Lambeth Fringe 2026

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Did you know that Lambeth has its very own Fringe Festival? It’s similar to the Edinburgh Fringe but you the shows are a lot cheaper and you don’t have to fork out £400 for a night at the Travelodge. Local venues include Vauxhall City Farm, White Bear Theatre and House of Neon. We frankly have no idea what House of Neon is, but well done for helping out.  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, there are interesting sounding shows all around Lambeth.

This year the Fringe is featuring over 200 shows (!) over 26 venues covering standup, dramas, cabaret, and dance to name a few. Some of these works have just come from an Edinburgh run, some are touring small Fringes, while others will be ‘Fringe exclusives’ and never again see the light of day. The programmer boldly states that plays are booked ‘that ask questions’. We noticed the tagline for one play asked  ‘Has the Virgin Mary ever visited you as a lamp’? Is this one such question?

We’ve been to a number of these shows and the standard is high and the venues are small. Many of the plays are topical while others serve as a refuge from the unforgiving outside world. Of course you might walk out thinking ‘what the hell was THAT’, but that’s half the fun. We have our eye on the play ‘Chair Woman’ with the following tantalising synopsis – “Patsy Darning has tried to leave the intense world of upholstery pageantry behind her. But when she gets pulled back in for one last job (padding out a chair on the new Presidential spacecraft), she finds herself caught in a cover-up that goes all the way to the bottom… “

Lambeth Fringe runs from 24.9 to 25.10 and prices vary. Most of the productions run for 60 minutes.

Hard Streets: Free Local History Book Chat at Durning Library

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Are you busy on Monday evening? Of course you aren’t and will probably just be watching Strictly on Iplayer while brushing your cat. But fear not, dear reader, we are suggesting a brain cell building evening that is both free and riddled with local history.

On Monday (21 January) at 7pm at Durning Library local author Jacqueline Riding will be talking about her new book “Hard Streets: Working Class Lives in Charlie Chaplin’s London”. Focusing on the lives of Chaplin and sculptor George Tinworth (there’s a street named after him)  Riding gives us a vivid and moving exploration of working class people in late Victorian/early Edwardian Greater Kennington. This includes people both transient and well long term locals including music hall stars (many of them lived here), labourers, sex workers, and vagrants.

Greater Kennington was not a bougie home to middle class people in the Victorian era. As factories and all things smelly filled the marshlands we now call home, it was a refuge for people who didn’t have many choices in life. This backdrop of hardship gave us the Lambeth Workhouse which we have written about extensively, and massive Georgian homes in Kennington Road occupied by as many as 30 people (including the Chaplins).  At the core of this book is the optimism that informed much of Chaplins work, and illustrates greatly how creativity can offer a path out of hardship.

While this event is free, we strongly encourage you to donate a few quid to the Friends of Kennington Library who are hosting this event. Your donation is both useful and allows you to have a free glass of wine without guilt. And to steal a second one before the talk.

If you’re too busy brushing your cat on Monday you can hear Riding in conversation with an annoying American here. And if you never trust our advice you can read a review by no less than the FT!

Tarns

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Through the years we’ve written a great deal about the way in which Greater Kennington evolves and develops, but rarely about how it revolves and becomes something similar to what it was before. Thus is the case with Elephant and Castle, which was once a hub for swishy shopping, dining and entertainment for the bourgeoisie and is on the precipice of revolving into that guise yet again.

In previous generations destination hubs were anchored by a department store and some of these still exist, such as Morleys in Brixton. In Elephant it was the mighty Tarns, whose massive footprint roughly matched that of the impending shopping centre. Tarns was a remarkable business empire which employed hundreds, and perhaps the very person who lived in your current digs. Local folk and people throughout London flocked to Tarns for departments which varied from  baby linen to haberdashery and parasols to teas. We were particularly intrigued by the ‘mourning wear’ department, and have delicious images of a person rocking up in floods of tears saying “I am DEVASTED that auntie Flo has passed but I was looking for a black strapless anyway so now seems as good a time as any”.

Tarns was a staple of Greater Kennington for decades and the department store craze revolutionized the way people, most notably women, shopped. No longer did people have to dodge puddles only to end up having to haggle for the price of an apple, and you could just browse. Sadly, during the Blitz the Elephant was almost completely obliterated and our mighty Tarns then went to that giant Milliner in the sky. So when you’re juggling that shiny apple in the new M&S in the shopping centre spare a thought for those apple buyers that came before.

Open House London 2026

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It’s that time of year again and one of our favourite activities here at the Observer….sticking our noses where they don’t belong! From 12 September to 20 September ii’s 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 suggestions 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 mostly 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. Perhaps your last chance to see it before it is turned into, you guessed it, flats and a luxury hotel…but we said that last year.

https://programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/11781

International Maritime Organisation (that bizarre looking building on Albert Embankment. pictured below). This was our favourite in 2025.

https://programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/7730

Tannery Arts: Winchester Arts Studios

https://programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/13174

St. Paul’s Newington. Most postwar churches are mediocre at best. This is a real beauty.

https://programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/2556

Van Gogh House London (Been and recommend. Its more about restoration than the great man so don’t expect any paintings or a severed ear).

https://programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/8317

Segmental House – Amazing 2024 addition to a listed Georgian home

https://programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/12824

City & Guilds MA Show 2026

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The time has arrived yet again in the Greater Kennington cultural season (yes, it’s a thing) for the free and massive MA show over at City and Guilds in Kennington Park Road and of course we’ve just checked it out for you. And because we love free stuff.

