About Kennington Observer

Surreptitiously observing Kennington, including the suburbs Vauxhall, Oval, Walworth, and Elephant since 2012. We're fiercely independent and never boring.

La Chatica Colombian Café, Deli & Bakery

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Kennington Observer

Back to London’s Latin American Quarter to visit La Chatica, a Colombian cafe, deli, bakery, and bar on Elephant Road in North Kennington.

La Chatica seems to have started as a business importing Latin American food before opening this cafe. They “use the finest South American ingredients” to make their version of the “much-loved” Pan de Bono (cheese bread), Pan de Yuca (another type of cheese bread) and Empanadas (the Latin American equivalent of a pasty).

So how does Latin American food shape up? Mexico and Argentina are justly famously for their cuisines. Brazil has some great restaurants. But elsewhere in the continent, it can be hard to find great food besides meat, fish, rice and salad. So La Chatica definitely feels authentic, with its baked goods wrapped in cellophane, rich in sugar and caramel. But if you don’t fancy those, you can just window shop the product displays. You’ll soon forget you’re under a railway arch in London:

La Chatica is open seven days a week, and they serve 100% Colombian coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice, freshly made baked goods every day, and they have free wifi.

London, Westminster and Southwark illustration

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Kennington Observer

If you get beyond the intimidating entrance of Greengrassi/Corvi-Mora gallery, you’ll see this rather splendid illustration of London, Westminster and Southwark on their wall. Unfortunately we can’t read the date but we’re guessing 1854?

more images from Everything is about to happen

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Kennington Observer

This time they are all safe for work.

An illicit cookbook (mushrooms are banned in Kennington remember):

An Atlas of the New Testament:

FT III:

Road and Rail Links Between Manchester and Sheffield:

Preston Bus Station:

Selwyn’s Law of Employment (but is it art?)

Ex-library book and 1 Day Diary:

Everything is about to happen is “an ongoing archive of artists’ books selected by Gregorio Magnani” showing at the Greengrassi/Corvi-Mora gallery until April 26th.

Greengrassi/Corvi-Mora art gallery

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Kennington Observer

You could live in Kennington for decades and never happen across Kempsford Road. You could live on Kempsford Road and have no idea there’s an art gallery there. But there is – Greengrassi, AKA Corvi-Mora. Even the doorbell is hard to reach – presumably short people aren’t big art buyers.

If you can find the gallery, we recommend visiting between now and April 26th as the main room downstairs is showing Everything is about to happen, “an ongoing archive of artists’ books selected by Gregorio Magnani”.

All the books and pamphlets are either self-published or from small publishers. So yes, what we’re talking about here is a load of art books by people you’ve never heard of, laid out on a huge wooden table. It’s much better than it sounds because so many of the books are intriguing and/or beautiful, like the room in which they’re displayed.

These books celebrate the mundane, cheap jokes, puns, sloganeering, and porn… all the classic themes of modern art are here. If you want to read them in depth you are supposed to take them into the reading station and don white gloves.

Or rubber gloves if you want to look at the top ones below (n.b. this next image is NSFW, unless you work in a modern art gallery or The Locker Room):

Opening hours: 11am to 6pm Tuesday to Saturday

Address: 1A Kempsford Road (off Wincott Street), London SE11 4NU

Save Our Subways

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Kennington Observer

There are plans afoot to fill in the subways at the north roundabout in North Kennington. With our focus on the finer things in Kennington life, you might think we’d say good riddance to subways. You’d be wrong. Subways provide extra space for pedestrians. Without them, locals will face long waits at pedestrian crossings or, more likely in our case, dangerous dashes across up to six lanes of traffic. Where they’re confusing or aesthetically challenged, let’s have more signs, more lighting, and a fresh lick of paint rather than filling them with tonnes of concrete.

So we’re backing the Save Our Subways campaign.

