Our Ten Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington (+ One Sunday Roast) launches on Thursday and we are currently working assiduously on this highly scientific yet wholly subjective list. Ahead of that, we’ve unearthed a lovely Vimeo video we’d like to share with you
As Elephant and Castle is now undergoing a full on ‘Vauxhallization’ we’ve been recently waxing nostalgic for the old shopping centre. It was like that kooky great aunt you used to have in Leeds – you visited it only when you absolutely had to, was past its prime, and very fond of pink. And before you know it, they’re gone forever.
It’s OK to feel a bit conflicted about the shopping centre. On the one hand it harks back to a more innocent form of independent retail in which shopkeepers knew your name and you could be sexually aroused by a massage chair. But it was also a dangerous place rife with drugs. And not the drugs your kooky aunt took.
This uplifting and artistic video is from 2010 and makes you realise the centre was more like a community meeting for many.
Now that you’ve completed that new year’s resolution of running around Kennington Park six times, it’s time to work on your grey matter. It’s that time in the Greater Kennington cultural calendar (it’s a thing, trust us) for us to enlighten you about the ‘Classical Vauxhall’ series of concerts and events at various places in Vauxhall, Kennington and Oval from 29 Feb to 3 March. The press release boldly describes it as ‘a four day festival of live music and song, featuring a diverse, world class line up featuring acclaimed musicians and captivating performances’.
The concept behind these five concerts is to put on shows that are varied, lively, and accessible to people who (like us) are not habitues of the Royal Opera House and might otherwise be a bit intimidated by this genre. The event is being co-hosted with the London Philharmonic Orchestra with each night set to a theme, the themes being classical soul, mythical events, piano vs. violin, and a cappela singing. There are also a few events geared to kiddos.
Classical Vauxhall are also laying on two walks which sound fantastic. One is called ‘Astronauts, Aeronauts, Animals & Agents’ and another about the music of Vauxhall. There is also a workshop about historic dance. And please note that ‘historic dance’ probably refers to Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and not the time in 2005 you ripped off your shirt in a ketamine haze at Fire nightclub.
The director of the festival and the brains behind the whole shebang is Fiachra Garvey and he is joined by artists such as Elena Urioste, China Moses, Mary Collins, Tony Tixier and Adjoa Andoh. To be honest we have no idea who any of these people are – But– we have seen some of their work on YouTube and it’s beautiful. Elena and her amazing violin are featured here. Tickets are £22.15 for the concerts so not exactly cheap, but a great way to support local culture and artists who are also doing outreach at schools. Some folks from KR towers went in 2023 and they described it as both amazing and great fun. A nice way to get a little culture in your life without venturing much further than your local pub.
Only 10 days to go until our ‘Ten Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington (+ 1 Sunday Roast)’ countdown, people!
Do you like knitwear? Do you like exhibition spaces that are never boring? Then you’re in luck as we just saw the thought provoking show ‘Holes’ at Gasworks Gallery in Oval by UK based Ukrainian artist Anna Perach
Using the medium of knitted wool, Perach explores how the female body is viewed by a male patriarchy as something that transgresses nature and morality, a good example being 17th century witch trials. This is about control, and Perach most vividly captures this in a richly decorated anatomical Venus sculpture in the middle of the room. Even without interpretation, the textiles are a sight to behold and even the doors are knitted. We suggest handling the doors carefully to avoid being told off, as we were.
At its core, Holes is about women having agency and gaining control of their bodies and presented in a way that transcends flesh. We’re aware that this all sounds like a very heavy buzzkill, but the textiles are really quite beautiful and a pleasing way to build some brain cells. It also smells nice.
Holes is on now until 26 April and is totally free. Gasworks is open Wed – Sun 12 to 6.
Camera Club
We also recently visited the show ‘Hortus Maximus’ at the little known Camera Club off Kennington Cross. The exhibit is about vegetables and was originally created as a site specific installation for the walls of Cinnamon Kitchen in Bishopsgate by the artist Cinnamon Faye. We’re not exactly sure if she was named after the restaurant but we’re looking into it.
In a world of Tesco meal deals and Frankenfoods, this exhibit is a celebration of edible plants and the remarkable shapes they possess. Shot in large format monochrome using natural light, the foods are printed to resemble etchings of fossils or petrified wood. Faye has focussed on chilis and other foods known for their healing properties, with a few bendy gourds that look nice under a camera. The show also features women from around the world presenting themselves to the planet while holding vegetables.
