Category Archives: Art

Edward Hollamby, the Architect of Greater Kennington

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A great deal of the built environment around us in Greater Kennington can be linked directly to architect and visionary Edward Hollamby (1921 – 1999). Like many architects of his generation, Hollamby was profoundly influenced by the values of William Morris. Namely, those relating to equitable living conditions and the universal right for people to work and live in places which allow them to flourish. There was no better way to execute these values that by working for local government, and Hollamby worked for both the LCC and Lambeth Council. 

Locally,  Hollamby is known primarily for being the lead architect of the Brandon Estate in Walworth (behind Kennington Park), which we wrote about last summer. His vision for the estate was to build a community which addressed the individual and changing needs of its residents, make shopping easier, while also creating large green spaces to allow people to relax and children to play. And to make the area more aesthetically pleasing he even convinced Lambeth to commission a sculpture by Henry Moore, which is very much still there.

As lead architect in Lambeth Hollamby hired Peter Finch, who designed the Cotton Gardens Estate in Kennington Lane (we are aware that these buildings remain a tad controversial). Hollamby/Finch’s thinking is that they wanted buildings which ‘danced around in different directions’ depending on how one looked at them. It’s often overlooked that at ground level they created green spaces in addition to bungalows and maisonettes for people who didn’t fancy  living in a high rise. A walk around Knight’s Walk around the foot of the buildings is a bit like a stroll in a park. And if the towers look very familiar to others in South London, that’s because they were all made from complex interlocking panels which were massed produced. 

Hollamby was also the brains behind the unusual and rather playful Lambeth Towers in Kennington Road, with the lead architect again being Finch. The building was started in 1964 with the intention of being mixed use, which it is to this day, and the box like design intended to allow each maisonette to be double aspect and have its own balcony. These buildings are classed as being ‘Brutalist’ but that name seems to stick to every 20thCentury building with a bit of exposed brick. Figuring out when a building becomes ‘brutal’ therefore becomes rather like an architectural game of Wordle. You may or may not find these estates to be beautiful, but Hollamby always made the needs and wishes of the residents paramount.

Keith Cunningham at Newport St. Gallery

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The latest offering over at the Newport Street Gallery is the work of little known and exceptionally gifted artist Keith Cunningham, who mysteriously gave up painting just a few years after he started. Cunningham was on the periphery of the London Group of artists who among their number included Frank Auerbach and Leon Kosoff and the Group were intrigued by Cunningham’s powerful, if not at times gruesome and sinister, subject matter. 

At least there’s no queue for the toilet

Cunningham was certainly a man with something to say, but not very interested who heard him, as many of these 70 works accumulated in his studio as opposed to being seen. He used a very dark and tightly controlled palette of colours with think coats of impasto, giving the works that are not under glass a 3D element, with the added drama of huge brushstrokes. In this manner he captures commuters, rabbits, and even squid. 

At the moment there is an epic retrospective of Francis Bacon’s work at the Royal Academy (north of the river if you dare) and in way Cunningham’s depictions of blood crazed dogs, skulls, and angst is an interesting counterpoint to the great man’s work. It’s possibly not a coincidence that they’re being staged at the same time. 

As you move through the well organised exhibit Cunningham’s  work begins to tilt more towards abstraction and huge blocks of colour. The painting below is a still life. However, it rather reminded us of Phil from the accounts team when he fell over outside the Tommyfield pub after downing eight pints of cider at our Christmas party. 

‘Keith Cunningham, the Cloud of Witness’ is on now until 21 August at Newport Street Gallery and is totally free. 

Expiring at Gasworks

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If you follow art historical debates as fervently as our snooty ‘Culture’ department here at the Runoff does, then you’ll be aware that there are big debates afoot about the repatriation of objects that have been, lets say, ‘liberated’ from other cultures. Examples are the Elgin Marbles and Benin sculptures at the British Museum. The current exhibit at the Gasworks Gallery in Vauxhall takes a different approach to this question by asking museums to assess their relationship with life and death….Stick with us…..

The show is called ‘out of an instance of expiration comes a perennial showing’ and is by LA based artist Gala Porras-Kim. In addition to raising questions about the use of capital letters, the artist raises questions about the conservation of human remains and if sacred objects meant for the afterlife are devoid of meaning if extracted from a tomb and put on display, and to get her point across there’s even a giant sarcophagus in the main room. Next to the works are letters to museums asking about their curatorial practice and in one curious note she asks a curator if a mummy had been consulted before he was put on display.

As you walk through the works in the small space, the content of what is being asked becomes more apparent. How do we understand and respect items associated with death and how do institutions respect and deal with items in their collections which are still living (eg in an afterlife)? And if you prefer your art exhibits to involve mould spores and the contents of vacuum cleaner bags then this exhibit doesn’t disappoint. I mean this is Gasworks, after all. 

As you know, we love free stuff and on Tuesday, 8 March at 7pm Gasworks will have a free talk about Pharaonic music and how the ancient Egyptians made instruments.  Admittedly when we first saw this we thought it said Pharrell, but at least there’s still music involved. 

Out of an instance of expiration comes a perennial showing is on now until 27 March and, like all good stuff, free. Look at website for opening hours. 

Romeo and Juliet at Southwark Playhouse

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We recently made a visit to the soon to be relocated Southwark Playhouse in Elephant and Castle to see a reworking of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. This production is set in Brixton (a popular neighbourhood south of us) in 1981 with a backdrop of Thatcher, The Specials and Madness. If these names mean nothing to you please ask your parents and feel free to read on. 

