Users of the Brixton Pound can now get their hands on the community currency via a purpose-built cash machine.
Designed and produced by Kind Studio, the new currency dispenser is situated in Market Row and available in the market’s operating hours: 8am - 11:30pm Tuesday to Sunday, and 8am - 6pm on Mondays.
The cash machine is funded by The Mayor’s High Street Fund, a £20 million warchest established by City Hall for intiatives to regenerate the capital's high streets through the use of innovative technology.
Tom Shakhli, general manager of the Brixton Pound, says: “Our cash machine is the latest in our challenge to the conventional view that we’re moving towards a cashless society, and gives locals and visitors to Brixton an opportunity to experiment with money that celebrates community and creates conversations rather than closes them off.”
Launched as a paper currency in 2009 to encourage locals to spend money in independent businesses, the Brixton Pound is now accepted at more than 250 local firms.
The cash machine is not the first flirtation with new technology. In 2014 the Brixton pound got its own app, tapping iBeacon technology to let shoppers make purchases in the local currency through their iPhones.
Some of the previous issues of the paper currency have already become collector's items, with B£ notes bearing the visage of local boy David Bowie posing as Ziggy Stardust currently changing hands on eBay for £45.