Free Cycle Repairs and Free Bikes to Ride!

Posted on by
Reply

As most staff here at the Observer are on a very low wage, we spend a large part of the day researching free things with the flimsy pretence that we’re trying to help people. And today we take a healthy departure from our usual ‘eat and drink until you’re broke’ posts by telling you about Mr. Bike. Mr. Bike is an initiative by Cycling UK with an aim to get people back on the cycling road by providing simple repairs and to teach you how to do them yourselves. Here are the upcoming clinics. Free, just turn up!

Tuesday, 7 July (today, people!) from 4pm at the Pimlico side of Vauxhall Bridge

Saturday, 11 July from 11:00am Outside the Costcutter in Stockwell Green, SW8

Monday, 13 July  from 4pm at the Pimlico side of Vauxhall Bridge

Tuesday, 14 July from 4pm at St. Annes church, Vauxhall (in front of Vauxhall Park)

Saturday, 18 July from 10am Corner of Vauxhall and Jonathan St. Vauxhall

Saturday, 25 July from 10am Tea House Theatre, Vauxhall

Tuesday, 28 July from 4pm Dog House Pub, Kennington

And if all this healthy business wasn’t enough, London’s Santander Cycles will be free on Sundays throughout July, as Transport for London is offering unlimited 60-minute rides every Sunday all month from 5th to 26th July and all the codes you need are on their website. And as you are all responsible adults here, we would like to remind you that cycling on the pavement and hitting people is illegal. And yes, this includes intolerant Jehovah’s Witness people flogging books.

Matiz – A Mighty Fine Latin American Joint

Posted on by
Reply

Perched at the periphery of the Observer catchment area near St. George’s Circus, we find ourselves at new kid on the block Matiz to sample their pan Latin American cuisine. Matiz is curiously located next to the delicious yet more pricey joint Paladar restaurant which we reviewed in 2021 and dined with a B list pop star. As they serve the same cuisine we queried if the establishments were in some way related. They deny the coincidence but frankly we don’t care as the food at both establishments are great.

Matiz is a family owned business and everyone who served hailed from either Spain or Latin America and is well located as its close to the wonderous Latin American offerings in Elephant Road. On group office outings we long ago learned that splitting main courses ends in bloodshed or a chopstick crammed into an ear, so we avoided the mostly Latin American mains and shared Spanish tapas. The group ordered up a range of classics with free flatbread served before. We recommend hanging on to the bread to soak up the juice of the tapas. This message didn’t appear to apply to Kevin from personnel who chose drown his sorrows over his recent hair loss by downing two bowls of the aforementioned flatbread.

The ordered classics included chorizo al vino, gambas al ajillo, mushroom croquetas, calamari and patatas bravas. All were tasty and well sized and plenty to share among four people. Remember to order spartanly as you can always just order more, and the delivery is quick. A special shout out goes to the chorizo al vino which was perfectly rich and chunky, and the gambas which may be the most garlicky thing we’ve eaten this year (that’s a compliment). When Karen from Finance wanted an open mouth kiss at the end of the evening we were able to use the gambas/garlic consumption to escape.

An even bigger shout out is owed to the  ceviche Peruano, which worked well as an additional small dish. It consisted of bite sized pieces of sea bass well marinated in lime juice mixed with onion and Peruvian-style crunchy corn and sweet potato. It’s a lovely, refreshing plate and perfect for the summer. Wines were reasonably priced, including some sub-£30 and our Rioja rosé was spot on for a warm evening. But please be aware that the value rather dissipates when bottle number five hits the table. A fun night in a part of Greater Kennington often not visited by locals like you.

As we’re on a Latin American theme, the prospects don’t look good for the Latin food outlets and indeed the culture in Elephant Road as the malevolent shopping centre emerges behind it. They also need our support lest they be turned into a Joe and the Juice or, lord in heaven help us, Gail’s Bakery. Adios!

A Building and a Smell Tells a Thousand Words

Posted on by
Reply

Buildings in Greater Kennington have stories, and sometimes smells. The story of what is now Vox Studios is a living metaphor for how Vauxhall has evolved over time. From brewery to Marmite factory and from a homeless charity to a Gen Z pop up office space this is the four stage life of a building that reflects how we have changed and the smells we’ve tolerated.

Sierra Exif JPEG

From the dawn of the industrial age until the 1960’s our patch of south London provided a much needed repository for smelly things that London needed but didn’t necessarily want on its front door. Victorian Greater Kennington was punctuated with vinegar works, soap factories, coal spewing industries and of course Gasometers. So Vauxhall proved the ideal HQ for the New London Brewery Company. From 1897 they produced beers for over 78 local pubs. It was a major regional player in the drinks trade, employing hundreds of local people to work yeast, logistics, and deliver barrels. The present day car park was once filled with horses, carriages and doubtless heaps of acrid horse poo. Sadly, due to the extremely competitive nature of the drinks trade, our mighty brewery went into liquidation in 1925.