As obscure as the Camera Club is to most of us, it is one of the longest running photographic societies in the world. We know this to be true as we read it online. Hortus Maximus is open now until 23 Feb and is totally free. The Camera club is open daily from 11:00am to 10:00pm and weekends from 10:00am to 6:00pm. And we have no idea why they’re open over 70 hours a week.
Venezuela is one of those places that’s in the news for all the wrong reasons, but not due to their cuisine. We recently emerged from our subterranean KR offices under Kennington Cross to revisit ‘Conuco’in Oval and we’re here to give you the score. The specialities of Conuco are arepas and empanadas. And unless you’ve been working in a subterranean office yourself, you’ll be aware that they are all the rage at the minute.
For newcomers, an arepa is a kind of one handed sandwich made of ground maize dough filled with meat or veg, and at Conuco stuffed with cheese. Empanadas are more well known in the UK and are fried turnovers stuffed with a variety of items such as cheese, chorizo, chicken or shredded beef. On our visit we had an arepa with pulled beef and a white cheese called ‘costeno’. As you can see, the sandwich was rammed with dripping, shredded beef and towards the end we had to deploy the use of a fork. The sandwich came with two sauces….a creamy mint flavoured offering and another other so hot you’ll be running into Brixton Road crying to be put out of your misery.
To complement the meal we enjoyed the national soft drink of Venezuela, Frescolita. It tasted a bit like bubblegum mixed with Red Bull, which had us chatting nonstop when we were back underground. The total came to just over £11, and filled us up until dinner. Conuco has wifi and a good relaxing vibe and very friendly staff. The demographic is a visually pleasing mix of young, hair flicking 20 somethings who likely work at Kennington Business Park across the road. But don’t worry you’ll still fit in. After all, we did.
Don’t worry, the guy at that bottom isn’t saying ‘but I’m not a hair flicking 20 something and I don’t FIT IN!’
For those of you who have the actual nerve to travel outside greater Kennington, you might in your travels have encountered the Low Line, which is an urban regeneration business initiative created underneath railways arches from Bermondsey to London Bridge. If you’ve seen new arches (and a cinema) opening up in Borough Market and nearby Flat Iron Square then you’ve witnessed this initiative in action. So why are we telling you this little nugget of seemingly useless information?
Union Yard Arches, SE1
This is Battersea, but similar to how our arches will look
For two years a creative team have been at work to extend the Low Line from London Bridge to Battersea. This cuts right through our fair patch from Lambeth North right through Vauxhall and through to the nightmare urban sprawl that is Nine Elms. We are particularly excited about a plan to connect the area by a new cycling/walking route. Some of these arches are already occupied by great local business. However there are other arches, such as the sad lot in front of Newport St. Gallery, who could use some serious TLC.
The vision for the back of Pedlar’a Park
The vision for Goding St. Imagine no nitrous oxide canisters!
The Low Line in our neck of the woods is comprised of 299 (!) arches and a deep dive into the report indicates that that the planners are already aware that a range of independent businesses exist but others have had to move (eg Above the Stag Theatre) when Railtrack hiked the rents up. In the report Lambeth and Wandsworth recognise that what makes our communities work are businesses such as the ones that have existed under these arches for many years. A good example are the Portugese places on Albert Embankment. A hike in rent means they might be no more and we’ll be stuck with the likes of Franco Manco or, god help us, Gail’s Bakery. This should all be kicking off in 2025 hopefully in the right direction. The Runoff are watching you, Lambeth and Wandsworth!
If you want more information and you have a great deal of time on your hands you’re sick in bed, the detailed report can be found here
From the 2022 archives, the sixth and final of best of history posts!
When you woke this morning you probably weren’t thinking ‘you know what, what I really NEED today is to read about a cold storage facility’. But as we’ve seen in the past two years, life is full of unexpected antics. Some of the more mature residents of Greater Kennington might recall that for 35 years (1964-1999) the monolithic Nine Elms Cold Storage facility dominated the Vauxhall skyline, located exactly where the round St. George Wharf tower now presides, and it has a history that might just leave you shivering.
In the 1960’s Vauxhall/Nine Elms was not dominated by million pound flats and swimming pools in the sky, but by railway yards. It was a key transport terminus by rail and river, and our Cold Store was erected to provide a chilly home for meat, butter and fish. However, by the late 1970’s improvements in refrigeration and transport made the building redundant, and it became derelict after just 15 years of life. And this is when our story becomes interesting….
