The Windmill Brixton

'We didn't set out to be a venue as such, but live music at the Windmill just kinda evolved,' claims this small (capacity 150), low-down and eccentric, but perfectly well-formed venue in a back street off Brixton Hill. It's a good encapsulation of the ethos that seems to keep the place going strong and has earned respect for its (seven-night-a-week) bills of all things cultish, underground and generally leftfield. The Windmill is rough and ready, but also candlelit and welcoming and takes its name from an adjacent actual windmill, which was built in 1816, but fell into disuse in 1935. There's a small back yard, too, where barbeques are held on Sunday afternoons and – bizarrely – quite often dogs can be seen/heard prowling across the venue's low roof.