Author Archives: Kennington Runoff

Cruising for a Bruising

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We like to check out the latest exhibits at our very own Gasworks Gallery in Oval as we care about our readers and the gallery is just a little unorthodox (Styrofoam coffins!). The current exhibition is by artist Trevor Yeung and he uses the structure and maintenance of plants to explore how humans relate to one another, and in the show delves into how people use nature in the gay cruising area of Hampstead Heath, which has been popular with cruisers (famously George Michael) since the 19th century. 

The gallery rooms are almost totally dark so you might want to let your eyes adjust when you enter the immersive space or you’ll be cruising for a bruising. Once adjusted, you’re in an ethereal wooded space just before sunrise and you’ll need to rely on the sounds and smell of nature to guide you. The smell is of pheromones, earth, and Lynx body spray. You’ll also notice landmarks such the famous ‘piss tree’ in addition to a tinkling fountain, acorns and leaves. 

What Yeung has created is a clandestine world loaded with feelings punctuated by brief, fleeting encounters. The brevity is mirrored in a misty early morning shroud that will itself disappear quickly. To some this part of London might be very well known, to others it’s as shrouded as the rooms that Yeung has created. 

We told you it was dark

Most of us in the office know London well and have never heard of the aforementioned ‘piss tree’. When your scribe asked Phil from accounts he squirmed in his seat and replied, while not taking his eye off his spreadsheet, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’. We believe you, Phil. 

Trevor Yeung: Soft Ground is open now until 18 December and is totally free. Gasworks is open from 12:00 – 5:00 Wednesday to Sunday so you’ve been advised. Associated with Soft Ground, there is a scent workshop this Saturday from 12 – 3 exploring scents and how they make us feel. We don’t have evidence that this is linked to the piss tree. 

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Mc and Sons

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Let’s us first pay homage to the pub that used to inhabit this domain. It was the Royal Oak in Kennington Lane (next to the Eagle) and was one of Greater Kennington’s last authentic working mans’ pubs. Sadly it went under last year, but not by the hands of current landlords John and Ryan McElhinney, who run a small chain of pubs in Waterloo/Southwark.  Luckily we used to go to the Royal Oak (Ok, we went once) and we can confirm that Mc and Sons has retained many of the original features from its previous incarnation including the bar and fireplace and have given the place an Irish twist, this being the theme of their five pubs. 

We visited Mc and Sons to inspect their Thai menu but of course there are a range of drinks available. Pints on offer include Madri, Session, Camden Pale and Stout, and something called ‘It’s the Hope That Kills You’. At £6.50 they could have called it ‘It’s The Price That Kills You’ but this is London after all. And one can always have a cocktail, a glass of wine or, for the rebels, a soft drink.

Karen from finance chose Chiang Mai chicken pieces followed by Pad Graw Prow. For a starter, the chicken pieces are a generous portion; strips of chicken thigh fried with a dry rub. This comes through moderately spicy, with undertones of lemongrass, and is served with a sweet chilli sauce for dipping. This would equally serve well as a shareable bar snack if you didn’t want a full meal. Karen pronounced her tofu Pad Gras Prow as ‘not for the faint of heart’. This was exceedingly spicy, possibly due to not being able to avoid the sliced chillies which she said were tricky to spot in the atmospheric lighting (and without her glasses). As Karen is on a health kick she chose her Prow with tofu, which was generous and filled the bowl/plate nicely and was topped with a fried egg. 

Your scribe indulged in drunken noodles, which consisted of thick rice noodles stir fried with a bit of egg, an abundance of mixed vegetables all mixed nicely in a stir fry with oyster and fish sauce. The prawns were very generous, but the dish had even more heat than Karen’s, so I had to beg John and Ryan for some water. Nonetheless, both dishes have officially been declared  triumph: Lots of ingredients in the tin bowl along with proper Jasmine rice and a gorgeous Thai basil-lime-chilli-ginger flavour. It’s a flavour hit if you can stand the heat, so is highly recommended. 