This is our biggest foray yet into campaigning, but we’re brimming with confidence following the success of our campaigns to bring veggie burgers to Honest Burger, Waitrose to Kennington, and mindfulness to Sally White staff. Only this time we need your help.

Have a look at the “Boris Bodge” proposals here and register your opinions here, paying particular attention to question 4.

Photo courtesy of saveoursubways.org

Kennington guerrilla gardening

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Kennington Observer

The nice people at Kennington Flowers have made Kennington Cross even more colourful by planting flowers in the tree pit in front of St Anselm’s Church. Perhaps fuelled by Coffee Mob coffee, they’ve broken away from the staid confines of traditional garden design and gone for something akin to a Skittles spillage:

While we’re on the subject of guerrilla gardening, would anyone like to claim responsibility for the cyclamen in the tree pits further up Kennington Road? North Kennington is home to the founder of GuerrillaGardening.org Richard Reynolds (Britain’s 24th most influential gardener), but we’re assured these cyclamen are not his handy work.

Anyway, well done everyone – keep planting.

The Coffee Mob

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Kennington Observer

The Coffee Mob is a ~~notorious Clerkenwell-based gang~~ relatively recent addition to the Kennington Flowers stall outside St Anselm’s Church at Kennington Cross. This coffee van is a joint venture between Tomorrow’s People and The Coffee Mob, who say they source all their coffee ethically and donate all their profits to Centrepoint.

Want to know what a cup of Coffee Mob coffee says about you? Their website has the answer: “I appreciate a great cup of coffee but I want to help others too, and I have a high tolerance for cringe-y brand messages”.

Like Kennington Flowers, The Coffee Mob van is open from Tuesday to Saturday from whenever they feel like till whenever they feel like, so snap up a coffee for £2 while you can. But if you’re in the market for a decaf soy macchiato, prepare for a blank stare.

Charlie Chaplin at age 27 in 1916, when he lived in Kennington

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Kennington Observer

Looking like he was in Mumford & Sons

new Lebanese deli on Kennington Lane

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Kennington Observer

And the best restaurant in Kennington is… Not this, or not as far as we know – we’re announcing our no. 1 on Wednesday.

This is a new Lebanese delicatessen that has opened near Mimosa at the West Kennington end of Kennington Lane. Unlike Mimosa, it’s open seven days until 10pm. Or so it says on its sign, but when we tried yesterday afternoon, the door was locked and a young child was sat behind the counter. Nonetheless, we’re excited by the prospect of homemade Lebanese bread, humus and cakes, and fresh fruit and veg. Others may go for the halal meat (there was a chicken spit roasting in the doorway yesterday).

We are big fans of Lebanese food – Le Comptoir Libanais is the one chain restaurant that we would welcome to Kennington, but hopefully this will do in the meantime.

Has anyone been when it’s open? And does anyone know what it’s actually called?

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – numbers 10 to 8

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Kennington Observer

The votes have been ~~ignored~~ counted, so now we begin our countdown of the top ten restaurants in Kennington:

10. Mamuśka
pros: it’s great fun and cheap
cons: Polish milk bar food can be somewhat utilitarian
hygiene rating: 5

9. Gandhi’s
There are two renowned curry houses in Kennington – Gandhi’s and the Kennington Tandoori. Both do good quality food but we prefer Gandhi’s for their vegetable thali and their social media strategy (which is non-existent so preferable to Kennington Tandoori’s).
pros: you might see someone famous
cons: it will probably be a senior politician or Professor Green
Gandhi’s hygiene rating: 4
KT hygiene rating: 5

8. Bonnington Cafe
pros: this would be no. 1 for atmosphere
cons: the vegetarian and vegan food is inevitably hit and miss due to the rota of volunteer chefs
hygiene rating: 3

The Kennington Observer

Surreptitiously observing Kennington, including the suburbs Vauxhall, Oval, Walworth, and Elephant since 2012

Author Archives: Kennington Observer