time is tetris. he breaks / loses / ruins phones frequently, so there's a good chance he'll have a different model every time you see him.

loose coins — trenchcoat pockets. he tries to keep them in his wallet, but he's not that diligent about it. he finds it distracting when they rattle together and he often needs to be a little sneaky, so he's got a tendency to separate change out into different pockets to reduce the noise.

a variety of keys — trouser pockets / trenchcoat pockets. a key to his current flat in brixton, a key to chas's storage unit in streatham (where he stores all his occult kitsch), and a key to the back door of ray monde's old shop. he's also got a key to the black library at the vatican, which he's very smug about and which he hangs onto in case he needs a magic focus that's guaranteed to open any door. like the coins, these are usually separated out into different pockets.

a pendulum — trenchcoat pockets. for divination and hypnosis. he's got a couple of options he alternates between — gold pendant, chunk of amethyst on a chain, pocket watch (usually goes with the blue suit) — but the pendant is usually the one he forgets to take out of his pockets at the end of the day, so that's the most common.

2-3 condoms — trenchcoat pockets. always be prepared.

pair of white gloves, worn thin — left trenchcoat pocket. a holdover from the 90s when he used to wear them all the time, now they're just there because he's used to their presence and can't be arsed to find a place for them at home. also useful for touching things that aren't safe for skin contact, but he usually only remembers that they're there after he's gone and touched the things that aren't safe for skin contact.

various bits & bobs for casting — the trenchcoat pockets contain vast multitudes of random shit, depending on what he's been up to and what level of threat has been the most recent baseline. on average, you can expect to find some crushed sprigs of sage, pieces of chalk, individually-wrapped charcoal sticks, fragments of bone, tangled thread, baggies of ash / graveyard dirt / cinnamon / incense cones, and currency from all over the world.

[domduongart]

Reminder I'll be tabling at Brixton Library LGBTQ+ Zine Fair this Sat 22 Feb 12-4:30pm! See you all there 😃

[mor-benis]

you have no idea what you've unleashed.

but yes!

a how-to

black parade is an easy start, can't go wrong, so i recommend starting with this.

the next step depends on your prior preferences.

if you like what you're hearing, i recommend Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge next. another easy pick, hits every time, you find your favs and start to find your mcr taste.

if you're still jamming with this (and have a background of liking more hardcore music), your next stop could be I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. more intense metal sound, screamo, less popular but an underrated banger imo. you also get the origin story of the infamous Demo Lovers who star in Three Cheers.

if you're more of a pop/pop-punk person, you can wander over to Danger Days: True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys instead. be warned, this album sounds a fair bit different from their other ones. not everyone likes it at first.

(secret 5th album-- conventional weapons! available all together in playlists)

now lore is more complicated and i'm not a master of it myself, but here's a few starting points/keyword searches.

extensive lore is available about black parade and three cheers, if you know where to look (which, seemingly, i don't). most basic place to start for a narrative guide to those is genius.com, where all/most all of the lyrics and how they relate to the overall narrative and themes are broken down.

plenty of art, stories, and fanwork (such as fanfic, fan comics, and animatics) are available for these albums, especially three cheers (which has separate fanons/fanworks for You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison, I'm Not Okay, and The Ghost of You). for these (at least three cheers), official music videos don't tend to relate to the canon/storyline of the album itself.

on ao3, many songs and albums have their own fandoms (searching up my chem returns 21 results, last i checked)

for danger days, there's many places to go:

-> for one, the comics themselves written by gerard way (and shaun simon, illustrated by becky cloonan, absolutely gorgeous) which totally aren't available online for free

-> the music videos for this album directly tie to/make up danger days' canon, so those are also a great source

-> once you're familiar with danger days' canon, there's this great fan comic by @gkdeamon called White Light (as far as I know, there's no complete/linear series yet, but they post plenty of awesome fanart and snippets from their Alternate Universe)