As for the demographic, it is mostly comprised of white, straight millennials with spare money who like to laugh and enjoy a restrained night out. That describes basically no one at Runoff Towers but that’s just fine, as we appeared to fit in nevertheless, and so will you. And we’re loving the snug at the front of the pub with its own private bar hatch. FYI, if you’re going to dinner you need to give them a ring as it’s not possible to book on their website. 

World Food Night in Vauxhall this Saturday

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Goding Street is the unloved passage that sits between Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and the railway tracks. One associates the place with visions of wheelie bins, nitrous oxide canisters, and gentlemen who enjoy an outdoor beverage. What one doesn’t associate with the place is a world food fest, but one is about happen on Saturday the 28th! It’s free and we all love free. Details below.

We don’t have a great deal of intel about this event but it’s being sponsored by the Mayor of London and the good folks over at Vauxhall One so it should be quite well organised. The vendors will be from all around London so not necessarily local, but nevertheless small businesses who could use our trade.  And hopefully it will be a mild night, allowing all of us to become people who enjoy an outdoor beverage. 

If you Google this event it will lead you to an Eventbrite page stating that it is sold out. Ignore that as its free and outdoors. 

Fun fact/useless information. A number of years ago we got to talking to some people who lived in the neighbourhood that was bulldozed in the 70’s to create the Vauxhall Gardens. Apparently Goding street is pronounced ‘Godding’ as opposed to ‘Godeing’. You’re welcome. 

Kennington Tandoori v. Ghandis?

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The lively debate throughout Runoff Towers is frequently ‘when in Kennington Cross is it Kennington Tandoori or Ghandi’s’? While we do enjoy the retro kitchness of Ghandis with window photos of celebrities from a different era (Richard! Judy!), we equally appreciate the low lights, dark wood and high server to diner ratio on offer at KT. But we’re here for the food, so purely for our Top Ten list © research purposes, we recently paid KT a long overdue visit. 

New recruit Gaz from the tech team chose the biryani for his mains and was pleased to see this arrive with an intact thin pastry top. Keen to impart knowledge in the real world, he noted that the pasty wasn’t really for eating (although can be) but instead for sealing the flavour during a gentle cooking process, giving it a super delicious taste. Gaz opted for the lamb version (chicken or vegetable also available). As his mouth was full of rice and Cobra beer, he proffered a thumbs up to the generous chunks of lamb in amongst the rice, vegetables and spices. When he was able to speak Gaz encouraged folks to add a serving of dahl for that rice-and-lentil magic. 

Your scribe opted for the Bombay parsi chicken dansak. It was a spicy and sweet balanced chicken, cooked very slowly and mixed with jaggery (Indian cane sugar), lentils, garlic, roasted cumin and sprinkled with kaffir lime leaves. A good degree of spice warmth came through as did the tang of yoghurt for a soft, fragrant dish. Overall very warming and pleasing for a rainy autumnal evening. And we started the affair with chicken stuffed momos. As they are from Nepal they have nothing to do with Indian but as what KT serves is north Indian food we thought ‘close enough’. And Gaz was in agreement as he was getting a free meal out of the equation. 

As frequent readers are aware we often complain about the (first world problem alert) extortionate price of wine in restaurants. At KT you can bring your own for a £10 corkage fee, which isn’t great but if you can stand a £6 bottle from Tesco you’ll find yourself quids in. As for the KT versus Ghandi’s debate, in order to ascertain our pick we’re afraid you’ll need to wait until our highly subjective yet totally scientific Top Ten list © is unveiled in February. 

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Welcome, Ink Beauty!

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We would like to express a Runoff welcome to the newest arrival in Kennington Cross, Ink Beauty! While we’re not in a position to gauge the local market for bum contours, scalp tattooing and fat dissolving dermal fillers, we always support the little guy so long may you prosper.

And at least you aren’t an estate agent.

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The Casual Ward of Kennington

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On a recent meander down Wincott Street in north Kennington we noticed an unusual Victorian building looking not unlike a prison, which prompted us to pull out (nerd alert!) an old Ordnance Survey map. This building was constructed to be a ‘casual ward’, or a very temporary home for homeless people passing through our manor. 

