Greater Kennington Over the Years in Music Videos

Posted on October 15, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

Over the years our ever changing manor has been captured in many ways, and one of those is by music videos. The videos below depict our space over span of almost 40 years.

For those of a certain age the first video is of course ‘Come on Eileen’ by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Circa 1982, after the first minute the video is shot at the corner of Brook Drive and Hayles Street near Elephant and Castle. Note the kids playing by the still existing bomb damage, later replaced by mid 80’s housing. The cornershop featured sadly didn’t survive the pandemic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BODDyZRF6

Our second video is ‘Marks to Prove It’ by the sadly defunct band Maccabees and depicts an Elephant and Castle in 2015 which was already in a confusing and quite bewildering stage of redevelopment. We must admit to a slight bias in this case as we’ve seen these boys at Glastonbury, but is very unlike us to brag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kt3aN6Ey8w

Our final video ‘Anakin’ from the grime artist Blanco and was shot in the Kennington Estate close to Oval in 2020. Note the shops in Kennington Park Road. The three videos are testament to our dynamic and ever changing environment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snLsL9nz1Dk

Chocolate Dino Company

Posted on October 10, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

Chocolate Dino Company is an independent bakery/sandwich joint/cocktail bar (whew) in Kennington Road. Owned by two local guys who live behind the place, we last visited Dino for a sweet treat during their embryonic opening days. Now that they’re established we’re revisiting for their savoury options….and of course to enjoy another giant cookie.

When entering their very stylish premises, what you initially encounter are voluminous offerings of croissants with various fillings, brownies, muffins, cookies, and things made to look vaguely healthy by the inclusion of a piece of fruit. But we were here for savoury fare, and Karen from Finance chose the bacon and egg bagel with cheese, which she excitedly chose to have toasted. It was presented with two omelette style eggs and the bacon was proper and crispy. The sauce was in a Dino manner properly inventive and involved sweet onion jam and Sriracha mayonnaise.

Your scribe enjoyed a pastrami bagel with caramelised onion, pickles, and a mustard/mayo sauce. It was generously stuffed and kept us going through the endless stream of faxes received later in the day. These particular bagels might not be available when you visit, but they will doubtless have other offerings and the boys can talk you through the options. And as we have the discipline of an unneutered cat, we of course had a white chocolate cookie with an strange looking yet delicious smear. Heated to perfection.

We tried to upload images of our bagels but they rather looked like snaps from a prison canteen. Please enjoy these stock photos from their Insta feed.

Dino is an independent bakery/restaurant/bar and they’re throwing everything they can to exist in a very crowded and increasingly uncompetitive market. Their price point for baked goods (£5 for an eat in cookie) puts them very much at the ‘gourmet’ end of the market, but you can easily pop over for a coffee or something at the lower end of their price spectrum. And in a way a trip to Dino can be quite efficient, as where else can you knock out two sins by eating a cookie and drinking a glass of wine at the same time?

Chocolate Dino Company is open Thursday to Sunday. Check out their socials for the precise timings.

Fareshares – The Opposite of a Supermarket

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

Do you ever find yourself in aisle five at Tesco and want to shout out at the top of your lungs ‘what am I DOING HERE’? Well you’re in good company, and that is where the well established food cooperative called ‘Fareshares’ in Walworth is about to come into your life to help, and we’re here to tell you all about it.

Fareshares emerged from the thriving squatting movement established in the Pullens Estate in the 1980’s (and we wrote about it a few years ago) and continues as a volunteer based experiment to provide mutual aid and as a counterbalance to capitalist shopping. Most items are sold at 15% above cost and overheads are kept to a minimum, as there are no shareholders or profit, and the place is run more or less like a cooperative. All foods sold are animal, sugar and GMO free. And, when possible, organic and locally sourced.

We recently paid Fareshares a return visit and what struck us was the abiding sense of family, support, and joy that permeated the place. We saw a range of veg, lentils, seeds, pantry staples, rice, and even (eco) cleaning products. We also saw few things that we didn’t know existed, so we just flung our hair back and said ‘great for a salad!’. The best place to find out about their current offerings is their Instagram feed and website. And at the end of the day, wouldn’t you find fishing your pulses out of giant bins quietly rewarding?

As Fareshares is volunteer based, on a previous visit we asked how our illustrious readership can get involved. Before even finishing the question, the reply was ‘money’, which means ‘please do at least part of your weekly shop with us’. However, there are also ways to get involved by working the till, stock taking, or helping to clean up. They can be contacted by their social media feeds or just by popping into the shop and talking to them. But be aware that they trade for only a few hours at the end of the week. Hours below. Finally, we asked the volunteers if all hell would break loose if a person rocked up with a Tesco bag for life. They confirmed that this would be acceptable, and in a strange way even collectively embraced by the family of customers.