What we appreciate about the MA show is that it’s not just about painting, for example sometimes it’s just a side table with packets of fags on it. But other areas show the work of conservationists, restorers, wood carving and sculpture. All set within those beautiful Georgian buildings in Kennington Park Road. A theme this year appears to the influence of Tracey Emin’s new drip paintings. Other themes appear to involve branches and lots of rocks stuck to walls

As you meander through the galleries you can read bios of the artists and gain insight into their process, theory, outlook, and motivation. There is something here for everyone and some of the work is quite stunning. A lot of the artists are on hand to walk you through what you’re looking at. In other words, don’t be an armchair critic as the artist is probably behind you, but there to answer all of your questions.  And if you haven’t a clue what you’re looking at just maintain a steely gaze, purse your lips, and proclaim ‘that mound of sticks is about IDENTITY’! Works every time. Opening times at bottom

PUBLIC OPENING HOURS

Tuesday 8 September | 11:00-18:00

Wednesday 9 September | 11:00-18:00

Thursday 10 September | 11:00-18:00

Friday 11 September | 11:00-20:00

Saturday 12 September | 10:00-17:00

The Dragon Castle Experience

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A trip to Dragon Castle in Elephant is a joyfully kitschy experience as it feels and smells like a genuine mega restaurant in Beijing with its sad goldfish, plastic plants, rude service, and chairs/tables that look as if they were nicked from a conference centre in Solihul. Not to mention Christmas lights in September. There is an updated menu since our visit in 2023 with sections for set meals, a la carte and dim sum options, so that was our flimsy excuse for a revisit.

For this meal we were joined by new Finance Director Amy. She opted for the double cooked pork belly with black bean sauce and egg Fried rice. The pork dish was denoted on the menu with two chillies and was as spicy as hoped. The pork itself was thin strips that worked well with the vegetables and spicy sauce, an interesting element of which was a mushroom fungus. This was an oily dish so Amy suggested using  a napkin to ‘cover your essentials’. Exactly where on the anatomy those essentials can be located remains unclear.

Your scribe suggested getting a range of dishes to fully sample the breadth of food on offer at Dragon Castle. This was met with what we now understand to be Amy’s ‘death stare’, so we opted for the more parsimonious tofu and prawn salad. This was a light and flavourful protein packed dish augmented by ginger, garlic, spring onions, and coriander with s savoury, soy based sauce. Your scribe also ordered rice but as they are so big you really need to order just one.

To be frank Dragon Castle is not a great deal better than most Chinese takeaways but its loads of fun and gets you out of the house. With a beer and wine the bill was just over £50. At the end of the meal we had to bid a sad adieu to the plastic plants, goldfish and Solihul influenced dining furniture to be dispensed into the unmitigated reality that is…… Walworth Road.

Bury the Hatchet @ Southwark Playhouse

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We all love a lazy bank holiday but let’s be hones at times it can become a bit, well, tedious. If you fall into this camp and enjoy bluegrass music, history, and tales of people being bludgeoned with an axe (and really, who doesn’t) then we have JUST the activity for you! 

We just toddled along to the Borough/Elephant outpost of Southwark Playhouse to see the play/musical ‘Bury the Hatchet’. The play is about Lizzie Borden, a Massachusetts woman who in 1892 murdered her parents (or did she?) with an axe. The house was locked and she was inside, but would a lady possess the strength and disposition to perpetrate such a heinous crime?

The chain of events is presented to us as a macabre comedy by an absurdly talented trio of actors who take on multiple roles and adopt a range of accents while singing, playing instruments, and reciting events of the bloody occurrence. There are definite elements of physical theatre as the actors writhe on the floor and dance wildly.  And at times breaking down the fourth wall to address the audience directly. 

It’s hard to classify this engaging and terrific 90 minute show as having a particular genre, which is perhaps what makes it so fascinating. Part musical, part concert, part play, Bury the Hatchet asks questions which are still relevant today, such as how the media can impact opinion, and how wealthy and articulate white people can get away with…murder. And what other play can be set in the 19th century whilst name checking the Daily Mail and Jet2holidays? 

Bury the Hatchet is on now until 5 September and tickets can be nabbed here. As of lunchtime 28.8 tickets were available for all performances over our lazy, languid Greater Kennington weekend. 

RVT Sports Day in Spring Gardens

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Our sports reporter Mark has been collecting a great deal of dust so we’ve finally given him an assignment. He wholly recommends the very fun, charity raising, and inclusive Royal Vauxhall Tavern Sports Day at the back of Spring Gardens on Monday 31 August from 1pm. Because we’re all about charity.