-> here's a super comprehensive danger days visual library

-> here's a danger days dictionary explaining lore/slang terms because my god is it extensive

for ibymbybmyl (yeah, an eyestroke), there's less available because of the world is a bit vaguer. however, your strongest point will be the Demolition Lovers (known respectively as Demo Man and Demo Woman. we're clever, i know)

For the band itself, well...

there's just too much to possibly encapsulate here. but, here's a start:

magazine scans.... so many magazine scans...........

more magazine scans

mcr scans/archive masterpost by @vampire-void (and the post i got it from which includes an additional link)

now THIS is a FANTASTIC fucking source for magazine scans and more!

this photo dump of both old and recent mcr! (creator is updating with new posts as well!)

mcr's studio process for ibymbybmyl

life on the murder scene - video diary circa 2004

mcr behind the scenes

full black parade concert 2007

infamous danger days reading festival 2011

new jersey black parade set - full concert

brixton academy, london full concert

current mcr live in osaka full concert

current mcr corona capital full concert (featuring joan of arc gerard!)

current mcr in philadelphia full concert

some fun niche sources i like:

frank's journal entries for his english 101 class at rutgers (late 90s-very early 00s, pre-mcr) (some organizations may not allow you to open this link, so if you're on a school account, you may need to switch to a personal)

an amateur horror film/sketch frank and ray made together (age-restricted but easily bypassed)

gerard way witnessing 9/11

integral ships/fanworks:

frerard (obviously)

gerbert (gerard/bert mccracken of the used, they're so divorced parents core that bert made a whole song about it)

petekey (mikey way/pete wentz, rumored to have had a fling during the summer of 2005 at warped tour [see: amazing new mexico sunset])

This is a big one: the fandom's arguably most prominent work is "I've Been All Things Unholy" and its two sequels, forming The Unholyverse. Written by Bexless on ao3.

some solo/post-mcr projects that i like of each band member!

gerard:

hesitant alien

frank:

leathermouth

stomachaches

parachutes

ray:

remember the laughter

mikey:

electric century

ultimately, your best source is the community! nothing is more fun or informative than scrolling through mcrblr and seeing what the fandom's up to or freaking out about now. you learn as you go, and if you flail in confusion loudly enough, 25 people will show up in your reblogs to explain it to you (i speak from experience). don't sweat, we're all here to have fun!

i know this is... a LOT, but take it slow, one thing at a time. start with the music. i've been into mcr for over a year now and i haven't watched most of the things on this list yet. no need to rush!

thank you for letting me vomit! if anyone else has anything to add on, feel free to do so!

//ooc//

i actually really wanna get into mcr, i've seen it all over my feed !

could people tell me how to get into mcr, like listening to music, learning lore, etc.?

[neillien]

I crave the adulterated decadence we left behind us, and miss the wishful thinkers who skipped back from our ever expanding dating parameters. I crave their presence, their just returned home ‘practise makes perfect’ earnestness. Boasting their subtle scars. Telling their Haughty, done high risk, more than others my age antics. The sight of their shoulders back, cock of the walk, pride. Those boys’ they’re reckless into the unknown with this body is my boudoir, come sleep with me attire to protect them only. I miss the creeps, the letches, the ‘does your mother know where you are? Worriers. The wolf whistlers, the butt grabbers, the do ya want some drugs? Yes, but I’ve no money - nights out. The that’s not a problem ‘you can suck me off for a couple of pills’ parasites, the dangerous, the undesirable. The ‘alright gorgeous’ in yer face Rohypnol circles we frolicked between. Outnumbered, three guys to one, four, sometimes five, even six. Breaking even when when we ourselves top the bottom/verse/verse types. Where did the ‘don’t know where I am, Hounslow! Brixton! No idea what time of day! Makes no difference. Salacious kid with welts and bruises, tired nylon carpet fibres stuck to his back and knees, DNA under his fingernails. A satin of filth lining his stomach, end up?