Fareshares also operate a Museum of Anarchy and bike repair shop, as you do, at the back. It is all open Thus 2-8pm Fri 4-7pm Sat 3-5pm

Local Heroes of Kennington

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

This Saturday (5 October) is London Guiding Day, and we’re here to guide you about a fascinating walking tour around Greater Kennington that will be undertaken throughout the day, brought to you by the good folks at Lambeth Tour Guides

Local Heroes Kennington is our representation for Guiding Day, and reading from the press release ‘The Kennington tour will introduce you to suffragette art students, the son of a slave who rallied the working classes, a Black Prince and a little tramp, ending at Oval with some trailblazing cricketers’. The press release also encourages people to leave the area in order to ‘discover more tours around London’. We don’t encourage this.

The tour will include notable and notorious denizens of Kennington including Jemina Durning Smith, Charlie Chaplin, the Black Price, and a whole bunch of ancient people on Instagram who we don’t recognise but who must have been very important. We’ve been notorious in Greater Kennington for over a decade now, so it’s curious that no one knocked on the door of our subterranean bunker to interview us. And we, unlike the lot above, even have the distinct advantage of still being alive. But we’ll get over it.

There will be six identical tours running on the hour and they meet at Kennington Station and can be booked here. They are free, but these people are professional tour guides and a tip (a fiver will do) will go a long way to expressing your satisfaction.

Fun Event This Weekend at Bee Urban

Posted on September 26, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

We might be taking the word ‘fun’ a bit far here but this event on Saturday certainly sounds bonkers so of course we’re interested. Of the information available by the QR code, the event ‘is grounded in spoken and written and spoken language’ with live performances including a jazz band. This is all sounding a bit New Agey to us, which begs the question of bees actually getting involved in the event. We’re thinking along the lines of synchronised stinging.

Multipolyscripttoscribble (?) takes place this Saturday at Bee Urban in Kennington Park

The Lambeth Fringe 2024

Posted on September 22, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

Frequent readers are aware that we make recommendations to travel outside Greater Kennington very rarely and do so with a profound amount of caveats. However, we’ve recently stumbled upon something that is both entertaining, localish, and supports up and coming independent creative types.

The Clapham Fringe has been running for eight years and, based on its success, earlier this year they made a decision to expand its borders and rebrand it as The Lambeth Fringe. The spiritual home of the Lambeth Fringe is the Bread and Roses Theatre pub in Clapham North. However, with the expansion to over 150 shows, the venues now include a church, a bookshop, and a film school, in addition to purpose built theatres in Waterloo, Clapham, Norwood, and other Lambeth areas. The one local venue is a series of shorts being shown at the best museum we bet you’ve never been to, the Cinema Museum.

Some of the writing at the Fringe is new, some adapted from Edinburgh Fringe shows, and others making the tour of fringe festivals. In the mix at Lambeth are traditional plays, standup, drag, storytelling and music. We challenge you to take a punt on a show or two and you might be pleasantly surprised. Of course you might walk out thinking ‘what the hell was THAT’, but that’s half the fun. Anyone care joining us for Guru Dave’s Cosmic Shamanic Tantric Ego Trip?

The Lambeth Fringe is on now until 20 October. Explore the programme, including Guru Dave, here. And you better act quick, as those Runoff wannabies Time Out are on to it!

The School of Historical Dress

Posted on September 17, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

If you’ve never heard of the School of Historical Dress across from the Imperial War Museum then you’re in very good company. It’s very rarely open to the public but we were able to tour the building during London Open House weekend, and over the next few weeks they have a petite, pop up exhibit that will allow you to see a portion of it as well.

The School is not for profit and operates as both a school and a resource for textile professionals to research how garments were made. They also publish books about the history, cut and construction of garments through the years and have a database of books (lots of them) and material/outfits accumulated over the years. We’ve also accumulated a huge amount of old outfits over the years, but this relates more to the fact that the management at the Runoff pay us in vapour and we can’t buy anything new. But we digress.

Over the past few years the School has had small, one room exhibits dedicated to colour and until 13 October the exhibited colour is red. On display are vestments, undergarments, and small maquettes which at first we thought were dog outfits but are in fact studies for larger pieces. Included in this exhibit is Jude Law’s Henry VIII outfit which they created for the very current film Firebrand. If one of the volunteers is present they can detail how the fitting was undertaken and the research required to create the garment.

