Windrush Square

 ( Squares In The London Borough Of Lambeth ) 

Windrush Square (often referred to by its original name, Brixton Oval Brixton Oval, in boroughphotos.org.) is an open public space in the centre of Brixton, South London, occupying an area in front of the Brixton Tate Library. After changing its name to Tate Gardens, it was again retitled and given its current moniker in 1998. "Brixton Windrush Square opens", Urban 75, 27 February 2010. The square was renamed to recognise the important contribution of the African Caribbean community to the area, marking the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush. It was the Windrush that in 1948 brought to the United Kingdom from Jamaica the largest group thus far of post-war West Indian migrants (over 800 declared their last residence in the Caribbean The story of the Windrush , in rmg.co.uk, Royal Museums Greenwich.), 236 of whom had no abode on arrival and were temporarily housed in the deep-level air raid shelter in Clapham Common. Some 1.7 mile away, at the western end of Coldharbour Lane in Brixton, was the nearest employment exchange to the shelter. Many of these migrants eventually found accommodation in the area.

The organization Black Cultural Archives is now housed at 1 Windrush Square in a Grade II-listed Georgian building, the former Raleigh Hall. "Black Cultural Archives is coming home 24 July 2014 – Black Cultural Archives moves back to Brixton and into a new heritage centre", Lambeth Talk, June 2014.

On 22 June 2017, the African and Caribbean War Memorial – devised by the Nubian Jak Community Trust as the United Kingdom's first national memorial to African and Caribbean service personnel who fought in the First and Second World Wars – was unveiled in Windrush Square.

Windrush Square is a pedestrianised open space. The land is protected from development as it was formerly part of Rush Common.

The Cherry Groce Memorial Pavilion was unveiled on the square in April 2021. It was designed by David Adjaye. It commemorates Dorothy "Cherry" Groce who was shot and paralysed by a police officer during a raid on her home in 1985. The events led to the 1985 Brixton riot.