Oh look, we haven’t showered off the slander. Our names are generic

C U M S L U T we decipher the tags given us - a formal hazing, seen in reverse, the letter’s written on our buttocks. Indelible. My tag took weeks to fade. Now the mirror is pale.

I miss the angst. The buggary. The, where as before - revolving door. Night’s spent till way passed dawn rises at Xavier’s palace where everyone would exalt from frustrations. You have your own particular tastes. Always moralised in fascist groups, fast forwards your rhetoric - you hate us all as much now as you did then. Our ribbons were tied tightly together. Our unison stood against you. What happened to the revolution.

I miss the events of the days the freedom before they became a no, no - I miss the standard male flirtation of the day. It makes me lonely. It makes me older than just 19 - suckers dream. It kills my predators. It turns my iPod into an ancient relic.

A solitary ‘has been’ devours my Apple Music library. Without music He is without memory. You and I were once the same. You became someone else.

Unclothed lying in a bed of ice listening to yourself breathing.

[sammellish]

Was a pleasure to photograph the new Lambeth Archives last week ahead of the much awaited opening in the heart of Brixton.

"After 133 years of being based at the Minet Library, Lambeth Archives is moving its historic collections to a new purpose-built archive facility on Brixton Hill, SW2 1ET. The Archives have collections reflecting the history of the borough, it is the borough’s record office and local history library"

Reopening to visitors from Monday 12 February, see here for more details: https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/libraries-0/lambeth-archives

[dylanobriencloset]

Where?: Dylan O'Brien at the “Ponyboi” Premiere during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival at Library Center Theatre in Park City, Utah.

When?: January 20, 2024

What?: Ami Paris Carrot Oversized Trousers I $435

Worn with: Brixton Heist Beanie, Ami Paris Boxy Fit Double Face Jacket, Ami Paris Oversize Overshirt & Ami Paris Low Top Ami Arcade Sneakers

[lastchancevillagegreen]

Wednesday, 27 November 2023:

Library Bundle (9 of 18)

Laguna Beach Bob Dylan (Midnight Beat) (released in 1993)

Finding one two disc Bob Dylan bootleg at the Friends of the Library sale is a massive find. But finding two? Incredible. And I will admit I took one look at this set and thought, hoo boy, I dunno about this. It was in dismal shape. It had no inlay tray insert. The discs were scratched far more than I'm comfortable with and the case was slipshod. You couldn't open it without the insert and both discs falling on the floor. But it was a dollar. Yes, one George Washington and despite my never having heard of Midnight Beat, I still wasn't going to bypass a shot at an unheard Dylan boot for a buck.

I went home and cleaned it with water and a soft, clean cloth. It looked far better for my care. I replaced the jewel case with one of the many I have in my upstairs attic which is where my jewel case hospital resides. I even went to BobsBoots and printed out a back inlay tray insert. Granted, mine wasn't properly sized, but come on, it's a bootleg! No one cares!

After I shined it up and made it pretty, I still questioned whether or not it would play, so I went upstairs, popped it in and lo and behold! It not only played without incident, Laguna Beach is one hell of a live show! I'll give the details out at the end of this entry, so make certain you read it all.

Above you see the front of the jewel case and then the back with my too tiny insert. Below, you can see the gatefold opened up, first to reveal Disc 1 and then Disc 2. Note that the latter is how it looked when I got it: sans inlay tray insert.

Here is the booklet opened up.

Here are the two CDs found in this set.

This set contains a lot of music. First off, the main thrust is a performance at Laguna Seca (which is a racetrack in Monterey, California) on 27 May 1995. That show ends with Knockin' On Heaven's Door (on Disc 2). Then, beginning with All Along The Watchtower and running through Forever Ever (with Bruce Springsteen) what we are listening to is Dylan's performance at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in good old Cleveland, Ohio on 2 September, 1995. The performances are all tremendous! The final track on this boot is from Brixton Academy in London on 30 March 1995 . Dylan performs I Shall Be Released with Elvis Costello.

