Brockley - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Linton Kwesi Johnson mentions Brockley in his poem Inglan Is A Bitch (1980). He spells it "Brackly" as this is roughly how it sounds in Jamaican patois:

dem a have a lickle facktri up inna Brackly

inna disya facktri all dem dhu is pack crackry

fi di laas fifteen years dem get mi laybah

now awftah fifteen years mi fall out a fayvah

The musician Nick Nicely's 1982 cult psychedelic track Hilly Fields was inspired by the park of the same name.

Two early novels by Henry Williamson (who lived on Eastern Road) describe Brockley in great detail, as it was in the early 1900s.

Edgar Wallace: His fictional 1920s detective J. G. Reeder lived in Brockley Road. Wallace himself lived in Tressillian Crescent, Brockley, for over 30 years. His book "The Duke in the Suburbs" is also based in Brockley.

The Picturegoers, the first novel by David Lodge is set in and around a rundown cinema in 1950s Brockley; thinly disguised as 'Brickley'.

Blake Morrison's novel South of the River (2007) is set in Brockley.

Colin Wilson's book The Outsider (1956) opens with a reference to Brockley.

In 2003 the BBC1 documentary Worlds Apart showed two contrasting Brockley families living within yards of each other; one in a small council flat the other in a large house.

The Rivoli Ballroom has featured in numerous films, TV shows and fashion shoots, and was used for the debut album launch for Florence and the Machine.

The Metros' song Last Of The Lookers from their 2008 album More Money Less Grief mentions meeting a girl who is later found out not to be from their native Brockley.