If, during lunch on Christmas Day, Aunty Faye continues to witter on about her bursitis to the extent that you start thinking about ramming a carrot into your eye socket, then we have an idea for you. Why not head to the pub! We’ve done some hunting and have tracked down the pubs (and there aren’t many) that are open on Christmas Day. And they are….
Please be aware that to the best of our knowledge these pubs are only open in the daytime. However, we’ve just received confirmation that one of our favourite pubs, theSteam Enginewill be open until midnight! It’s on the edges of Greater Kennington, in Lambeth North, but well work the walk to avoid having to get a carrot extracted from your eye.
One silver lining of not being able to eat out much in Greater Kennington in 2020 is that you didn’t miss a great deal. Due to restaurants being closed there haven’t been any ‘breakout’ cuisines such as, for instance, a CBD infused poke bowl doughnut ramen taco with a Korean twist. But as 2021 dawns you may nevertheless be yearning for restaurant food that is a calibre apart from the standard takeaway, and we’re here to help.
A good place to start is with our ‘Top Ten Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington’ list from March 2020. A few places from the list are remaining shut for the time being, but others have their kitchens open and they need our business or they’ll close forever. Or worse, become estate agents. Each of them is open for collection, and most also use those home delivery companies which are evil but paradoxically manage to keep us safe. We hope you find this useful…..
Adulis – This glorious Eritrean in Oval nabbed the top spot in March and they are now open. Available on Deliveroo.
Theos – The best pizzas in Greater Kennington grabbed our number two in March. Available on Deliveroo – Keep an eye on their Instagram for specials.
Prince of Wales – Open for pre order drinks only on 020 7735 9916. This explains the reemergence of people walking around Kennington Cross with milk containers containing what at first looks like pee.
Taro – The real deal in Japanese canteen food joint devoured our number seven in March. Available on Ubereats and Deliveroo
The critically acclaimed restaurant ‘Louie Louie’ in Walworth Road has just gone vegan and is available for takeway and delivery. And they even deliver cocktails (we’re not sure how this works exactly, but it sounds fun). Available on Deliveroo
Local institution Bonnington Café in Vauxhall will be cooking again next week, and are open for collection.
Ok, we’ll throw one takeaway into the mix. Also in Walworth Road is the delicious and slightly bonkers ‘Shawarma Hut’ (below). Picture multiple swirling doners set to house music. We think it’s the best shawrma/kebabs around by a mile and they make their own bread and falafel on site. Available for takeaway. Mexican kebab, anyone?
Do you remember a halcyon time when we could go to a place and have a drink with people we didn’t live with? Well those days will be upon us again in some kind of fashion on 4 July. Some of these pubs are gone forever, some others rebuilt, and few looking amazingly familiar. We could stare at the pictures all day, and enjoy….
The Victorian Elephant and Castle pub in Vauxhall, 1970. Same building, but now ‘Starbucks’. The King’s Arms pub, Chester Way and Kennington Lane, 1880. Destroyed in WW2, rebuilt 1946. The Horns Tavern, Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road., 1910. A local institution damaged in WW2 and never really recovered. That and a dislike of Victorian architecture meant its demise in 1965. Now JobCentre Plus and Nisa Foods.The Roebuck pub, 1972. Still very much there and known as The Dog House.The Cricketers pub in the Oval standing proudly on game day, 1957. Closed for aeons, but the building is still there.
The Tankard pub, Kennington Road, 1880. Altered through time, but looking amazingly familiar. The Vauxhall Tavern, 1950. The RVT had shops on either side of it and a thriving community behind until cleared for Spring Gardens in the late 1960’s. The Prince of Wales, Cleaver Square, 1973. The only thing different is the cars (and the house prices).
Cleaver Square is one of London’s most desirable residential areas – it’s picturesque, architecturally unspoilt, closed to through traffic yet lively thanks to the pub in the corner, and conveniently located close to the throbbing heart of Kennington, between Kennington Park Road and Kennington Cross.
It’s home to leading politicians, award-winning author Sarah Waters, and a large boules pitch in its centre, surrounded by benches for spectators and outdoor drinkers. Players don’t need to invest in a boules set, they can simply lay down a £20 deposit in the very fine Prince of Wales pub and stroll outside for a game of pétanque. But get there early if it’s a warm evening, to beat the throngs of after-work drinkers, former Liberal Democrat leaders, and students from the City & Guilds art school. A couple of years ago, luxury brands all decided to congregate eagerly around pétanque, with Karl Lagerfeld hosting a pétanque party, Chanel and Louis Vuitton creating their own limited edition boules sets, and style supplements a-cooing, dubbing it ‘the trendiest game in London’. We thought the hysteria had died down, and hoped you could once again enjoy a game of boules in Cleaver Square without someone from Pernod Ricard trying to corral you into their pop-up concept event. But Lacoste took over the square recently for precisely that purpose:
The excellent Wikipedia entry on Kennington has information on the history of Cleaver Square which was once called Prince’s Square, but has barely changed for decades as you can see in this photo from 1964 (with thanks to ideal-homes.org.uk/).