Had I passed up this crappy looking bootleg (for a dollar mind you) I would have missed this great performance! The takeaway is, if your library has used book/CD/movie sales, check them out. You never know what jewels you will find among the rust. And if they do look rusty, think about taking them home and cleaning them up. They might be hidden jewels.

[lo-kom]

Development of my 'Library for the Public Domain' project pt 2. - continuation (3rd November)

Continued to develop the dupes idea. Exposed my first screen with two designs I had created in Photoshop and did some tester textiles swatches. Initially, I just tested on much thinner textiles but later I started to more fully form my idea for an outcome I bought a far thicker fabric as I realised I wanted a material that could keep it's shape and stand up on its own. In the end the fabric I purchased from Brixton was a deadstock Cotton waxed fabric. They had this in two colours but I decided to go with the dark grey as I thought it might be a more neutral option to go with a wider range of other colours

All the images seemed to print fine on these swatches irrespective of how thick the fabric was. I made sure to get some advice from Charlotte and Eddie before I did my prints and Charlotte recommended I do a couple more passes than I usually would with the squeegee which seemed to work well

However, I started to experience more problems as I was repeat printing for the larger areas of fabric [see previous post]

Bought and pulled apart a market taurpalin bag and developed a pattern to stitch together my own one. As I started to work more with the fabric I realised just how thick it was and had a conversation with a woman in the uni art store who said that she didn't think they had sewing needles that would be thick enough for my fabric. This made me think that it might be less hassle to stitch the bag by hand. I think I was also thinking about my timeline in the leadup to the exhibition and the time I had left. In th end I decided that I had more control over several factors if I jsut did the stitching myself, and since it was just with a sewing needle, it was something that could easily be done from home. Ultimately I'm not sure if this was the right decision as it ended up being an extremely time-consuming task

Furthermore in the last tutorial I had with Jack before the exhibition he explained to me that the bag was pretty much a by-product or an outcome of the collection but it didn't display the collection itself (the dupes that I'd collected). This meant that in addition to the shopping bag I decided to work on displaying the dupes in some way that would give context to the bag in the exhibition

Came in the weekend before the exhibition to have another stab at screenprinting. Taking on board what I had learnt from my first attempt at printing on a larger scale (to avoid washing the screen between prints as much as possible; use a far larger, less dense image to be exposed; use the straight edge of the workbench next to me as a guide to keep my prints straight and work systematically down the piece of fabric (to cut down unnecessary time lost trying to line things up where the screen is drying out) etc...) Naturally, over the course of the repeat print process, I think I refined my print technique and learned what the screen should look like when flooding to ensure a good print that has the ink pass through the full image

[itsrattysworld]

Without Prejudice Mervelee Myers Tell Southwark Council My Husband Begged me To Get Help For Esther Oliver TESS From Adult Social Care They Failed Her To Die On Her Own Naked As Day She Was Born The Intellectual Imbeciles Who Contributed To SAR Please Note I Will Be Writing A Reflective Account About Those Involved With Systemic Discrimination MPs Harriet Harmon Neil Coyle Councillors Housing Ombudsman H4W Met Police Charities Pembroke House WLR Libraries Barclays Nationwide Santander BAME Community Target GP Surgery If They Breach My Rights Am Putting Them On List 17/10/23

Without Prejudice Mervelee Myers Record Southwark Council Defame My Name Character Based On The Systemic Discrimination HMCTS CPS CJS Miscarriages Of Justice Made A Criminal Record Need Emotional Regulation Treatment Police Tried To Section Murder Kidnap Me 30/10/2017-July 2023 Meet Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley At Brixton A New Met For London Housing For Women Devonshires Solicitors District…

[domduongart]

I'll be tabling at the Brixton Library LGBTQ+ Zine Fair Sat 22 Feb! See you all there!