Community Champions: Brixton Pound
Jul 10, 2017 · 3 min read

Even in a place as unique as Brixton, the Brixton Pound is something a bit special. One of only a handful of local currency schemes in the country, it was set up in 2009 to make sure that ‘money sticks to Brixton’, and in the intervening years that have seen Brixton go through some enormous changes, it has never been a more important goal.
Established in response to the financial crisis, the project is about community development and finding creative solutions, but with an activist focus. The spirit of the Brixton Pound was to inspire and show that alternatives are in fact viable; the ‘democratisation of money — taking control and not leaving it to the state’, said Josh Ryan-Collins of Transition Town Brixton, who was originally behind the currency. Brixton Pounds can now be used in 250 local businesses, encouraging people to shop and eat locally, thereby benefiting the local economy.
Although having a local currency seems bold and radical, other parts of the world have been well ahead of the UK, using digital currency in Kenya and Uruguay long before it was introduced in Brixton and other towns like Lewes and Bristol. But whilst using the money digitally is important in today’s evermore cashless society, the paper notes of the Brixton Pound have become symbolic of the pride in the area and it’s independent, ‘do-it-yourself’ ethos.
Brixton Pound works for the community in several ways — as well encouraging local trade by ensuring that money circulates in Brixton, the 1.5% transaction fee for online payments, paid by businesses, goes into the Brixton Fund which makes awards to local community projects. Recently it made awards of £1500 to Spacecraft, a project aiming to reduce isolation amongst the elderly through craft and enterprise, £1100 to Vintage Voices, a creative writing workshop to reduce social isolation, and £1000 to Chaigaram, a tea-making enterprise that creates employment for refugees.


