Author Archives: Kennington Observer
Sidewalk Stories at Hotel Elephant
Last night we went to a screening of a wonderful, moving film, and it’s coming to (near) Kennington on Friday.
Sidewalk Stories is a largely forgotten silent film from 1989 that inspired the director of The Artist. Imagine The Kid by Kennington’s own Charlie Chaplin, but set in the New York of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. It features great performances from writer/director Charles Lane and his very cute young daughter, and a truly impactful ending.
Read more about the film here and buy tickets for the screening at Hotel Elephant on Friday at 8pm here.
old photos of Beefeater Gin Distillery from the visitors centre
Here it is in 1958, the year it opened in Kennington:
And here’s a later photo:
Carnival del KERB at The Paperworks
OK, The Paperworks is technically outside the borders of Kennington but it’s nearby, it’s run by North Kennington’s own Corsica Studios, and it’s great so we’re including it here.
It’s a temporary, outdoor street food, bar and music venue in a long-disused space owned by Peabody.
With a train line running along one side and the remnants of a factory at the other, it looks like something Secret Cinema would have built to host a dystopian film screening, but it’s not – the iron protruding from the brick wall is authentic industrial debris that has been there for decades.
It’s open Friday to Sunday evenings and tomorrow sees their third of four markets by street food specialists KERB (there are also more limited street food options on Saturdays and Sundays). We went along last Friday, when it was Time Out’s no. 1 thing to do in London. There were craft beers, ten or so food stalls, live music and DJs with a Latin flavour, and a cool crowd leaning young but covering all ages.
Once the weather gets cold the plan is to convert it into more of a covered space, then eventually flats will be built here, so make the most of it while it lasts.
Tomorrow’s event runs 5pm to 11pm at The Paperworks, 48-50 Newington Causeway (north of the Southwark Playhouse, on the other side of the road).
Corsica Studios
Corsica Studios is home to some of London’s finest underground dance nights, and what many hail as the best sound system in town. It’s an intimate club located in a warehouse-style space under a railway arch on Elephant Road in North Kennington, round the back of the Elephant & Castle shopping centre.
Here’s the bar, which serves Mexico’s finest Modelo Especials amongst other drinks:
This is the stage (when we went, Snakehips were playing, the future sound of London according to Radio 1):
Visiting Corsica is a flashback to how nightclubs used to be – dark, dingy, functional warehouses where anything could happen. The clientele are invariably young and cool. It’s all rather exciting. Let’s hope it survives the gentrification of Elephant & Castle and the re-development of the shopping centre (fellow North Kennington venue The Coronet is under threat).
Corsica recently launched a new open-air venue – The Paperworks – in partnership with The Peabody Housing Trust, featuring DJs, street food, craft beers, cocktails for £6 (like in the early noughties!) and giant Jenga and Connect 4. Technically it’s outside the borders of Kennington but it sounds like such fun that we’re planning to visit and report back.
Russell Brand tours Kennington
Another of our Kennington predictions for 2014 comes true – Russell Brand tours Kennington from 3 minutes 30 in this video:
Bob Marley, Elvis Presley and The Beatles in Kennington
Bob visited and played football in Kennington Park in 1977. We recently came across this photo:
Plus, quite a coup for the North Lambeth L&R Club – they’ve only got Elvis and The Beatles performing tonight:
Invader in Kennington
Is this a genuine Invader piece above an estate agent at Kennington Cross?
How long has it been there?
Some kind of trailer for the Damien Hirst Gallery perhaps?
And how about this huge one above the Windmill Pub in North West Kennington, just behind Albert Embankment?
Kennington apocalypse at Beaconsfield: We Are History by John Timberlake
We love Kennington, we love big art, and we love the apocalypse, so the current show at Beaconsfield Art Gallery could almost have been designed with us in mind. We Are History by John Timberlake features a giant painting of West Kennington in three parts, with a mushroom cloud behind. “The perspectival position suggests that the target may have been High Wycombe”. Damn it, we were thinking Clapham.
You are encouraged to take photos and the installation really comes alive when you take photos of people walking in between the three parts. We’ve not done that because we wanted to preserve our anonymity, but you should:
The show is open until August 30th, Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm. Get along on Wednesday. Thursday or Friday lunchtime and you can sample the wonderful food of the Ragged Canteen, the third best restaurant in Kennington.
Kennington architecture features in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition again this year
Apartment tower, West Kennington, London by Keith Williams Architects. Behold those children transfixed by its beauty:
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is open for another week, until August 17th.
Here was Kennington’s contribution to last year’s exhibition, which is being built at present.
