Category Archives: culture

Spies at The Imperial War Museum

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We recently visited the spanking new exhibit ‘Spies, Lies and Deception’ at our very own world class museum-that-you-probably-don’t-go-to, the Imperial War Museum. The exhibit covers the vast period from WW1 to deepfakes and AI, and like all good things in life is totally free. 

In this sprawling exhibit we initially learn that the fundamental goal of spying is to control a narrative to in order get the outcome you want. And what is on offer is the manifold ways in which this achieved, from pens that shoot teargas to ghetto blasters with hidden mics and fake airfields created by Shepperton Studios. The exhibit is broken down into smaller sections handily laid out as ‘Power of Persuasion’ (or the ability to control one’s mind), ‘Hiding Something’ (an Enigma machine features) and ‘Surprising the Enemy’ (eg camouflaged to look like a scary straw man). Now if only we could harness these skills to keep another estate agent from opening up in Kennington.

At its heart this is an exhibit about personal stories. These range from superspy Kim Philby to an unassuming middle aged couple who transformed their modest bungalow in Ruislip into a Russian spy HQ. And these stories continue to our present day, with a description of the Salisbury poisonings a few years ago. There are also stories on the home front about wireless operators and people sent covertly overseas and having to conceal this to their families. But our favourite display is the footprint overshoes used to create the illusion that the soldier was a local walking in the opposite direction. 

If over the years you’ve given the IWM a wide berth because you think it promotes or celebrates war, we can assure you that this is not the case. It’s much more about the consequences of conflict, how to avoid it, and human resilience in the face of it. For those reluctant a good starting are the galleries about women during wartime, who kept the country moving as the men folk were fighting. 

‘Spies, Lies and Deception is on now until 24 April so you have no excuse to not see it….Or just lie about seeing it to make you look clever and cultured.

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Free Vauxhall History Tours

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We here at Runoff Towers love nothing more that an old fashioned tour, and we’re here to tell you about no fewer than seven free tours taking place this weekend (7 October) in Vauxhall. OK, it’s the same tour done seven times, but it sounds very interesting for history buffs and others who are just generally curious.  

The theme of the tour is ‘influencers of Vauxhall’. This puzzled us at first as you don’t really need to go on a tour to see people under the influence in Vauxhall, you just need hang out in front of the station for about five seconds. What it actually is about is the people and industries that established Vauxhall and made it the place we all know and love. So expect some interesting natter about Vauxhall Motors, Doulton Pottery, LGBTQI+ culture, spies, etc. 

If you can’t make the walk but Vauxhall history is something that interests you, you really don’t even need to leave the Runoff. Just click on the links to know more about Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Or information about why so many train stations in Russia are named Vaxuhall. The iconic cold storage/cruising site at St. George Wharf. Royal Doulton and Victorian Pottery in Vauxhall. The history of Brunswick House. Or our dinner at Brunswick House and an encounter with a hair flicking minor celebrity. 

And please be aware that while these tours are technically free, they do appreciate a tip. So at the end don’t just walk blissfully into the ether (as we know what you lot are like) but pop them a fiver. Tickets can be booked by following the links on this website.

Brunswick House

Van Gogh House

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We recently took advantage of a discount to make the bold and frankly quite terrifying decision to step out of Greater Kennington to visit the Van Gogh House on the Oval/Stockwell borders. The house isn’t really a museum per se, and was described by the perky and well drilled staff person as ‘a gallery space for people inspired by Van Gogh and other artists’. 

In a reality that might seem a bit surreal to the unaware, before becoming an artist Vincent Van Gogh did indeed live around the corner from the present day Lidl in Stockwell. The house outlines his life at the time through the letters that he prolifically wrote to his brother Theo, a few photos and drawings, and the efforts made to establish Vincent’s  residency in the home in the 1970’s. The rooms also offer a fascinating glimpse into a busy 19th century boarding house and school, where 11 people lived. 

On the gallery front,  the exhibit on now until 17 December is called ‘The Living House’ celebrating the 150 years since the great man’s residency. The exhibits explore the notion that the home is still inhabited in some manner and plays on the notion that the house is a collaborator in the artistic process and toys with the concept that art and living are entwined. And you even get a bar of soap for your cerebral efforts.  

Until 30 September Lambeth residents can visit Van Gogh museum for £4 and tickets can be nabbed here. If you live in Southwark then sorry, no discount for you. If you live in Wandsworth we’re not sure why you’re reading this site but should nevertheless be applauded for your profoundly good taste. 

If the sound of Van Gogh House makes you want to chop your ear off, you can instead go to the very tasty Van Gogh vegan café nearby, which has been rocking our top ten list © for a number of years. 

