Editing Brixton (section)

===Victorian expansion===
When the London sewerage system was constructed during the mid-19th century, its designer [[Sir Joseph Bazalgette]] incorporated flows from the River Effra into his 'high-level interceptor sewer', also known as the Effra sewer.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Main Drainage of London |date=21 October 1853 |work=The Morning Post |location=London, England |page=2 |publisher=[[British Newspaper Archive]]}}</ref>

Brixton was connected to central London by rail on 25 August 1862 when [[Brixton and South Stockwell railway station]] was opened by the [[London, Chatham and Dover Railway]] on the line from Victoria. On 13 August 1866 the [[London, Brighton & South Coast Railway]] opened [[Loughborough Park railway station]] with connections to London Bridge and the following year to Victoria. With the arrival of the railways a building boom set in. Brixton was transformed into a middle class suburb between the 1860s and 1890s and Brixton developed into a major shopping centre. The first purpose-built [[department store]], [[Bon Marché (Brixton)]], was opened on Brixton Road in 1877 and [[Electric Avenue]] was one of the first shopping arcades to have electric lighting. The now famous [[Brixton Market]] began in Atlantic Road and was moved to Station Road in the 1920s to ease traffic congestion.<ref name="Ideal Homes – Brixton"/>

In 1881 the population of Brixton was 62,837, now home to a quarter of the parish of Lambeth.<ref>Census of England and Wales, 1881</ref>

A prominent building on Brixton High Street (at 472–488 Brixton Road) is Morleys, an independent department store established in the 1880s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Morleys store, Brixton |url=http://www.morleys.co.uk/morleys-stores-ltd |website=Morleys.co.uk |publisher=Morleys Stores Ltd |access-date=18 September 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140901121054/http://www.morleys.co.uk/morleys-stores-ltd |archive-date=1 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://londonist.com/2016/07/morley-s-brixton |title=Inside The Brixton Department Store With 130 Years Of History |date=16 July 2016 |website=Londonist |language=en |access-date=4 March 2019 |archive-date=6 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306044931/https://londonist.com/2016/07/morley-s-brixton |url-status=live }}</ref> In this time, large expensive houses were constructed along the main roads in Brixton, which were converted into flats and [[boarding house]]s at the start of the 20th century as the middle classes were replaced by an influx of the working classes.