I was reading in the news recently about Eddy Grant winning a court case that he brought against Donald Trump in September 2020. Grant sued Trump for unauthorised use of the 1983 chart hit ‘Electric Avenue’ in a presidential campaign video.
On a personal note, the song was a hit around the time I first moved to the UK and it resonated with me (I kind of hate that term, but never mind) because, apart from the fact that it’s a great song, the video was filmed in Barbados, where I grew up.
There is indeed an Electric Avenue in Brixton (I had to check it out when my street names obsession started – oops, that was nearly enough about me above) and, while Grant wrote the song in a horrified reaction to the Brixton riots of 1981, the name dates back far longer than the riots or the song.
The street was opened as a 19th-century late-night shopping street, complete with electric lighting that was designed to be adequate for evening shoppers. According to Sir Walter Besant in the ‘London South of the Thames’ volume of his Survey of London:
“To the railway arch on both sides is very busy, and on the east side a broad passage called Electric Avenue has been cut through to Atlantic Road and lined with shops, with a lavish display of electric light everywhere, —hence the name. This neighbourhood on most evenings is densely thronged with swarms of buyers, whilst the streets are lined with dealers.”
Cold Harbour Lane, he goes on to say, begins here, but that’s for another time.
thestreetnames 
One response to “We gonna rock down to Electric Avenue…”
Nothing wrong with something ‘resonating’, not in my book. Being a South Londoner, I am very familiar with the Brixton area of course.
Best wishes, Pete.