Tag Archives: Buddhism

Free Weekend Fun, 10 – 11 June

As frequent readers are all too aware, we here at the Runoff love nothing more than anonymously sticking our noses where they don’t belong. And you too can take part in our passion/dysfunction by attending the great Pullens Yard Open Studios weekend happening this weekend (10-11 June) in Walworth.

The studios at Pullens Yards are usually not open to the public, but twice a year they fling their artistic portal open to give us a glimpse into their creative universe. The artists are more than happy to show you what and how they create, and of course you can buy what’s on show. And of course buying is by no means compulsory, as at the end the day these folks just want to show off how creative they are and it’s totally free. Have we mentioned how much we love free?

If you’re feeling spiritual, the Jamyang Buddhist Centre in Renfew Road are having an open day on Saturday from 10 -4 and we’re all invited. The building that houses Jamyang is an old courthouse dating from 1869, in its latter days used as a maximum security court for special remands including IRA terrorists and the Kray twins. One of the activities on the day is a tour of the building. Other talks include discovering more about Buddhism and meditation, and something we find curiously alluring called a ‘Death Café’. The event is free but you need to register and it can be done here. 

If you’re feeling vocal, the folks at Be In Vauxhall are once again hosting ‘Bearpit Karaoke’ this weekend. The press release describes it as ‘attracting huge crowds each month of both professional and non professional singers’. We walked by it last month and at first didn’t know if was Karaoke or some kind of weird spiritual revival. But it looked fun, and this year Mother Kelly’s and Bokit’la (Oval Market) French Caribbean will be on board with stalls. 

Bear Pit Karaoke takes place this Saturday (10th) from 3 to 7 and then on every second Saturday of the month over the summer. It’s located at that sketchy bit at the end of the Pleasure Gardens where you indeed might be accustomed to seeing people singing, but for once it won’t be men on their own bursting into song while gripping a bottle of ‘White Lightning’. 

We’ve been told that this is not, in fact, Catherine Tate

Ragged School in Lambeth

By the second half of the 19th century the rural idyll that was Vauxhall was well and truly over and replaced largely by desperate folks looking for work, and they brought their kids. Ragged schools were charitable organisations that popped up to educate destitute (hence the name ragged) children who were not allowed in traditional schools. A very significant one existed in what is now Newport St. 

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Local gin/vinegar (that must have been some pretty foul gin) magnate Henry Hanbury Beaufoy funded and founded the school, opening it in 1851 and dedicating it to his wife. Like other Ragged Schools, our Vauxhall branch taught reading writing, bible studies and even ways to emigrate. On the pastoral side, the children were fed and children without parents lived there. A visitor at the time noted – 

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“The attendance in the winter averages about 400 boys and girls every Sunday evening. The gentlemen who manage the Ragged School do everything they can to instruct and encourage the children in well-doing; they make them presents of Testaments and Bibles and give them occasional tea parties. In fact, everything is done to improve them in the school. The patience of the teachers is surprising. The girls are better behaved than the boys; they are the children of very poor people in the neighbourhood, such as the daughters of people selling fruit in the street, and such like, and found several children of street-beggars there”. 

As the Ragged School was built to address the migration of people, the beautiful edifice above also met its fate due to people moving. It was unfortunately flattened just a few decades after its creation as it fell victim of a Vaxuall/Waterloo rail line extension. Curiously, a bit of the building was left standing and is now home to the great but almost never open Beaconsfield Gallery, and its Ragged Café. The school was restablished by Henry’s nephew Mark Beaufoy (the Liberal MP for Kennington at the time) and rechristened as the Beaufoy Institute in Black Prince Road. This building has had many incarnations but it survives. 

You might find it intriguing that the handsome Doulton adorned Beaufoy Institute building below wasn’t just turned into luxury flats when a school there closed a number of years ago. This is again the legacy of the Beaufoys. Lambeth respected the Beaufoy wish that at least half of the land be sold to a non profit organisation. So the old car park in the back was sold to Bellway homes, and the institute is now inhabited by the Diamond Way Buddhist Centre. 

The Top Ten Best Lunch Spots in Kennington – no. 1 – Cafe at Jamyang

The Courtyard Cafe at Jamyang Buddhist Centre - kenningtonrunoff.com

Positives: Any of our top six could lay claim to serving the best lunch in Kennington (in an establishment that doesn’t normally open in the evenings), but what edged it for Cafe at Jamyang is the setting. Where else can you have a delicious vegetarian quiche in a peaceful, green courtyard beneath a giant gold statue of the Pairnirvana Buddha?

Golden Buddha in the courtyard of Jamyang Buddhist Centre - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: It’s better when the weather is good and you can sit in that courtyard. Sometimes they run out of quiche. Try not to think about the fact that the Buddha may have died of food poisoning (not from a vegetarian quiche though). They’re only open on weekdays.

What, no quiche?

What, no quiche?

Hygiene rating: 5 out of 5

The counter at Jamyang Buddhist Centre Cafe - kenningtonrunoff.com

Address: The Old Courthouse, 43 Renfrew Road, London SE11 4NA

Jamyang Buddhist Centre - kenningtonrunoff.com

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