Jeju, new Korean in Walworth Road

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One thing we love about London is that all you need to do is turn the corner and you’re in an different environment completely. We thus we find ourselves a world away from the leafy homes and estates of Walworth and deposited into the galaxy of African restaurants, kebabs, Caribbean butchers, Poundstrechers and wig shops in Walworth Road. And nestled appropriately between a jerk chicken joint and a Halal Ghanaian hangout we find ourselves in new Korean restaurant ‘Jeju’ because yes dear reader, Korea is still a thing.

Our Finance Director (and Karen’s boss) Alex joined your scribe after telling us that his daughter is crazy about NewJeans. When it dawned on us that daddy was probably not shopping for clothes, we deduced that NewJeans must be a K-Pop band and we proceeded to a surprisingly sprightly and packed Jeju. We assumed that Jeju didn’t take reservations but be aware that they do, but only over the phone. So Alex and your scribe booked and spent the unexpected half hour interregnum in the mysterious bar Feed the Yak, which kind of wants to be a global sports bar/restaurant/off licence all at once.

With the reassuring dulcet tones of Kpop in the background (possibly NewJeans themselves) we were seated and began to peruse. Hoping that Finance Director Alex would get the hint about the importance of sharing, we collectively ordered Cheolpan bulgogi, kimchi pancake and steamed rice. We were worried this might be scant food for two but in fact it was bountiful. Portion sizes are generous, to the extent that half of the pancake made found its way back to ever frugal Alex’s home., The bulgogi arrived as a sizzling plate, piled high with beef and vegetables in a strong gochujang sauce. This is a decent serving for two and thus well-priced at £16.50. It’s a spicy bulgogi here, and a good one at that. High praise also to the generously proportioned kimchi pancake, which was spicy and just the right kind of stodge to provide a satisfying meal in itself. At only £11.90 it has to be one of the bargain items of the menu.

Walworth Road has an undeserved reputation for being a bit sketchy but it’s anything but. A sashay down the road will reveal a host of bargains, plants, and a mind boggling assortment of butchers and fishmongers to provide you with cooking inspiration.   And if you’re lucky you might just pick up a dress for £10 or an Iphone 17 that’s just been unlocked. But that’s London and that’s why we love it. And so do you.

Miguel Sobreira @ The Camera Club

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We recently popped over to the significant yet little known Camera Club to attend the private view of their new exhibit ‘Masks of Becoming’. Frequent readers are aware that when we see words ‘private’ and ‘view’ that usually means free food and wine so we can’t resist the temptation to crash the proceedings without actually being invited.  

Miguel Sobreira is a Portuguese/South African artist and this body of work consists primary of African themed masks and photos of him in various guises wearing the masks. Patterned prints are extremely integral to the identity of people from Sub-Saharan Africa and Sobreira uses his background in textiles to reimagine these to align with his own identity and message.

Masks and veils are used as signals to indicate what might be going on behind them. In our office they usually indicate that the person behind said mask had four hours of sleep over the weekend and is now paying the cost. Sobreira is the subject of much of his work, and his mask conceals identity, belonging, ancestry and queerness. Or perhaps feeling that none of these can be fully revealed. Much of what he works with is reused materials such as cardboard, reused materials also having their own unique backstories.  

The Camera Club is one of the only clubs of its kind in the world, but you’re already aware of this as you lap up our helpings of literary laurels on a regular basis and you read our review last year. Miguel Sobreira: Masks of Becoming is on now until 23.10 and is totally free. Open daily from 11:00 to 21:00, weekends until 18:00. And, no, we have no idea why its open 75 hours a week.

A Return to the Tommyfield

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Further in our mission to achieve gastronomic excellence by means of overeating, your scribe and Karen from Finance just revisited stalwart pub the Tommyfield in Kennington Cross. We invited Karen as she was upset after someone in the office laughed at her when she asked “if Claude is so helpful, can’t we just hire him?”.

Karen ordered her go-to item of Chicken and Leek pie as it’s been on the menu for years and Karen hates change. For the uninitiated, a proper pie is fully encased in pastry and in this case filled with chicken chunks in a creamy, leek filled sauce. Karen found that the only thing better than the filling was the pastry itself: buttery and flaky without being too flaky. The substantial pie sat atop smooth mashed potatoes and a serving of sauteed cabbage. Karen observed that  “the miniature jug of gravy allows soothing lubrication to be added to the plate”. So the pie continues to be a classic but Karen, please never again use that phrase to describe gravy, or anything else for that matter.  

Your ever virtuous scribe ordered chicken skewers on a bed of quinoa tabbouleh with tenderstem broccoli and a tiny mango salsa. The chicken was plentiful and marinated in lemon and olive oil and just the right char. Your scribe generally loathes quinoa, but In this format it worked as it was tossed with parsley and mint. The broccoli was plump and plentiful and the mango salsa a sweet surprise. On the wine front, the waiter guided us through the list and recommended a chewy and cheap red. His oenological knowledge was in fact so comprehensive that it left us wondering why he worked there.

The Tommyfield is run by independent south London based Three Cheers Pubs, who operate nine other swishy yet beautiful pubs, mostly in Clapham/Balham. It’s also the venue for the now almost legendary comedy night Always Be Comedy, where we’ve seen the likes of Joe Lycett, Sarah Pascoe and Harry Hill.  At the end the bill was reasonable but we nevertheless tried to score a discount by explaining our role as anonymous yet highly successful influencers*.

*This never works

Jack Whitehall

Cable Cafe & Bar

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As many Greater Kenningtonains spend a few days working from home, we thought we’d up our lunchtime review game by checking out Oval staple Cable Café at the top of Brixton Rd. By all the brick a brac you might think you’d stumbled into dear Aunt Flo’s house clearance after she refused to let anybody in for 40 years, but what you’re getting is a mighty fine and eclectic café surrounded by Flo’s shabby/chic bric a brac.

The daytime trade consists primarily of people popping in for hot drinks and working on their laptops, and the atmosphere is laid back and quiet. We stopped in for lunch, and the specialty is the bang on trend sourdough toasties. Your scribe had it with cheese and tuna, and Phil from accounts had his with cheese and jalapeno. The sourdough was crisp and with sharp and abundant cheese (£8) . Phil had to be reminded that we were at work and chose an Americano as opposed to his usual bottomless red wine.  We also had our eyes on the homemade pastries, sharing boards, and smoothies.

What Cable does ingenuously is to transform itself from a lunchtime sandwich/coffee bar to an evening cocktail and beer joint. The transition happens during the 3-5 happy hour when laptops and chargers give way to candles and, on Wednesday and Saturday, live free jazz. There is a full bar on hand (cocktails £10) in addition to wines both bottled and draft. A good alternative to the at times chaotic pubs of Greater Kennington and Brixton Road outside.

Cable Café is open from 9:00 to 23:00 (midnight at weekends) and is even available to hire out for parties. We need to keep independent places like this going and we’re particulary fond of the food places along this strip such as Conuco and Nosh. More importantly, we need to keep these places going to prevent them from descending into the hellish netherworld that is the ‘bottomless drag brunch’. Because we’ve been there dear reader, and it’s a very dark place. 

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.