With all those hops and stills hanging around, when the mighty Marmite folks began sniffing around for a London HQ the brewery was an ideal spot. Part of the late Victorian building was pulled down and a more suitable edifice created in 1927. For the next 40 years Marmite was produced and hauled away by the lorryload, and the internet is full of tales of the aroma of the area. With Gasometers, Marmite, and a pickle factory (now Beefeater HQ) basically back to back the funk factor must have been overwhelming.

As smelly factories moved out, Vauxhall still acted as a repository of things London didn’t want to look at – the homeless. Older residents might remember the wonderful homeless charities Thames Reach and Centrepoint in Vauxhall, and when St. Mungos was looking for its first building to house the homeless, the old Marmite site seemed ideal and from 1973 it offered 200 beds to the most vulnerable.  Since its humble days at our little factory, St. Mungo’s has become one of the UK’s largest homeless charities and helps tens of thousands of people a year.

Skipping jauntily ahead to its most recent incarnation. The Workspace group has built a massive extension and has styled the factory as ‘Vox Studios’ with the forecourt smell of hops, Marmite and horses being replaced with £5 skinny white lattes. Some might view the young tech types that it attracts as being good for the local economy. Others might see them as contributing little to the economy other than by making home prices higher. Making it yet another thing that Vauxhall doesn’t want but nevertheless needs.

If you want to watch a creepy, AI generated film about the smells of Victorian London, watch away! But you might need a nice shower afterwards.

Koi in Sayer Street…Seriously Good Ramen

Posted on by
Reply

Taking an intern to lunch is a perfect way to bond, with the handy goal of getting them to undertake tasks no one wants to do. It was with this spirit that your scribe invited Tighe on a lunch to Koi ramen bar in Sayer St. in Elephant Park.

Koi is a small chain and this venue has a cosy post industrial look balancing the aesthetics of the furniture aisle at Ikea with a bondage/sex club. Intern Tighe bouncily suggested that we start with gyoza and then promptly ordered a £3 can of Italian soda, while your scribe opted for the freely flowing tap water. The gyoza was crunchy, full of chicken, and of course served up with vinegar soy and added chives.

Tighe indulged in the pork ‘Old Skool Shoyu’ which is fundamentally a soy based broth with umami boosters kelp and shitake mushrooms. He described it as full of flavour with the noodles perfectly cooked but with the added comment that it ‘could have been better with more pork’. On the way to the toilet your scribe whispered ‘ingrate’ and then enjoyed a perfectly chicken filled shoyu with bone in thighs, a rich and slightly soy base with the added bay boys of ginger, green onions and garlic. The base was obviously slow cooked and delicious.

As with all good Japanese joints, one of the great things about Koi is that you can witness the food being created before your eyes, so we suggest sitting at the bar. Overall, this is a cheap(ish) dinner but the lunch is more of an indulgence. With the unneeded addition of Tighe’s gyoza and bougie Italian water, the bill came to £30, So Tighe, we’d like to introduce you to the world of stapling and fax machines. And we wish you the best……

Screenshot

City and Guilds Degree Show 2026

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve just donned our crimson berets and sunglasses to attended the opening of the degree 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 beautiful Georgian 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 BA 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 foundation show in the spring and concentrates its efforts not only on painting, but fascinating shows of woodwork, restoration, stonework, and carving. We find the work of restorers upstairs  in the main building to be particularly interesting. Themes often dominate these shows, and this year they appear to focus on, in no particular order 1. Boobs 2. Dirt  3. Rotating shopping bags 4. Serious men with non serious eyewear.

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 want to look as if you do, take a long dramatic breath, look at your friend, and say ‘It’s about IDENTITY’. Then throw down that crimson beret  and march out of the room.  

The City and Guilds degree Show 2026 is on now and open tonight (Friday) until 19:00. And the following days –

Saturday 20 June | 13:00 – 17:00
Sunday 21 June | 10:00 – 17:00
Monday 22 June | 11:00 – 18:00

Tuesday 23 June | 11:00 – 18:00
Wednesday 24 June | 11:00 – 18:00
Thursday 25 June | 11:00 – 18:00
Friday 26 June  | 11:00-20:00

Cricket a la Mode

Posted on by
Reply

As a person who lives near the Oval you may at some point be asked to attend a cricket match, and if cricket isn’t exactly your wicket then this piece is for you as we’ll introduce you to other things going on there. Recently some of the Observer staff attended the T20 Blast series at the Oval.  This was booked through  our underused colleague Mark over on the sports desk. Or his name might be Mike. Anyway, we wholly thank Mark/Mike for making this unusual sports foray possible.

