Brixton · Lambeth
The Windmill
The small back-room venue that launched black midi, Squid and the whole 'Windmill scene'
- Address22 Blenheim Gardens, Brixton, London, SW2 5BZ
- Websitewindmillbrixton.co.uk
- OwnershipIndependent pub
About The Windmill
Built in 1971 on the Blenheim Gardens estate, an unassuming local that evolved into one of the UK's most influential small music venues, birthplace of the 2010s 'Windmill scene'.
The Windmill was built in 1971 on the Blenheim Gardens estate and named after the nearby working Brixton Windmill, and for decades functioned as an unremarkable locals' and bikers' boozer. That changed through the 2010s, when its unglamorous back room became the crucible of a whole generation of London guitar bands, among them black midi, Black Country New Road, Squid and Fat White Family, a scene the music press came to call the 'Windmill scene'. Time Out has ranked it among London's best small music venues, and it retains a loyal, unpretentious local following that predates its reinvention as a gig destination, along with the lingering legend of Roof Dog, a former rooftop-dwelling Rottweiler mascot.
On tap
Standard cask and keg ales, lagers and ciders
Food
No kitchen
More pubs in Brixton
- Effra Hall TavernA saved Afro-Caribbean community pub on Brixton's Kellett Road backstreets
- Trinity ArmsA Young's local overlooking Brixton's leafy, village-green-like Trinity Gardens
- Duke of EdinburghA Grade II listed 1930s Truman's pub famous for Brixton's biggest beer garden