BRIXTON, a district in the parish of LAMBETH,
eastern division of the hundred of BRIXTON, county of
SURREY, 4 miles (S. S. W.)- from London. The population
is returned with the parish. This is one of the
most agreeable suburbs connected with the metropolis,
and is divided into two parts, North Brixton and Brixton
Hill: it consists principally of a line of road leading-
from Kennington to Streatham, upwards of two
miles in length, on each side of which are ranges of
neat and well-built houses, with others in detached situations
surrounded by small shrubberies: it is within
the limits of the new police act, and is lighted with gas.
Brixton is within the jurisdiction of the court of requests
for the borough of Southwark, for the recovery
of debts not exceeding £5. A church, dedicated to
St. Matthew, and consecrated in June 1824, has been
erected, pursuant .to an act of parliament, whereby the
extensive and populous -parish of Lambeth has been
divided into five districts, Brixton being one, each of
which, on the decease of the present incumbent of Lambeth,
will be constituted a distinct parish and benefice:
it is in the Grecian style of architecture, with a tower
at the east end, and a handsome portico supported by
four fluted columns of the Doric order at the west, and
contains one thousand nine hundred and twenty-six sittings,
of which one thousand and twenty-two are free:
the expense of its erection amounted to £15,192. 9.,
which was defrayed by the commissioners for building
new churches and chapels: attached to it is a spacious
burial-ground. The living is a district incumbency, in
the archdeaconry of Surrey, and diocese of Winchester,
and in the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
At Denmark Hill, in this district, there is also a chapel,
dedicated to St. Matthew. There are three places
of worship for Independents, and one for Wesleyan Methodists.
Near the church is a National school, in which
about two hundred boys and one hundred and twenty
girls are instructed; it was erected in 1826, at an expense
of £1200, and enlarged in 1829, at an expense
of £366. 13. 10. An infant school was established in
1825. In Acre Lane is Trinity Asylum for aged females,
founded and endowed by Thomas Bailey, Esq.,
in 1824: the building comprises twelve neat tene-
ments; each inmate is entitled to £10 per annum, and
twelve saeks of coal. All candidates for admission
must be possessed of £20 per annum, and not less than
fifty-seven years of age; and it is indispensable that they
should believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. Mrs.
Mary Bailey, his widow,has invested the sum of £2000
towards founding, in connexion with the above, an
asylum for the education and maintenance of the orphans
of gospel ministers and others. On Brixton
Hill stands the house of correction for the county of
Surrey, the tread-mill in which, completed in 1821
was the first established: the number of prisoners committed
in 1828, according to the return made for that
year, amounted to one thousand three hundred and
forty.