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Open House London 2023

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It’s that time of year again and one of our favourite activities here at the Runoff…..sticking our noses where they don’t belong! From 6 to 17 September is the Open House London Festival, celebrating London’s housing, architecture and neighbourhoods by flinging open doors and streets not usually open to the public. We have a few suggestion for you and they are all FREE, and we love free. 

St. Paul’s Newington

Most Open House venues have friendly staff on hand to tell you more about what you’re seeing and there are often things to read. If you look on the website you’ll see some local bookable things, but I’m afraid you’ve missed the boat on those babies. The venues listed below are open to the public on specific dates. However, if you possess the audacious gaul to travel out of Greater Kennington you might find there are hundreds more free things to stick your head into around the capital. But we couldn’t possibly encourage that kind of behaviour.

International Maritime Association. Albert Embankment

London Fire Brigade Memorial Hall Vauxhall (we’ve been, recommended)

Walworth Garden Walworth

Lambeth Palace Library Vauxhall (we’ve been, recommended)

City and Guilds Art School Kennington

St. Pauls, Newington Walworth (we’ve been, recommended, pic above)

Walworth Garden (garden and buildings) – Walworth

Mission Kitchen Vauxhall

Mission Kitchen
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RVT Sports Day at Spring Gardens

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Fun Things to do Over The Bank Holiday #2

Looking for a fun distraction on what is probably the last weekend of the summer? Of course you are and so are we, and we can recommend nothing better than the charity raising and inclusive Royal Vauxhall Tavern Sports Day at the back of Spring Gardens on Monday 28 August from 1pm. 

For the uninitiated, Sports Day is our own little Notting Hill carnival, with soca and steel drums substituted with handbag throwing, tug of war and drag queens.  The event is composed  of approximately 10 teams, usually dressed up and with great names. As you can imagine, there is a definite comedy element to the proceedings and is MC’ed some real BBC sports reporters who corral events into a semblance of actual competition. The various tasks (egg and spoon, the 50 metre mince, drag race relay, etc) are constructed in a knockout format with the winning team being crowned at about 5pm

This event is free but bring some cash as there will be charity buckets and volunteers about, and there is also a raffle.  The day is certainly not limited to a specific demographic and there are a number of families there with kids, older folks, and an overall sense of mirth abounds. There are bars, music and once in a while the cute critters from Vauxhall City Farm even pop over for a visit. Our suggestion is to grab a blanket and some food and make a picnic out of it. The website indicates a kickoff at 1, but is usually about 1:30. And If you are going please pop over and say hello to the Runoff team. And good luck trying to find out what we look like, as we might just be a room of AI chatbots.  

The highlight of the has to be the rhythmic gymnastics because, let’s be frank, you haven’t truly lived until you’ve witnessed a dozen hairy men in tutus dancing to ‘Toxic’. 

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Victorian Vauxhall

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Fun Things to do Over the Bank Holiday #1

In the past we haven’t really covered this annual Greater Kennington event in Spring Gardens in Vauxhall because we thought it looked a bit corny and was geared towards kids. However, it seems more interesting this year by the breadth of activities and the involvement of the great pub  Jolly Gardeners and the lovely (but overpriced) beer hall Mother Kellys. 

The press release states that Victorian Vauxhall will ‘recreate the magic of the past with captivating performances, vintage displays and fun for all ages’. Also holding fort will be jesters, acrobats, a regency hair salon (!), and someone intriguingly called a ‘Bubbleologist’. And we’re sure many good local food stalls will be available to keep you full.  The press release also excitedly mentions the chance to go sky high in a hot air balloon. But to be honest, if you want to see people sky high in Vauxhall all you really need to do is stroll over there on any random Saturday night. 

Victorian Vauxhall is this Saturday, the 26th from 2 to 7 and is totally free. When we were sent the photo below our initial thought was that these men must be promoting some new fetish night at a Vauxhall nightclub. As it turns out, they’re portraying Victorian bodybuilders and they will also be present. 

Brixton Chamber Orchestra

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Orchestral music is often inaccessible to many people for a variety of reasons, but we’re about to be blessed yet again this weekend in Kennington for a concert that is free and open for everyone! 

Brixton Chamber Orchestra is a diverse group of 22 Brixton based instrumentalists who provide and create music across a range of genres including…wait for it….classical, disco, gospel, grime, rap, swing, pop, drum & bass and others, and often have guest vocalists. They usually ply their trade in community halls and churches in Brixton, which explains why they’re not on our radar. 

