The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 3 – Brunswick House

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: Brunswick House has an utterly unique and magical interior, courtesy of LASSCO the architectural reclaim shop, and the building it takes its name from, a Georgian mansion with a colourful history. The atmosphere is always good, the food is inventive and seasonal, and the clientele is cultured – when Florence Welch wants to meet Lena Dunham for dinner, this is where they go.

Brunswick House restaurant - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: Since founder Jackson Boxer, a Kennington resident, started opening hot new restaurants outside of Kennington and became a cover star (and what a dashing one too), we have to say the food is not quite as great as it was, and still expensive. So we’re not the regular visitors we once were – but if you’ve never been, you really should…

Salsify, cauliflower and olive at Brunswick House – kenningtonrunoff.com

The Top Ten Best Restaurants in Kennington – no. 1 – Brunswick House

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: It’s the one Kennington restaurant we want to go back to time and time again. It always feels like a treat, partly because of the crazy (and crazily expensive) reclaimed goods and antiques all around, but also because the cooking is so creative and the ingredients are so fresh.

Salsify, cauliflower and olive at Brunswick House – kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: ~~Not withstanding the presence of Aesop hand-wash, the toilets belong in an architectural reclaim shop rather than a high end restaurant.~~ (Brunswick House’s Jackson Boxer informs us the toilets have recently been refurbished.) It’s not cheap, but they do an express menu at lunchtime and from 6-7pm which is £16 for two courses or £19 for three. We have a lingering fear that an antique chandelier is going to fall onto our heads. But it’s worth it.

Hygiene rating: 3 out of 5

Address: Brunswick House, 30 Wandsworth Road, London SW8 2LG

Website.

last minute Christmas shopping ideas, and the qubes at Marcel & Sons

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Kennington Runoff

If you have left your Christmas shopping to the last minute but don’t fancy leaving Kennington for the madness of Oxford Street then fear not, we have suggestions for you.

Sally White are doing Christmas hampers containing six mince pies, a Christmas pudding, a Christmas cake loaf and a robin (not a real one) for £37. They’re open tomorrow and Tuesday daytime.

The Beefeater Gin Distillery’s visitor centre is open every day except Christmas Day and has an extensive gift shop for the patriotic gin lover in your life.

Windmill Flowers have a range of Christmas gifts for plant lovers, plus chocolates and toiletries, and they’re normally open on Christmas Eve although we haven’t checked that.

We buy loads of gifts from the Kennington Bookshop and their Twitter has lots of ideas for presents. If you want to avoid buying from Amazon, they can normally get any book in the next day, but you’ve missed the boat for that this Christmas so you’ll be limited to what they have instore. They also sell wrapping paper.

LASSCO is open until 5pm on December 23rd and they have gift ideas for here for under £300 (if that sounds expensive then bear in mind this is the shop where an antique bath could set you back the best part of £10k).

And in our rave review of Marcel & Sons, we barely mentioned that as well as serving delicious Mauritian street food, they double up as a showroom selling a range of interesting artisanal gifts on behalf of boutique start-ups. They’re open until 9pm tonight, Tuesday and Christmas Eve (they’re closed on Mondays).

These are their “qubes” – they have 48 of them – 40cm cubed shelf spaces available to rent from £10 a week:

They also have six cases for jewellery and other valuables:

Get them to give you some Mauritian biscuits with your purchase. They’re like mini sponge cakes:

Finally, if you’d like to give something to those less fortunate then get along to Waterloo Foodbank, at Lambeth Mission St Mary’s, 3-5 Lambeth Road, SE1 7DQ on Tuesday from 11am to 1pm. They’re looking for donations of in-date, non-perishable foods.

Good luck and have a happy Kennington Christmas.

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – numbers 4 to 2

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Kennington Runoff

4. Aobaba
pros: top quality Vietnamese food and loads of choice – who needs Kingsland Road?
cons: it’s a brightly lit cafeteria on the side of an Oriental supermarket so don’t come here for the ambiance
hygiene rating: 4

3. The Ragged Canteen at Beaconsfield
pros: super tasty vegetarian food and organic Monmouth coffee
cons: it’s not open that often (they serve hot food Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays from noon, last orders 2.25pm; at other times it’s drinks and cakes)
hygiene rating: 4

2. Brunswick House
pros: totally unique setting amidst LASSCO’s antiques, plus top quality seasonal food
cons: the staff can be rude, and if you want to buy the chair you’re sitting on, be prepared to remortgage your house first
hygiene rating: 3

the winner will be revealed on Wednesday

Brunswick House

Kennington predictions for 2014

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Kennington Runoff

An exciting year for North West Kennington with the opening of Damien Hirst’s gallery and the new Buddhist centre in the Beaufoy Institute.

Sally White will dramatically expand their range of food, open in the evenings, and provide mindfulness training for all staff.

Kernel Brewery will open their first pub in the site next to the Old Red Lion.

Waitrose will take over Tesco’s Kennington “superstore”, The People’s Supermarket will take over Tesco on Kennington Park Road, The Super Store on Kennington Lane will take over Tesco on Kennington Road, and no new Tescos will open anywhere in Kennington.

Ace Hotel will open their second London hotel in the former Days Inn on Kennington Road.

The Imperial War Museum will reopen with catering from Ottolenghi.

Lambeth Palace will open to visitors all year round.

Russell Brand will perform at Always Be Comedy.

Dirty Burger will introduce a veggie burger.

The revitalisation of North Kennington will continue with the Elephant & Castle shopping centre being listed, a Curzon cinema replacing the bingo hall, and a bunch of exciting new bars and restaurants moving in on the Brixton Village model (thanks to Oliver Dee for the suggestions).

Florence Welch will launch her guest column for Kennington Runoff by performing Addicted To Love at the Kennington Runoff pop up shop.

The heroic Mr Kennington People On Bikes will be named London’s new Cycling Superczar. His first action in this new role will be to implement fully segregated cycle lanes (with a physical barrier between car and bike) along all Kennington’s main arteries, which then spread out to Hyde Park, the City and beyond. By summer 2014. If they can build a cable car across the Thames in less than a year, then this is but a moment’s work.

LASSCO will realise the decimal point has been in the wrong place all this time and will start selling their beautiful items for one hundredth of the price.

Brunswick House and LASSCO

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

LASSCO is an architectural reclaim company based in Brunswick House, a cavernous Georgian mansion on the gyratory in West Kennington. If architectural reclaim doesn’t sound much fun, it really is – imagine a museum where everything’s desirable and everything’s on sale. A whole room of taps. Antique baths for only £4000. If money was no object, this is where you’d go to furnish your house.

Brunswick House is also the best restaurant in the area, with food that’s more than matched by the atmosphere as you eat amongst the antiques and curiosities – look for the price tags on your chairs and tables. The restaurant is run by one of the Boxer family, who are also behind the nearby Italian deli and cafe Italo (which is just off Bonnington Square, the best advert there could be for squatting, but more on that another time), and Frank’s Café and Campari Bar atop a multi-story car park-cum-sculpture gallery, which is leading the regeneration of Peckham. For more on the Boxer family, see here.

Adrian Amos from LASSCO was featured in this week’s ES Magazine in one of the rooms at Brunswick House:

This is the main restaurant room:

Here’s a collection of signs from the exterior wall of the house:

For more photos of beautiful LASSCO objects, click here.

Kennington Runoff

Surreptitiously exploring Kennington, including the suburbs Vauxhall, Oval, Walworth, and Elephant, since 2012

Tag Archives: Lassco