Before 1930 terminally homeless people were a not uncommon site in Greater Kennington. Casual wards were constructed close to workhouses, and we have written about the Lambeth workhouse before, which is around the corner from the casual ward and was once the home of Charlie Chaplin. While workhouses were places for local people (like the Chaplin family) to live while they got back on their feet and perhaps learned a trade, casual wards were intended for the totally destitute of no fixed address to stay for one night, so no one was committed to their help. 

Conditions in our Lambeth casual ward were pretty terrible and people had to work extremely hard for a night in conditions barely better than the street from where they came.  As their clothes were being fumigated, the inmates bathed collectively by gender and were then put to work. It is debateable as to what this work actually entailed, but was something like potato peeling for the frail or back breaking splitting of stones for the more able bodied. Folks didn’t even get to partake in the potatoes they were peeling, as dinner in the casual ward consisted of a kind of gruel made of dried oats, making the Lambeth Workhouse look comfortable by comparison. 

To gain insight for his seminal work ‘Down and Out in London and Paris’, George Orwell visited casual wards very similar to the one that remains in Kennington today, and specific excerpts from the book can be found here. These remnants of social history are evaporating in the mind boggling dynamic changes we are encountering in Greater Kennington (Nine Elms being a prime example). However, with a nose around our patch you might make some discoveries yourselves if you’re clever and observant. And of course you are, as you’re reading this. 

If rock splitting or potato peeling is a specific fetish of yours then you’re in luck. Casual wards, or ‘spikes’ as they were colloquially known, have their own Spike Heritage Centre in Guildford! Probably not the most cheery day out, but you can twin it with a local pub or a twirl around the Surrey Hills. 

Spies at The Imperial War Museum

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We recently visited the spanking new exhibit ‘Spies, Lies and Deception’ at our very own world class museum-that-you-probably-don’t-go-to, the Imperial War Museum. The exhibit covers the vast period from WW1 to deepfakes and AI, and like all good things in life is totally free. 

In this sprawling exhibit we initially learn that the fundamental goal of spying is to control a narrative to in order get the outcome you want. And what is on offer is the manifold ways in which this achieved, from pens that shoot teargas to ghetto blasters with hidden mics and fake airfields created by Shepperton Studios. The exhibit is broken down into smaller sections handily laid out as ‘Power of Persuasion’ (or the ability to control one’s mind), ‘Hiding Something’ (an Enigma machine features) and ‘Surprising the Enemy’ (eg camouflaged to look like a scary straw man). Now if only we could harness these skills to keep another estate agent from opening up in Kennington.

At its heart this is an exhibit about personal stories. These range from superspy Kim Philby to an unassuming middle aged couple who transformed their modest bungalow in Ruislip into a Russian spy HQ. And these stories continue to our present day, with a description of the Salisbury poisonings a few years ago. There are also stories on the home front about wireless operators and people sent covertly overseas and having to conceal this to their families. But our favourite display is the footprint overshoes used to create the illusion that the soldier was a local walking in the opposite direction. 

If over the years you’ve given the IWM a wide berth because you think it promotes or celebrates war, we can assure you that this is not the case. It’s much more about the consequences of conflict, how to avoid it, and human resilience in the face of it. For those reluctant a good starting are the galleries about women during wartime, who kept the country moving as the men folk were fighting. 

‘Spies, Lies and Deception is on now until 24 April so you have no excuse to not see it….Or just lie about seeing it to make you look clever and cultured.

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Free Vauxhall History Tours

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We here at Runoff Towers love nothing more that an old fashioned tour, and we’re here to tell you about no fewer than seven free tours taking place this weekend (7 October) in Vauxhall. OK, it’s the same tour done seven times, but it sounds very interesting for history buffs and others who are just generally curious.  

The theme of the tour is ‘influencers of Vauxhall’. This puzzled us at first as you don’t really need to go on a tour to see people under the influence in Vauxhall, you just need hang out in front of the station for about five seconds. What it actually is about is the people and industries that established Vauxhall and made it the place we all know and love. So expect some interesting natter about Vauxhall Motors, Doulton Pottery, LGBTQI+ culture, spies, etc. 