Funded by Arts Council England and, surprisingly, by Lambeth Council, BCO is in the midst of a summer estates tour of 12 estates in Lambeth. They will be gracing us with their presence on Friday evening at the Cotton Gardens Estate. The areas at the bottom of the tower blocks are green (well, brown at the moment) and shady and the perfect place to have a picnic while chilling out to some tunes, and by the press release it in fact looks like a party atmosphere. There is probably something to suit all music interests here, unless you’re Paul from our accounts team who passions lie in retro trash metal while drinking snakebite.

The Cotton Gardens Estate is in Kennington Lane between Kennington and Elephant and the fun kicks off this Friday (28th) at 16:00. We have no idea why this is being held on a weekday afternoon, but it could be a flimsy excuse to skive off early for the weekend. If you can’t make it or don’t live close to Central Kennington there are more dates on their website.

Did we mention it’s free?



Free Gardening Museum and a Scary Gnome

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In our second consecutive instalment of fun things to do this weekend, over at the Gardening Museum on Sunday they’re having a Neighbours Day and we think its something that you might just want to get your hands dirty for. There will be workshops on flower arranging and pressing, a crafts workshop, face painting, and live music. Again, no bar but this might be a good thing given that you’ll be surrounded by sharp gardening implements. 

The best part of the day is that the museum itself will be open for free (usually £14) and there will be periodic tours of the exhibits and the beautiful decommissioned church in which it is set. For those who haven’t been, the museum encompasses bedding design, implements, seeds, old lawn mowers, FlyMos, and descriptions of how certain plants were brought to the UK. There is also a small art gallery and you can climb the medieval tower. The garden gnome collection is particularly impressive 

Neighbours Day is on Sunday from 11-4 and is totally free. And by ‘neighbours’ we think they’re liberal in their definition. And this will be your chance, and these chances don’t come by very often, to meet a scary garden gnome that looks JUST LIKE TONY BLAIR. 

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Greengrassi Gallery

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We have to admit that we were only made aware of this Kennington gallery by a tourist website (and its usually them nicking ours ideas). So after we did a bit of research we discovered that Greengrassi is a rather enigmatic independent gallery with rotating exhibits by groundbreaking artists such as Turner Prize winner Tomma Abts. So under the guise of sunhatted local art aficionados, we recently popped over to inspect their latest offering, ‘nightlight’ (poor punctuation not ours) by Karin Ruggaber and Simon Ling. 

Karin Ruggaber is a professor at Slade and works in sculpture. Working with a range of different media, her work explores aspects of touch, feeling, and our relationship to architecture. She’s been exhibited at Tate Modern so she probably knows what she’s talking about. Simon Ling is a studio based painter who depicts materials mostly found but sometimes made. Ling’s subjects include rotting pieces of wood, undergrowth and (stick with us) circuit boards. He gives these unloved items a sense of agency by adding beauty, thereby making them valued again. 

Karin’s work at Greengrassi is an edit of 75 photos she took following in the footsteps of two amateur photographers in Rome in the early 20th century. The pictures depict fountains and buildings in Rome and are manipulated into quite stunning and tiny sepia/silvery images. Simon’s quite monumental paintings depict rotting and unwanted plants in a setting somewhat like a deserted garden centre. In a sense these captured plants exist somewhere between life and death and create a dystopian yet optimistic view or our green world. 

Greengrassi is at 1A Kempsford Road behind the Cotton’s Garden Estate and is totally free and open to the public. It is located behind some rather sinister looking black doors but don’t let that put you off! Open Tuesday to Saturday 12-6. nighlight is on until 29 July. 

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North Lambeth Parish Fete

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The North Lambeth Parish Fete is coming up on Saturday (poster below) and if we weren’t on a team building retreat (more on that later) we wouldn’t miss it. This is a big event in the Greater Kennington social calendar and very inclusive. It’s now bigger and better than ever, and the weather looks pleasing indeed.

While we may have never been to this Fete, we have been to the gardens of Lambeth Palace and they are stunning, extensive and almost never open to the public. The price of the ticket itself (£5) justifies a wander around.   According to our sources, the Fete is  kid friendly but not exclusively, and is known for its dog show and features prizes, including fastest sausage eater and least obedient (we assume these prizes are for the dogs and not humans). There is also face painting, live music, and races for the kids. If you don’t have kids there’s a Pimms tent to keep you sane. And if you do have kids there’s a Pimms tent to keep you sane. And there are a number of great local food stalls looking pretty delish on the website. And you even get the chance to watch old white dudes throw serviettes in the air.

We would love to join you for this fun event but unfortunately it clashes with our annual staff teambuilding weekend at Glastonbury. This little kernel of fun is the only thing we get after a year of faxing, stapling, and filing and we still get criticised for not remembering anything after the weekend is up. But what we do recall from last year is sending Phil from accounts to get the ciders in during Billie Eilish and then not seeing him again for three days. Such is the stress of working here. 

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