The people of Vauxhall are nothing if not creative, and following the closure of the Cold Store it was used illicitly as a cruising ground, a recording studio, a performance space and even a convenient spot for devil worshiping. On the cruising front, it was the place to pull if you hadn’t been lucky at the nearby Market Tavern (RIP) or Vauxhall Tavern. Guys had to negotiate a 10 foot padlocked steel gate with razor wire, but once that had been conquered one was rewarded with the world’s largest dark room (we assume not the film developing kind).
One of the abiding stories of the Cold Store is that it was used for satanic worship, or just performance artists trying out new material. In one recollection a certain ‘archbishop’ took people on tours that ended at a double bed which doubled as an altar. This must have been a wholly frightening/hilarious experience in the pitch black void that enveloped them. However, some found inspiration in the gloom and in 1990 avant garde musicians Chemical Plant (who?) used it as a recording studio and created the super spooky video with the Cold Store making a cameo below.
The question persists as to why the Cold Store evoked mystery and myth. Perhaps the darkness in such a monolithic structure allowed people to explore sides of their lives which were usually hidden. In skyscraper laden Vauxhall it seems almost unfathomable that such a derelict structure existed until almost the millennium. Perhaps the thrill of being in a structure which shouldn’t be there was an enticement.
From the archives, the fifth and next to last of our month of best history posts
If you’ve ever been to the back half of Kennington Park, or indeed if you live there, you would have noticed the large towers that constitute the most vertical part of the fascinating 36 acre Brandon Estate in Walworth. Visionary Architect and Communist Edward Hollamby was the principal designer and most of the work was underway by 1956, with his brief by the LCC to capitalise on the post war enthusiasm generated by the Festival of Britain on the Southbank.
At the eastern Lorrimore Road end of the Estate, Hollamby tried to preserve the pre war Victorian street pattern and keep the few homes that survived, while filling in the holes with modern three bedroom properties. In Forsyth Gardens he created a new square lined with four story maisonettes with a central garden intended as a ‘revival of Georgian town planning traditions’.
Napier Tower
On the other side of Cook’s Road the Estate took on a more striking and risque modernist form. Napier Tower was at the threshold of the foot friendly shopping precinct and beyond it the signature 18 storey blocks nestled into Kennington Park, and in 1957 they were the tallest the LCC had built. As you walk around the Brandon Estate today you’ll notice that it is a very early example of the ‘mixed use’ development. It provided a range of housing options for different kinds of families at different stages of their lives interspersed with shopping for people who don’t drive.
If you watched ‘Doctor Who’ from 2005 – 2010, you might recognise the Estate as one of the most iconic locations of those series. The Estate, known as the ‘Powell Estate’ in the show, was home to Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and her mum. The poor courtyard in front of their flat witnessed a TARDIS crash landing, a cyber ghost invasion, and even the Tenth Doctor’s (David Tennant) regeneration.
The Estate is also home to a beautiful Henry Moore statue which we wrote about in 2020
From the archives, the fourth of our month of best history posts
If you’ve ever spotted this rather grand looking building at 121 Westminster Bridge Road you might have wondered what function it once served. For the first half of the 20th century, dear reader, this was the London Necropolis railway station and has been referred to as ‘the strangest and spookiest railway line in British history’.
In the first half of the 19th century London’s population surged from one million to almost 2 1/2 million. Churchyards were running out of space to bury the dead and something had to be done, so a plan was hatched by two enterprising men to purchase land near Woking for an enormous cemetery. The idea was that it was far enough away to prevent the bodies from posing a threat to public health, but close enough to let grieving relatives attend funerals without too much hassle. The icing on the cake being that a Waterloo to Woking line had just opened up.
As you can imagine, people at Waterloo were none too keen on seeing corpses and mourners whizz by as they sat in their 19th century Starbucks, so a separate train station was built behind Waterloo in what is now Leake St. The building was specially designed for mourners and had private waiting rooms, restaurants, and first to third class services. One could depart with their recently departed in the morning, attend a weepy funeral midday, and be back by teatime. Talk about Victorian multitasking.
The Original
By the end of the 19th century Waterloo station was expanding and Necropolis station had to be moved. In 1902 the station found it’s present home and out of respect to the dearly departed the builders wanted to make it as attractive as a funeral director’s office, so few expenses were spared. The line was eventually shifting almost 2000 corpses a year until the line was damaged in WW2, and a decision was made to consign it to history, like the many souls it escorted.
