Durning library in Kennington Cross has a series of periodic talks which are a good way to build brain cells. We adore the simple community hall feel of these events (scones! Tea! Wine!) as it takes us back to a halcyon world 20 years and 200 miles north of Greater Kennington, where you didn’t have to worry getting mowed down by a Lime bike on the pavement after sidestepping the remains of car parts from a fatal accident.  

On 20 October the library will be host to a talk by Philip Norman about the Manning photo archive, which we wrote about a few months ago. Until very recently the Manning’s studio was in Windmill Row, Kennington Cross and when it ceased to exist they donated 500,000 slides to the Lambeth Archives. The Manning’s were jobbing photographers so most of the photos were commissioned by the people depicted in them, in addition to a few random celebrities. Also in the mix are also some intriguing shots of Greater Kennington and beyond from days gone by. Lots of amazing ideas if your Halloween look is ‘Barbara Windsor going to a dance in 1965’. Admission is £3, bless.

As part of Black Heritage Month, on 17 Nov. the library will be hosting Nicola Walker as she talks about her new book ‘Killer Instincts’. Walker is a barrister and now a Crown Court judge. Using her experiences to give the book thrilling authenticity, it follows underdog barrister Lee Mitchell as he pursues justice in a tale that also explores the complex interplay of race, class and authority. We here at the Observer know quite a bit about killer instincts as it’s the feeling we have every time we look at our payslip.

This event is a month away so put it in that diary we’ve always been telling you to get. This event is free, so just turn up. If you happen to be the OCD type you can book a free ticket via the link to Nicola above.

As Part of Open House London week, we recently paid a much desired visit to the mysterious International Maritime Organization (IMO) in Albert Embankment. We knew we’d struggle to find an office colleague to join us on this rather nerdy outing, so the subject of the email was ‘who’d like to go cruising in Vauxhall’? Without even reading the email, we received quite a few confirmations from our male staff and, to our surprise, a few females. They were a bit crestfallen when we met in front of that giant ship’s bow sticking out of the Albert Embankment pavement.

The IMO is a specialised agency of the United Nations and is the global authority responsible for setting standards for the safety, security and environmental requirements of ships. The core of their work is concentrated on safety at sea (eg hijackings), cooperation, and ensuring that standards are united to maximise ship to port interface. Their work increasingly focusses on greenhouse gasses and sustainable shipping. And no, this doesn’t include the crisis you experienced on your Tenerife cruise when the umbrella flew out of your cocktail and landed in the sea.

The IMO building is from 1983 and has a delightful brown and smoked glass chandelier aura which had us humming to ‘Karma Chameleon’ as we strolled through the corridors with an increasingly dejected staff group. There’s a core group of administrators who work full time in the building and their work is primarily to organise 20 delegate meetings and to receive over 10,000 people a year. This is a daunting task, especially when considering the translation services it demands. When we entered the assembly hall it reminded us of a diminutive United Nations with the country names in front of the delegates. Paul, finally perking up, lowered the tone by yelling ‘oh my god, this is just like EUROVISION!’.

To be brutally honest, as we left the IMO it dawned on us that we knew about as much about this cryptic place as when we came in. However, armed with all the facts and objectives outlined above, we hope it has enlightened yourselves more than it did our staff, who hopefully topped off their Sunday with a bit of cruising of their own. We don’t judge.