The primary feature of T20 cricket is that the matches are compressed into three hours, and are fast past and undertaken in the evening, making it more appealing to neophytes such as us, and we used AI to teach us the basics. We saw the London Derby of Surrey vs. Middlesex and the punters were certainly more, shall we say, energetic than the punters we saw on a previous daytime session, who appeared to engage with the sport primarily whilst snoring.

One fun activity is to wander around and learn about the history of the grounds and cricket greats such as Alec Bedser and Ian Ward. We frankly have no idea who these people are but they have very interesting stories. On the pitch you can grab £1000 if you catch a ball, which appeared highly unlikely given the sobriety level of the crowd. There were also fireworks, ozone destroying fireballs, a T-Shirt cannon and of course nothing could yell ‘Greater Kennington’ more than the addition of a drag queen. As a bonus, cricket appears to be one of the only sports that you can enjoy while chatting with people around you or even on the phone. It was a wonderfully lively bunch.

No day out for us would be complete without stuffing our face, and it was provided by the excellent Kerb catering, who do a more upmarket version of football grub. We saw venison burgers, loads of hot chicken, Indian, Greek, fish-n-chips, loaded fries, BBQ and more. Your scribe had a chicken shish wrap from Lil Watan and intern Paul had a delicious Punjabi naan wrap from Baby Dhaba. One place where they sting you is at the bar. They have fancy craft beer and fine wines, but our Brixton Pale Ale and a can of wine (they’re a thing) was over £18. However, on some fixtures you can bring in your own booze but sadly not T20. This probably explains why Phil from accounts vanished when it was his round. But as it was Phil he could have just been kicked out.

We greatly admire any sport that you can observe while scrolling on your phone, talking, sleeping, or being flogged a car. So if you’re feeling inspired by this article, admission starts at £20 and there are many other matches available. If you want to discover more about the history of the Oval, including the man who walked 1000 miles around it fuelled only by brandy infused tea, we’ve got you covered.   

Vauxhall Summer stage and Bearpit Karaoke

Posted on by
Reply

Believe it or not its summer 2026 and we’re here to give you, dear reader, a voice. And if this voice involves singing then the folks at Be In Vauxhall are once again hosting Bearpit Karaoke this weekend. The press release describes it as ‘attracting huge crowds each month of both professional and non professional singers’. We walked by it a few years ago and at first didn’t know if was Karaoke or some kind of weird spiritual revival. But it looked fun, and this year Mother Kelly’s will be on board, in addition to some food stalls. But if you’re anything like us (and you are) just go the corner shop to get some tinnies or wine and load up on crisps. 

Bearpit Karaoke takes place this Saturday (13th) from 4 to 8 and then on 11.7, 8.8. and 12.9. Free tickets can be nabbed here , but we’re pretty sure you can just rock up. It’s located at that sketchy bit at the end of the Pleasure Gardens where you indeed might be accustomed to seeing people singing, but for once it won’t be men on their own bursting into song while gripping a bottle of White Lightning or Swifties at the altar of the Black Dog. We love you both.

Also gracing Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens this summer is the Be In Vauxhall Summer Screen. If the weather obliges it’s a great way to spend a weeknight and enjoy a knees up and giggle with your mates. If it rains don’t bother.  Mother Kelly’s is again on board and some local food stalls. However, if you’re saving money see our comment above. . The fun kicks off at 7pm but if you require a ‘Vauxhall on the Rivera’ deck chair you better pitch up early. The website mentions booking a place but we’re not bothering with the links as you can just pitch up. Observer staff will of course be seeing Mamma Mia for the sixth time, but there you go again!

7 July at 19:00om Zootropolis

14 JUL AT 19:00PM – Cool Runnings

21JUL AT 19:00PM – Clueless

28 Jul AT 19:00PM – Mamma Mia! – Here we go Again

All of these nights look like great fun and please and the films start at 7pm. Whilst there why not engage in a game of ‘guess the Observer staffer?’. Good luck, as you’ll need it.

History of the Pink Jukebox @ Durning Library 15 June

Posted on by
Reply

When we received the press release for an upcoming same sex dance class at Durning Library the office was confused as we thought large portions of folks in Greater Kennington  only ever dance with people from their same sex. We then read on and discovered that it is in fact a class on same sex ballroom dancing as opposed to the ‘oh my god get up I love this Taylor Swift song’ variety.

The evening is being billed as ‘The History of the Pink Jukebox’ and hosted by Jacky Logan, who has been advocating for the rights of same sex dancers for over 30 years and was recognised by the Queen (as in her Majesty as opposed to Phil from accounts who keeps banging on about his Cher doll collection) for services to dance in 2020. So expect lessons on who should lead, timing, poise, pivot and pose. This course is by no means just aimed at our LGBTQ+ residents. If you’re just girlfriends who want some new exercise this could be just for you. Or even if you’re two straight guys who want to get away from the missus for the evening. Well, that might be a bit odd but this is Greater Kennington, after all. We don’t judge.

