After which, you’ll be ready to salsa the night away to Cuban beats in the covered club area, inspired by the legendary Havana bar, El Floridita… Barrio Brixton will transport you to a faraway holiday destination and is certain to get you in the mood to party. Bone China and Brixton Beach explore the tensions within Sri Lankan society that would lead up to the outbreak of violence and would force thousands into exile, tearing apart families both emotionally and geographically. Both novels combine a focus on the characters’ struggle for survival in a hostile homeland with a narrative of immigration and exile into a foreign country, the United Kingdom. The De Silva family in Bone China and the mixed-race Fonseka family in Brixton Beach have to integrate in a new society, which, especially for their eldest members, is far from their idealized expectations. As Savitha puts it to her husband Thorton in Bone China, 'We are nobody'. Caught between the old ways of their Sri Lankan heritage and the overwhelmingly liberated modernity of London, the De Silvas and the Fonsekas experience a sense of loss and non-belonging that undermines the stability and unity of their families. The younger characters, Anna-Meeka in Bone China and Alice in Brixton Beach, fare better although they too experience the grayness of London and the loss of their most cherished relatives such as grandfather Bee for Alice. With Brixton Beach,Tearne also started to develop an interest in portraying the effects of apparently remote conflicts on British society and in framing her characters’ lives within the context of a bigger global conflict. The novel opens with the London bombings of July 2005 whose events intersect with Alice’s story and with the surgeon Simon Swann’s attempts to find her. The Swimmer further develops Tearne’s observation of contemporary British society and of the interplay between world conflicts, immigration and the racist agenda of the far right. As in her first novel, the relationship between the two central characters, the 43-year-old English Ria Robinson and the 25-year-old Sri Lankan asylum seeker Ben, is threatened not only by their age gap, but also by social conventions and racial prejudice. The surface has been relaid a few times since 1978 and the park is such a fixture in Brixton that it has been designated an Asset of Community Value. 14. Hope and Anchor Pub Source: hopeandanchorbrixton.co.uk Hope And Anchor Pub

Affectionately known as “Brixton Beach”, this large concrete skate park has an international reputation and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2018. Fronted by modern housing and Victorian terraces, the park is plastered with graffiti and street art and is a honeypot for skateboarders, rollerskaters, BMXers, photographers and people just hanging out. Whether you’re after a relaxed drink or somewhere to get the party started, Hope & Anchor is here to help. Their motto is “take a wrong turn to the right place”, and it has the vibe of a secret garden that’s easy to get lost in. Lost in Brixton is a trendy rooftop spot that has been conceptualised with a little imagination and a lot of love. Time Out has described it as the best outdoor terrace in London, which has to count for something, right?

It’s a super fun place with loads of places to eat and drink, and you’re sure to find somewhere that’s to your taste here. The area has a relaxed vibe and is brimming with food and experiences from a whole host of cultures. The importance of historical memory has long been a central concern of Roma Tearne’s work as painter, installation artist and filmmaker since the 1990s. Her debut novel, Mosquito, featured an exiled Sri Lankan writer returning to the country and falling in love with a 17-year-old artist. Of all Tearne's work, this was the book that most directly engaged with the violence of the civil war, particularly the Tamil Tigers' deployment of female suicide bombers, who descended from the north like mosquitoes "but, unlike the mosquitoes, were full of a new kind of despair and frightening rage".

The paintings are labelled on Google Maps, so you can take a tour through Brixton’s not so distant past. This is one of the coolest areas in town, so wherever you go, you’re guaranteed to have a good time.P.s. this is one of the best places to go for a rooftop bottomless brunch in London so don’t miss out!) 2. Upstairs at The Department Store Now, it doesn’t have a rooftop, but when you see the garden you’ll forgive me for including it, I promise! The garden is huge and the twinkling fairy lights make it a wonderful choice for an evening drinking session with your mates. The reason this pub has made in on the list is for one game-changing feature: The Hope and Anchor has one of the best pub gardens in London. But you can’t neglect the artisan burger joints like Dirty Burger and Honest Burgers, as well as tapas and pintxos spots like the Donostia Social Club and the Boqueria.

And since the 19th century the ground has also almost always hosted the last international test match of the English season. Membership gets you access to the gorgeous rooftop dining space and terrace, while non-members can hire the private dining rooms should they so desire. If you’re happy to head to a beer garden rather than a rooftop bar, then I’ve included the best of the bunch in here for you too! To Tearne, writing is another artistic medium suitable to investigate these concerns and to explore how language can produce emotions. Thus it is not surprising that in her first three novels: Mosquito (2007); Bone China (2008); and Brixton Beach (2009), the writer dramatized the violent civil war that opposed Tamil rebels against the Singhalese regime in her native Sri Lanka. The war broke out in 1983 and was first suspended by a cease-fire in 2001. However, because diplomacy failed to find a political solution, the conflict started again in 2005 and it officially ended in May 2009 with the surrender of the Tamil Tigers and the death of their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Fought over a period of 26 years, in Tearne’s own words 'the war had become a worn-out habit on the island ... the brutality of which was hardly noticed in the west. Other wars, more important ones in larger, richer countries, hit the headlines.' My personal favourite is Jalisco as I’m a huge fan of Latin American food, and who doesn’t love a burrito, right?

A large range of beers on tap and a resident kitchen by White Men Can’t Jerk makes this a real destination on a sunny afternoon.