For the uninitiated, Sports Day is our own little Notting Hill carnival, with soca and steel drums substituted with handbag throwing, tug of war and drag queens.  The event is composed  of approximately 10 teams, usually dressed up and with great names. As you can imagine, there is a definite comedy element to the proceedings but is MC’ed by some professional sports reporters who corral events into a semblance of actual competition. The various tasks (egg and spoon, the 50 metre mince, drag race relay, etc) are constructed in a knockout format with the winning team being crowned at about 5pm. All proceeds go to charity LGBT Hero, which promotes health in the lesbian. trans and gay communities.

This event is free but bring some cash or a tappable phone as there will be charity buckets and volunteers about, and there is also a raffle.  The day is certainly not limited to a specific demographic and there are a number of families there with kids, older folks, and an overall sense of mirth abounds. There are bars, music and mirth being consumed. We would never presume to tell you how to live your life, but for maximum enjoyment we might suggest a picnic consisting of ultraprocessed food scored from the corner shop. The website indicates a kickoff at 1, but is usually about 1:30.

Why there aren’t more events like this is a mystery to us, like the continued existence of phone boxes or announcements on the tube banning E-unicycles. And whats an E-unicycle?

Walcot Square and its Little Sister

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Walcot Square and its little sister St. Mary’s Gardens in north Kennington hold unique histories in our peculiar patch of the planet and serve as reminders of the altruistic nature of our forbearers. In an era where most of our patch was run by the Duchy of Cornwall,  this bit of damp farmland was  bequeathed by Edmund Walcot with the intention of helping the poor. We love that.

In the late Georgian era small landowners sold the end of their land on Kennington Road to developers keen to build boujie suburban homes to wealthily folks keen to escape the bustle and pollution of central London. Little did they know that the industrial revolution was swarming their direction and Greater Kennington became the repository of smelly factories that London needed but didn’t want to inhale.  So those rich folks moved to Clapham or Dulwich, and good riddance.

We’re now in the early 19th century and the slightly weird trapezoid nature of these squares reflect  the roads that were around them, which needed to navigate  the Georgian homes in Kennington Road to deliver what they were producing. By this time the boujie homes were multiple occupancy, later housing Charlie Chaplin and his family.  The fields were drained in the 1830’s and the homes we see today were built for families in need. Little architecture exists from this exact period as people didn’t want to risk building on spots surrounded by vinegar works and tar factories.

We’ve now unquestionably whetted your appetite to explore these quirky squares, and to take a break you could do a lot worse than having a cuppa at the delightful Walcot Stores coffee shop. Walcot Stores was once a small grocers, the kind which once predominated in our  area. Its former life is wonderfully captured in this clip from 1990 films ‘The Krays’. Trigger warning – There are references to UHT milk and a guy from Spandau Ballet kicking the shit out of someone.  

The Daebak Reunion

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In our relentless pursuit of  gastronomic excellence, sometimes referred to as gluttony, we recently revisited Korean joint Daeback in Vauxhall. Daebak hardly needs our support as it’s always rammed with on trend young foodies which is a good sign. Or it could be a horrible sign. Anyway, our visit was inspired by our recent office discovery of hot new acts Stray Kids and Blackpink. In the real world they’ve been around for over a decade and have played Wembley Stadium. But when you’re stuck working in an underground bunker one loses the sense of time.

Daebak has a varied menu, including Korean classics (fried chicken, bulgogi, bibimbap) alongside more traditional Japanese dishes which are also served in Korea. We are again joined on this excursion by office ‘fun guy’ Phil from Accounts.  We wanted the classics and chose Korean fried chicken and beef bulgogi, along with some steamed rice – all to share. The chicken is available in various sizes and with a variety of sauce options. One of these was sweet cheese but Phil murmured/slurred something about that combo being “just whack” and so we opted for soy-garlic sauce. The chicken was salty and super crispy with a great deal of sauce suitable for dipping. It was all boneless, and suitable for our bone averse culture. The small option is an easy starter for two or a mains for one.

Moving on to the main event. The bulgogi (say it like a pro… bull-gah-gi) was something that Phil was expecting to be spicier although was pleased with the generous helping of steaming finely sliced beef strips. This had quite a sweet and savoury quality and very moreish. If Phil had done his research and was remotely sober he’d be aware that bulgogi is rarely spicy. You’ll need to look elsewhere on Daebak’s menu for that, and spicier options abound. However, there are spicy additives on every table. On previous visits we’ve enjoyed the fermented, intense cabbage based bibimbap.

One feature of Daebak is the quick service, making it more suitable for a midweek treat.  There are Korean beers, sojus (alcoholic fruit drink) and wine. Phil made good use of the quick service and beers and the result can be found in the photo he took on the right ‘of the whole table’..  The crowd tends towards twenty-somethings and all-in-all, it’s a great value stop.

Best element – Cooling and sweeping open doors with Vauxhall vistas.

Worst element –  Cooling and sweeping open doors with Vauxhall vistas.