This is Alford House Youth Club where We Are The Lambeth Boys was filmed:
It has been in Kennington since 1884, originally on Lambeth Walk:
We Are The Lambeth Boys, as sampled by Morrissey, can be viewed here.
We didn’t know Alford House existed until we read more about We Are The Lambeth Boys recently. It’s on Aveline Street which is yards from Tesco but is one of those streets you’d never walk up unless you were looking for it.
This is their programme of activities. Not bad for 25p:
As regular readers of this blog will be well aware, Kennington has establishments that cater for most needs, but its one relative weak spot has been places to have breakfast or brunch.
Vergies is the nicest of a number of local cafes that offer fry ups in the greasy spoon mould (although it’s anything but greasy in there).
Toulouse Lautrec serve freshly baked French pastries, freshly squeezed orange juice, freshly pressed orange juice and the creamiest of scrambled eggs on weekends and Bank Holidays, but the service can be a little frustrating (some of the staff have limited English and speaking French to them doesn’t seem to work either).
Brunswick House do a good but short brunch menu.
Tea House Theatre’s breakfast is reviewed here.
Sally White do some breakfast options but add star anise to their granola – why why why?
So it’s with some excitement that we annouce that we now have a new candidate for the title of best breakfast in Kennington – The Tommyfield, who serve breakfast between 8.30am and 11.30am on weekends.
One of us had a homemade granola served with Greek yoghurt and a summer berry pot:
And the other had a serving of buttermilk pancakes which came with blueberry compote and mascarpone cream:
Both were excellent, but the lingering smell of drains which has percolated through the Tommyfield for a while now was more bothersome at breakfast time despite a sash window wide open next to the table.
Even if you’re not staying overnight at the Tommyfield Hotel, you can still enjoy their fragrant breakfast of a weekend, menu here.
Another of our Kennington Predictions for 2014 has come true – Ace Hotels have opened their latest outpost in Kennington.
Errrrr……OK, that’s not 100% true (yet), but Kennington does now have its own super-bijou boutique hotel in the form of six hotel rooms above The Tommyfield pub on Kennington Cross, and they’ve been decorated in a rather refined shade of industrial chic that isn’t a million miles from the Ace Hotel aesthetic. Our room was all white-washed brick walls, a chair that we’ve definitely seen in the Conran Shop, and a typographic ‘We not me’ print on the wall from the Changethethought collective.
Lovely bathroom too, with marble topped double sink and huge walk-in rain shower:
They launched without any fanfare at all in mid-May, and we were the first guests to stay in Room 3, although we have it on good authority that Russell Kane will shortly be lounging on the very same Super King Hypnos bed shortly.
A launch price of £119 per night per room (including breakfast) is reasonable for rooms that can more than compete with the very best that Airbnb can offer locally, minutes from the geographic centre of London.
If you stay on a week day it’s a DIY breakfast in your room from a pick of porridges, muesli, fresh fruit and juices, and our favourite Teapigs teas, plus a Nespresso machine.
At the weekend, guests breakfast downstairs in the pub from a more extensive menu, available until a very civilized 11.30am. But more of that later.
We’d always assumed this place, in between houses on Kennington Road, was derelict. Then a BT Sport banner appeared outside:
Soon followed by an advert for an event:
Now we have so many questions.
What’s it like inside?
When does it open? It never looks open.
Can anyone go, or do you have to be a member?
What does L&R stand for?
Is it on brand for Kennington Runoff? (Do they serve Kernel beer?) We fear not, but as you may have guessed, we’re running out of places to write about that are.
If, as evening draws in on Easter Sunday, you’ve dropped a couple too many of Sally White’s Speckled Praline Quail Eggs and you’re looking for some vigorous physical exercise within staggering distance, let Hula Boogie come to your rescue. The award-winning 1950s-obsessed night will be celebrating Easter at the South London Pacific Tiki Bar with a Bunnyhoppin’ vintage dance on Sunday 20th April, where they hope to form the longest bunny hop line ever. Oh, and there’s also an Easter egg hunt in case you haven’t yet over-indulged.
Club founder Miss Aloha will be on hand at 7.30pm to lead a 1950s jive/rock ‘n’ roll taster class, followed by a class in the exotic Hawaiian hula dance, the Hukilau, at 8pm.
Free Easter eggs and £1 off the entrance fee for those who attend wearing bunny ears (entry without bunny ears is £7). Or FREE ENTRY for one lucky Kennington Runoff reader and their friend with our exciting competition. To win two guestlist places just tell us which Kennington musical celebrity performed onstage last year at the South London Pacific:
a) Morrissey
b) Florence Welch
c) Chilli from Palma Violets.
Send the correct answer via email to kenningtonrunoff@gmail.com by midday on Good Friday, please.
Hula Boogie is held at South London Pacific Tiki Bar, 340 Kennington Road, London SE11 4LD. 7pm to midnight.
Looking like he was in Mumford & Sons
Kenneth Clarke is one of many politicians who live in Kennington, and squatters visited his home in 2011 when, as justice secretary, he was responsible for removing the 700 year old right to shelter in unoccupied residential buildings (we got that fact from the guy in the video; who knows if it’s true?). See the video here.
Squatting in commercial premises remains legal and squatters briefly occupied The Duchy Arms, a former pub at the top of Ken’s road Courtenay Street, in 2013, turning it into a community centre.
Fathers for Justice also staged a protest at Ken’s house once. It’s like the Trafalgar Square of Kennington. We might head down there ourselves for a dirty protest if no-one does anything about the dog poo on Kennington Road.
Ava Catherside is an East Kennington-based, ready-to-wear, androgynous fashion label created by Anna Gloria Flores and Veronica Todisco. From an austerely chic Victorian studio in Pullens Yards, the duo produce minimal designs that are stocked in boutiques around the world- including London stockist LN-CC (alongside heavyweights Balenciaga, Comme Des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto). Their clothes, produced using environmentally ethical fabrics such as Alcantara, have been featured in style bibles Vogue Italia, Tank and iD, and have been spotted in the real world catwalk that is the Cleaver Square summer fete.
For one day only (tomorrow) Ava Catherside will be selling their wares in Kennington, at their first ever private sale event:
Ava Catherside A/W 13:
One of London’s best small comedy nights takes place every second Thursday upstairs at Kennington gastropub The Tommyfield. Sign up to their email list to find out about occasional big name attendees like Russell Howard, Russell Kane and Jason Manford, but even when the big names are absent the line-up tends to be more hit than miss. Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award Nominee Carl Donnelly headlines this Thursday. Don’t sit in the front row unless you want to participate – last time around the actor Marc Warren was there and was roped into more than one routine. Tickets are £6 online or £7 on the door – a bargain for five acts plus some energetic compering.
That Pair at Always Be Comedy at The Tommyfield
