Brixton Bazaar Spice Shop: Nour Family Grocer Opens at 7am

Brixton Bazaar, at 437 Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8LN, is the new shop opened in 2026 by members of the Nour family, whose Nour Cash and Carry was one of south London's best-loved spice and grocery stops for decades. It opens at 7am Monday to Saturday and 8am on Sunday, which makes it the earliest answer to a spice shop near me search in central Brixton. Time Out once called the old Nour a wonderland of spices and oils, and that range is what regulars followed here.

The story starts with a refugee family. According to the Brixton Business Improvement District, the family came to the UK in the early 1990s after being forced to leave Iraq, and Saja Shareen's father found work in Brixton before opening a grocer on Electric Avenue. That led to Nour Cash and Carry, which traded for more than two decades in Brixton Village and became known for specialty produce from all over the world that larger supermarkets rarely carry.

In 2020 the shop became the centre of a community campaign when the landlord, Hondo Enterprises, threatened its place in the market, and Brixton residents turned out in numbers to defend it. Nour moved to Granville Arcade on 7 February 2023, and in April 2026 local site Brixton Buzz reported that the market shop had permanently closed. The same report confirmed that family members had opened Brixton Bazaar on Coldharbour Lane, on the site of the former Rum Kitchen.

Brixton Buzz describes the new shop as stocking an extensive selection of groceries, beverages, household essentials and specialty herbs, so expect a full neighbourhood grocer with a serious spice section rather than a small boutique. SW Londoner, profiling the family in 2023, said the old shop carried hundreds of spices, and the family's Iraqi and Iranian roots plus three decades of Brixton customers from the Caribbean, West Africa and South Asia shaped what they chose to stock.

The smartest way to shop here is with a list built around one dish. Planning a Persian stew? Look for dried limes and dried herbs. Cooking jollof or pepper soup? Head for the chilli and dried pepper bags. Making a weekend curry? Buy whole cumin, coriander seed and cardamom and toast them yourself. Large bags of spices in neighbourhood grocers like this cost much less per gram than supermarket jars, but they only make sense if you will use them within a few months.

Oils deserve attention too, since Time Out singled them out at the old shop alongside the spices. Big tins of cooking oil are the heaviest thing you will buy, so pick them up last and you will not be lugging them around the rest of Brixton. A sturdy tote or a small trolley helps, and there is no shame in making two trips if you are restocking a whole kitchen for the month.

The official hours, as published in April 2026, are Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm, Saturday 7am to 7:30pm and Sunday 8am to 7pm. Early weekday mornings are the easiest time to browse, before the shopping streets fill up. Saturday is market day across Brixton, and shoppers drift between the street stalls, the arcades and the grocers, so expect a queue at the till. If you need help finding something, ask early, when staff have time to walk you to the right shelf.

The Brixton BID profile notes that customers came to Nour from all over London and sometimes from beyond it, which tells you how loyal the following is. That loyalty is the point of the place. The people at the till hear recipe questions all day, so describe what you are cooking rather than asking for a generic curry powder. You will usually get a better suggestion, and often a cheaper one, than you would from a supermarket shelf.

Brixton Bazaar is a working grocery, not a polished spice boutique. There are no tasting jars, labels can be in several languages and the shelves are dense. If you want hand-blended house mixes and long explanations, central London specialists suit that mood better. Come here instead for price, range and the sense of supporting a family that Brixton fought to keep. The shop is still new on Coldharbour Lane, so the layout may change as the family settles in.

Coldharbour Lane runs into the heart of Brixton, so the shop fits neatly into a market loop. Walk to Electric Avenue, one of the first shopping streets in London to be lit by electricity and the place where Saja Shareen's father ran his first grocer, then wander through Brixton Village and Market Row, the covered arcades where Nour traded for so many years. Both are now full of small restaurants, so you can eat lunch where the family's story began.

From the arcades, it is a short walk to Windrush Square, home of the Black Cultural Archives, and then to Brixton station on the Victoria line. If the weather is good, carry on south to Brockwell Park, where the hill gives a view back over the city. Allow an hour for the loop without lunch. Spices travel well, but fresh herbs wilt fast, so buy coriander and mint at the end of the walk rather than at the start.

Address: 437 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 8LN, on the site of the former Rum Kitchen. Hours, as reported by Brixton Buzz in April 2026: Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm, Saturday 7am to 7:30pm, Sunday 8am to 7pm. The shop received a food hygiene rating of 5 from the Food Standards Agency after an inspection on 24 March 2026. Nearest station: Brixton, on the Victoria line and Southeastern rail. Follow the family's new shop on Instagram at @brixtonbazaar. The shop has no website and publishes no phone number yet, so plan to turn up in person rather than call ahead. Card and cash details are not published either; carrying a little cash for small purchases is a sensible backup at any independent Brixton grocer.