Based in South London, Brixton Culture Capital is a collective of business professionals and locals who want to protect and leverage their neighbourhood’s burgeoning cultural reputation
Brixton, a vibrant neighbourhood in South London, has earned a coveted reputation fusing beats, flavours, languages and resistances. The name ‘Brixton’ now has an undeniable weight to it – which also means, it’s ripe enough to swipe.
The collective Brixton Culture Capital (BCC) wants to ensure it is the people that make Brixton’s name worth it’s weight who get to benefit from its cultural recognition – not just in London or the UK, but globally. Speaking to The Mirror, Gerald Vanderpuye, a tech entrepreneur and a founding member of the collective, says the community needs to leverage its greatest asset to prosper long-term: it’s cultural ‘capital’.
What is ‘culture capital’?
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“Culture can become capital when it transcends its people,” explains Gerald. He attributes Brixton’s distinct capital to its unparalleled diversity as a long-time haven for those on the fringes of society – everyone from refugees to the Windrush generation to the queer squatters of Railton Road.
“I think with a lot of inequality, it’s about ownership. Whether it’s buildings, intellectual property, investments, companies – most poor people don’t own any assets. And yet what I’m trying to explain is that cultural capital is an asset. An asset that soon we should be able to own,” he adds.
Brixton’s capital has been increasingly recognised abroad. Gerald makes reference to a dispute in 2024, when a Californian apparel company, Brixton LLC, sent a revoke legal letter to Brixton Street Wear (which is based in Brixton and owned by two Brixton-born brothers). As reported by the BBC this past January, the two companies settled amicably – though it is the US-based Brixton LLC which has managed to expand online to the EU and even Japan.
To better highlight the creators of Brixton’s distinct cultural capital, Gerald started writing a weekly newsletter. With about 17,000 subscribers, the Substack account is going strong but that’s just phase one of the collective’s plan.
‘We’re the Harlem of the UK’
Harlem is the blueprint for what Brixton could be, according to Gerald. Like Brixton, their transatlantic twin is a hub for Black and Latino citizens of all backgrounds and the Harlem Renaissance made it an epicentre of American ‘coolness’ in the eyes of the world.
In 2021, Gerald and other delegates from Brixton’s Business Improvement District visited Harlem’s 125th Street to discuss how they could all ensure economic wellbeing for their communities. “That was the Eureka moment for me,” Gerald says. “[Harlem] decided that they own their cultural capital. They always represent where they’re from and they make sure that the world knows it.”
But Brixton has a major obstacle they must overcome simultaneously. “We are generations behind them because no major commercial building is owned by a cultural leader here – there’s a huge wealth gap. [Harlem] has it too, but at least they’ve bridged a lot of it.” Ownership is the new watchword. And the plan starts with rum.
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Rum worth owning
On September 26, the collective launched a rum inspired by the flavours of Jamaican bulla cake. “No other place in this country can claim to represent rum like Brixton. And if Brixton is going to create a rum, it has to represent the people,” says Gerald.
For two years, BCC worked with about 30 Brixton businesses to curate the taste, bottle, and mission of their first trademarked rum (‘Brixton Rum’ is already spoken for, though its fate is still up in the air). Brixton Culture Capital rum is the collective’s first path to monetisation. The goal is to create an asset; one the community can own and profit off of, but also enjoy.
Only a limited number of bottles have been made: 456 to be exact. Like a true Brixton diehard, Gerald bought the first.
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