The building that houses the School is as interesting as the edifice across the road from it. Built in 1841, it was originally the medical dispensary for the Royal Bethlem Psychiatric hospital (from where we get the name ‘Bedlam’), which is now the Imperial War Museum. Latterly it was utilised as a home for shell shocked men after WW1, a canteen for doctors, and until 2016 a residential facility for adolescents. Staff at the School are very proud of their digs, and on our tour proclaimed that the reason the building is a form of gray is that this is how all of the buildings of the time would have originally looked, the ‘Dulux White’ colour of other homes in the terrace being a 20^th century conceit. We have put this in the ‘who knew’ filing cabinet at Runoff towers.

If you want to attend one of the periodic events held at the School, follow them on Instagram or join their mailing list at info@theschoolofhistoricaldress.org.uk. The little show is open Friday from 4pm to 8pm and Saturday/Sunday from 1pm to 5pm

Free Culture Week 3 – Open House London 2024

Posted on September 12, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

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 this weekend (14-15 September) to next weekend (21 and 22 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.

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 we’re afraid you’ve missed the boat on those babies. The localish venues listed below are open to the public on specific dates, so look at opening times. 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.

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

St. Paul’s, Walworth Walworth (we’ve been, recommended, pic above)

Florence Nightingale Museum – Waterloo (usually not free but it is for Open House)

Anderson WW2 Bomb Shelter – Oval

The Beaufoy (Diamond Way Buddhist Centre) – Vauxhall (we’ve been, recommended, pic below)

St. Giles Parish Church – Camberwell

Southwark Heritage Centre and Library – Walworth (we’ve been, recommended)

Free Culture Week 2 – City & Guilds MA Show

Posted on September 10, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

We’ve just donned our crimson berets and sunglasses and attended the opening of the MA show over at City and Guilds. For the unfamiliar, City and Guilds is our own world beating arts school in Kennington Park Road, and twice a year they fling open their painterly doors to allow us a glimpse into what their students get up to. And you can buy what you see, but buying is by no means obligatory.

The MA show is a celebration of the work of current students as well as current work from fellows of the institution. It tends to be more circumscribed than the huge and quite zany BA show in the spring and concentrates its efforts primarily on painting. Themes often dominate these shows, and this year’s themes appear to focus on decadence and fornication. And there’s something about ducks, but we couldn’t exactly pin that one down.

Along with the exhibits there are handy notes offering a bio of the artists and their approach to their craft. And if you don’t like what you’re looking at keep it to yourself, as the artist might be nearby – but very handy if you want to ask them anything. And if you have no idea what you’re looking at but what to look as if you do, take a long dramatic breath, look at your friend, and say ‘It’s about IDENTITY’. Then throw that crimson beret to the floor and march out of the room.

The City and Guilds MA Show 2024 is on now until Saturday, 14 September. Hours are 11:00 to 18:00 and open until 20:00 on Friday. They often have a bar on a Friday which is great fun. And of course, it’s free.

And if your little has left with you with unmitigated thrill, Durning Library in Kennington Cross is having an illustrated talk about the history of City & Guilds and current use a resource for artists. This talk is on Monday (16.9) at 18:45. Details can be found here.

Free Culture Week 1 – Covi-Mora and Greengrassi Galleries

Posted on September 6, 2024 by Kennington Runoff

In the first instalment of our three part free culture crawl around Greater Kennington, we find ourselves in the highly acclaimed yet little known Covi-Mora and Greengrassi galleries, located incongruously in a kind of alley behind the towers of the Hurley Estate. Commercial galleries can sometimes seems a daunting to normal folk such as us, but rest assured these galleries not only want you to visit but require it to stay afloat. And by looking at the many staff on hand scrolling through their DM’s, they welcome the diversion that your custom and mere presence offers.

Covi-Mora is located on the second floor are currently showing work by American artist Myra Green. The show is called A New Pattern, and she explores the way we perceive colour by the use of the ombre dye found in fabric. The results in these round works are captivating and create figures out of what look like random splashes.

Downstairs in Greengrassi we come across the work Irish born and London based artist Anne Ryan. On the right are ceramics which look at first like random pieces of discarded and painted pottery but on closer inspection morph into mass heaps of humanity. On the left are small canvases which look as if they were ripped out of larger, French genre paintings. Everything from a carriage and horses to strolling soldiers are depicted in her miniatures.

The galleries also operate a pop up gallery called ‘NEITHER’ at 2 Wincott Parade in Kennington Road. It is currently showing works by artist Anika Roach. Access to this site is by arrangement but as it’s in a shop front you can just see the paintings on your way home from the pub.

Covi-Mora and Greengassi galleries are located at at 1A Kempsford Road SE11 4NU. The entrance looks not unlike the doors to a prison or a sex dungeon (not that we’d know), but once buzzed through the staff are very merry and helpful folk. The three gallery spaces are showing the current exhibits until the first week of October.