The railway service proved so popular that it even had it’s own rolling stock. However, the reason for this could actually be that if folks knew they had bought a ticket for a train used to carry dead people they could feel like they’d been, well, ‘stiffed’.
From the archives, the third of our month of best history posts
Greater Kennington has always had its share of eccentrics, and a prime Victorian example can be found in magician, humourist and collector Henry Evanion (1832-1905) who lived his entire life in Kennington and Oval. During its dying decades Henry’s family sold sweets and tickets at Vauxhall Gardens, and it was there that he came into contact with mimes, jugglers, clowns and tight rope walkers. Supported by his wife Mary Ann and extended family who ran a sweet shop business at 221 Kennington Rd, he began to develop tricks of illusion and ventriloquism that evolved into a rather elaborate show. Delivered, no less, with a fake French accent.
As Henry’s act evolved he began to tour the southeast and even performed for the royal family on three occasions, with the gig at Sandringham billed as ‘The Grand Feat of the Globes of Fire, Fish and Birds’. Henry seriously milked this royal connection and it helped with bookings, but there were long stretches where our local boy had no work. He used this time to furiously research new ways to diversify his act, coming up with tricks such as ‘Vulcan’s Chain’, ‘The Mystic Parrot’ and ‘The Japanese Lady’s Reception’. At the time he was living in what is now Montford Place behind the present day Pilgrim pub.
Henry’s long suffering and very patient wife would sometimes perform as his assistant (a kind of Victorian Debbie McGee) but she had a proper job running a sweet shop so this didn’t last very long. Henry decided to drag people in the crowd onto the stage to act as assistance, which was made easier by his jokiness and quick wit. His shows were an assortment of magical effects, illusions, juggling and ventriloquism presented rapidly with trick following trick. Henry was also an avid collector of playbills, posters and items associated with magic and other forms of entertainment.
While working with mystic parrots, setting things on fire, and sawing people in half might sound very glamorous, it isn’t the most lucrative of professions and later in life Henry and Mary Ann fell on hard times. Living in the basement flat at 12 Methley Street, at the end of his life Henry befriended no other than the great Harry Houdini while he was in the UK. Houdini was fascinated and inspired by Henry, and on their first meeting spent almost 24 hours with Henry in Methley St. Houdini ended up purchasing some of Henry’s collection of magical ephemera. The rest of his collection was endowed to the British Museum, and gives us a fascinating insight into late Victorian light entertainment.
From the archives, the second of our month of best history posts
For a period of over 35 years London’s longest running squat was to be found in our very own beloved Kennington Park. In 1969 Lambeth purchased a beautiful terrace of Victorian properties in St. Agnes Place with the intention of demolishing them to extend the park southwards. As the plans sputtered and the council changed hands the buildings became derelict and occupied by squatters, who over the years made the buildings secure and liveable.
In 1977 Lambeth made a concerted effort to evict the squatters and a large chunk of the properties were destroyed by the council. However, complete expulsion was successfully resisted by squatters refusing to leave by standing on the rooftops. A large and very high profile High Court battle ensued which garnered national attention. The court and the public were on the side of the squatters, and Lambeth were forced to stop pulling down the buildings. A much smaller but much more high profile terrace of homes survived. The conservative leader of Lambeth council, however, did not survive and was forced to step down.
In the years that ensued the residents were mostly left to their own devices. They enhanced their autonomous community with a social centre, studios for musicians, a pirate radio station, and a separate Rastafarian temple (it was estimated that 1/3 of the residents were Rastafarian). A place of great religious significance for Rastafari, the great Bob Marley himself visited the temple several times when he was recording in London in the late ‘70’s. And far from being derelict, the residents renovated the flats by means of electricity, re – roofing and running water.
As the years progressed the squat became more well known and with the addition of people from Spain, Brazil and Portugal had a more cosmopolitain vibe. According to residents the community had little crime, folks knew one another, and people helped the most vulnerable residents. However, in 2005 Lambeth got its act together and the squatters were faced with the choice of either leaving or paying 30 years of council tax, so the police arrived to empty St. Agnes Place of it’s 150 strong community. For a couple of years after the building was occupied by a small group of various protestors but they soon acquiesced and the community and buildings were consigned to history.