Talks at Durning are an underappreciated part of our cultural fabric and should feature on your radar. Admission to events is only £3 and for that you get a glass of wine and some homemade nibbles. And there is even a quaint raffle promising chocolate and fizz! We love how this creates an immersive village vibe which takes us back 40 years….Long before we were mowed down on the pavement by a Lime bike.

Jacky Logan’s History of the Pink Jukebox is happening on Monday, 15 June at 7:15pm, with schmoozing and wine from 18:45. As £3 can barely get you a dog treat in a local pub, why not?

Jack White at Newport Street Gallery

Posted on by
Reply

Once you’ve written probably the best known guitar  riff of the 21st century you’d think that life is pretty much downhill after that. But clever Jack White from the White Stripes thought of a backup long before creating the chant a from thousand terraces. His first ever public art exhibition, These Thoughts May Disappear, is an overview of White’s artistic space outside of music. Some of these works are from the 90’s but most have been created specifically for this exhibit/salesroom at Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall. And yes, amongst us we figured out that a terrace isn’t just a place where you gossip and sip Rose.

At first glance White’s artworks are pop art, Tim Burton-ian inventions to the extent that you expect Helena Bonham Carter herself to pop from behind a sculpture, but they invite a closer look. People who are aware of the Stripes work (not us) will detect his colour coded references to the Stripes back catalogue. An upstairs room acts as a nod to White’s start as a Detroit upholsterer and features a stripey table with a levitating ping pong, as all good tables should possess.

Gallery one is comprised of a number of small ceramic figurines which all bear a striking resemblance to White himself, which to us acted as sinister, almost Trumpian introduction to the exhibit. In the third gallery we encounter White’s mythical Pallet Cleanse Corporation, which repurposes redundant pallets into glamorous objects of adoration, often in high gloss. As if you forgot the identity of the artist, there are stripes of every sort to remind you. And apparently references to songs we’ve never heard of.

After the furniture jumble sale with aforementioned levitating ping pong, the third room becomes immersive and allows us to play with all sorts of Moog synthesisers and other fiddly bits which integrate into the works. The overall impression are of works manufactured out of household objects from a man shed in the back of a garden,  which across this impressive group of more than 100 sculptures, paintings, photographs, and pieces of furniture White achieves.

Is this the evolution of a talented artist or a bored, washed up rock star trying to capitalise on his name? To think in these binary terms rather defeats the purpose of art like this. If you enjoy art for art’s sake, does the artist really matter? And as it’s free who cares, as a seven nation army can’t hold you back.

These thoughts may disappear is on now until 13.9.2026, so you have no excuse to get over there. And for those of you who have no clue who the hell we’re talking about, the video is below.

Pullens Yard Open Studios Spring 2026

Posted on by
Reply

As frequent readers are all too aware, we here at the Observer love nothing more than anonymously sticking our noses where they don’t belong. So why not join the merry ranks of middle class white people and partake of our passion/dysfunction? We’re talking, of course, of the great Pullens Yard Spring Open Studios weekend taking place on 5-7 June (that’s next week and not this weekend, folks. Keep up) in Walworth. It might just prove to be the last warm weekend of the year.

Pullens Yards (Clements, Peacock and the large Iliffe Yard) are an amazing collection of 1880’s workhouses which were originally designed for the people who lived in the nearby Pullens Estate. We wrote about the fascinating squatting history of the estate a few years ago. Instead of being converted into luxury flats, the Yards serve the same purpose as they did 140 years go, and the cabinet makers and blacksmiths have been replaced by potters, jewellery makers, card makers and folks who make things that you want but by no means need. We once bought moth balls disguised as little knitted mice. And as we know crystals are just rocks, but the stall holders might just convince you that they have the power to heal.

The studios at Pullens Yards are usually not open to the public, but twice a year they fling their doors open to give us a glimpse into their creative universe and this is the Spring iteration. The artists are more than happy to show you what and how they create, and of course you can buy what’s on show. And buying is by no means compulsory, as at the end the day these folks just want to show off how clever they are and it’s totally free. Have we mentioned how much we love free?

A visit to the Yards is a fun way to spend a morning or a late afternoon searching for quirky and unusual gifts for yourself or loved ones. In the past we’ve encountered live music, food for sale, a bar provided by Orbit Brewery(!) and live music. A sunny late spring day is an exceptionally optimistic way to see the Yards. And who knows, you just might discover a previously unrealised desire to own a necklace made out of forks or a room deodoriser fashioned as a piece of cheese.

Pullen’s Open Studios is open Friday evening and in the daytime over the weekend. And if you’re overwhelmed by that necklace fashioned out of forks, take a break and check out the great and very quirky Electric Elephant Café. And no, its not a charity shop. It just looks like one.