Brixton Pound: post-launch

Andy Wimbush is nef‘s Communications Assistant and blogmaster.

If, like me, you weren’t able to make it to the launch of the Brixton Pound last week, you can still read all about the event courtesy of Rob Hopkins who has written up all the essentials from the launch as well as transcribing the speech given by nef‘s David Boyle.

The B£ has enjoyed a fantastic amount of press coverage, including the BBC, the Times, the Guardian and the Mirror (although surely the crowning achievement must be getting onto CBBC Newsround). The scheme has been very enthusiastically received by Lambeth Council and shoppers in Brixton, as well as many family-run businesses. Inevitably, however, there is some scepticism from economists and from some local traders, and it remains to be seen whether the Brixton Pound can really make a difference to small shops. It’s for that reason that the B£ carries the traditional Transition Movement disclaimer: it’s an experiment.

If you’d like to start experimenting, you can get your Brixton Pounds from Morley’s department store opposite Brixton Underground station, or Opus coffee shop on Acre Lane.

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Brixton Pound launches this week

Andy Wimbush is nef‘s Communications Assistant and blogmaster.

This week sees the launch of the UK’s first ever urban local currency: the Brixton Pound. As the local Lambeth think-tank, nef is supporting the scheme, which the organisers hope will keep Brixton a diverse retail environment, full of independent shops, traders and craftspeople, as well as cutting carbon emissions by encouraging locally sourced goods and services.

The B£ will be first spent in the Dogstar, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, on Thursday evening, after a launch event in Lambeth Town Hall, with speeches from Transition Movement founder Rob Hopkins, Lambeth Council’s CEO Derrick Anderson, and nef‘s own David Boyle, co-author of the forthcoming book The New Economics.

The B£ team have put together a great little animation about how the currency works and why we should use it. To find out more, visit http://brixtonpound.wordpress.com/