If you can’t make the walk but Vauxhall history is something that interests you, you really don’t even need to leave the Runoff. Just click on the links to know more about Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Or information about why so many train stations in Russia are named Vaxuhall. The iconic cold storage/cruising site at St. George Wharf. Royal Doulton and Victorian Pottery in Vauxhall. The history of Brunswick House. Or our dinner at Brunswick House and an encounter with a hair flicking minor celebrity. 

And please be aware that while these tours are technically free, they do appreciate a tip. So at the end don’t just walk blissfully into the ether (as we know what you lot are like) but pop them a fiver. Tickets can be booked by following the links on this website.

Brunswick House

Van Gogh House

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We recently took advantage of a discount to make the bold and frankly quite terrifying decision to step out of Greater Kennington to visit the Van Gogh House on the Oval/Stockwell borders. The house isn’t really a museum per se, and was described by the perky and well drilled staff person as ‘a gallery space for people inspired by Van Gogh and other artists’. 

In a reality that might seem a bit surreal to the unaware, before becoming an artist Vincent Van Gogh did indeed live around the corner from the present day Lidl in Stockwell. The house outlines his life at the time through the letters that he prolifically wrote to his brother Theo, a few photos and drawings, and the efforts made to establish Vincent’s  residency in the home in the 1970’s. The rooms also offer a fascinating glimpse into a busy 19th century boarding house and school, where 11 people lived. 

On the gallery front,  the exhibit on now until 17 December is called ‘The Living House’ celebrating the 150 years since the great man’s residency. The exhibits explore the notion that the home is still inhabited in some manner and plays on the notion that the house is a collaborator in the artistic process and toys with the concept that art and living are entwined. And you even get a bar of soap for your cerebral efforts.  

Until 30 September Lambeth residents can visit Van Gogh museum for £4 and tickets can be nabbed here. If you live in Southwark then sorry, no discount for you. If you live in Wandsworth we’re not sure why you’re reading this site but should nevertheless be applauded for your profoundly good taste. 

If the sound of Van Gogh House makes you want to chop your ear off, you can instead go to the very tasty Van Gogh vegan café nearby, which has been rocking our top ten list © for a number of years. 

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Fridas

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Kennington Cross has recently been endowed with our area’s second local outlet of micro chain Mexican Fridas. Eagle eyed readers will be aware that there is a second one in Vauxhall at the base of one of those hideous dominant buildings in Albert Embankment and we reviewed it last year. And if you live in one of those buildings we hope you’re very happy. 

Your reporter is a particular fan of a meaty burrito, and what was chosen was the free range chicken option. On the plus side, it was stuffed with mounds of fresh chicken and some spicy pico de gallo. One could say that the copious amount of rice could have been replaced with more creative additions or cheese, but that’s just us. A real standout for both the burrito and the tortilla chips was the addition of real, straight from the avocado guacamole with a kick of coriander and lime. We can affirm that it was made fresh as your reporter accidently stuck their neck into the food prep area. 

As Phil from accounts is finally meeting his targets, we treated him to the cochinita pork pibil tacos, which he sparingly described as  ‘excellent’. They consisted of two yellow corn soft tortillas profusely topped with a modestly spiced slow cooked pork (think pulled pork but spicier), along with a small amount of grated red cabbage and carrot and a dollop of sour cream. The tops were adorned with pink picked onion and coriander, creating a delightfully colourful concoction. It’s £11.50 for two, but they are of a size where that seemed reasonable.  The burrito came in at £11.90.

Fridas is owned by the same people who ran Rare Burger Co. on the same site and are evidence that running a restaurant is no mean feat, so they could use our support. They’ve given an admirable stab at transforming a burger joint into a maximalist, slightly bonkers yet endearing Mexican canteen, and on a previous visit we hugely enjoyed their cocktails. We can particularly recommend their cruise ship potency/stumble-down-the-road-afterwards margaritas.  

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