In this production the Montagues and Capulets become rival council houses. The presence of pop music has the potential to make the production has the cheesy, but it is subtly done and used in the background. The play sticks almost entirely to the original script, but manages to weave into it a fair degree of humour and levity and the odd bit of swearing and slang. One monologue is delivered while a women is folding laundry and asking audience members to help her. And when talking about Juliet, Paris and Romeo have a bad habit of condoms popping out of their pockets. Exceptionally strong characters are Yinka Awani as a Friar Laurence determined to make a wedding happen come what may, and Fiona Skinner as a hilarious Lady Capulet who at the end of the day just wants to have giant piss up for Juliet instead of a wedding.

This production is part of Southwark Playhouse’s ‘Shakespeare for Schools’ project, will enables over 2000 Southwark kids to see the play for free during a series of matinees, but hopefully with the fucks and shits taken out. This year Southwark Playhouse will be moving to the top of Kennington lane, in the giant and strangely named ‘Uncle’ high-rise. While this has been in the works for ages, we’ve been informed that the move is imminent. 

Romeo and Juliet is on now until 5 February and tickets can be booked here. There are six characters playing 13 roles, so it pays to pay attention. This is a very fast paced production and comes in at 1:45 with no interval, so get a large drink to take in from the very fun café.  And to the bosses at Runoff HQ, we too had a large drink but this counts as a business meeting, like it or not 

A Local Victory

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If it was possible we would buy all of our readers a colourful Christmas gift. Unfortunately, we once again failed to get a bonus this year or any other kind of appreciation from Runoff management. Well, unless you count Monday morning when Phil from finance shouted ‘here’s your lot’ and threw a handful of Quality Street into our cubicles before walking away.  What we can give you, therefore, is a present that will enhance our lives in other ways. 

Lambeth County Court has stood proudly near Kennington Cross for almost a century. It’s functional life came to an end in 2017 and its future was very much in doubt. It was tantalizingly shut from public view after that with the exception of  two occasions, which we chronicled in 2019 and earlier this year. During this time the Duchy of Cornwall, who owns the property, cynically applied for the building to be immune from listing with the plan to convert it into……you guessed it……luxury flats, with the added indignity of an extra floor plopped on top. This would of course entail gutting the building and destroying the original, period courtrooms.  

We’ve always had a passion for the Courthouse, but we’ve given our opinion about planning consent before and let’s just say it took the better part of a year to put that toothpaste back in the tube so we weren’t doing that again. However, to the rescue came the 20th Century Society who gave advice (read, pressure) to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to list the building and after a great deal of exertion the building was granted Grade II status, ensuing that it will remain intact. We’re happy that the Society used some of our images on their website. 

At the moment part of the building is used as studios for artists affiliated with City and Guilds. In our little crystal ball the Courthouse could perhaps become a gallery or studio space for everyone in the community to enjoy in perpetuity. Everyone needs a place to live, but they also need a place to explore. Merry Christmas……

History and Cameras

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Last weekend our newish MP, Florence Eshamoni, opened the spanking new ‘History Hut’ in Kennington Park close to the tennis courts. Formerly a seating area frequented by gentlemen who like to enjoy an outdoor beverage,  the rest stop has been transformed by the installation of eight boards celebrating the vitality and diversity of our area. The boards cover areas from royalty to hangings, cricket to Chartists, and Van Gogh to WW1. If you are an astute reader you’ll be aware that we have written about many of these things before *collective office high five*.  Well worth a pre-Christmas perambulation to work off those extra calories 

The boards also mention a little known but fascinating tattle of trivia taken from the estates around Greater Kennington. The strange railings that you see around many estates are not actually railings at all, but repurposed stretchers from WW2. They were placed in storage by the Civil Defense Corps until the 1960’s in case of a nuclear (!) attack. We wrote about them in 2019. 

Camera Club

We really know very little about the Camera Club other than it has been there for years and we know very little about it. It is actually one of the oldest photography clubs in the world, and the site in Bowden Street acts not only as a studio but also an exhibit space for members. Until 25 January the gallery is having its annual Winter Member’s Exhibition and it is totally free. The photos offer a poignant overview of the highs and lows we’ve all faced in 2021. The very friendly staff on hand can even tell you how you can become a member yourself if you are the snappy sort. 

The IWM Gets a Big Facelift

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Today we visited the brand new £30 million Holocaust/World War 2 Galleries at our very own world class Imperial War Museum. The IWM has always dedicated galleries to these events, but when the museum was closed they worked tirelessly to transform the areas into a much larger (over 3000sq. metres) space with much more interactive content. What they have done well here is what the IWM has always excelled at. Namely, focussing on the lives of people impacted by an event as opposed to the event itself.  

The Holocaust galleries commence with an overview of Jewish life in central Europe in the 1920/30s. Brightly light rooms tell the stories of families and workers getting on with school, commuting and bar mitzvahs in the face of increasing discrimination. A transition room explains with frightening logic how Hitler became chancellor in 1933 and how life for Jews became incrementally more impossible as Germany grew closer to global conflict. The fate of Jews from 1939 to post war Europe is subsequently not presented in the graphic and grainy black and white images of death we have all seen before. Rather, we see photos of living  green fields which thrive in places like Sobibor and Treblinka in Poland. Interwoven is the lived experience of survivors whose collective memories will soon become extinct, but have been persevered by the IWM. 

The WW 2 galleries are a bit more of a task to take in, as they cover everything from action in the Africa to the Philippines. A whole museum could be dedicated to this, but IWM do their best to distil this into smaller elements focussed on human experiences on the front line and also people impacted on the home front. Various campaigns and victories are outlined and poignant detail is given to the efforts of troops and civilians on D Day. The huge scope of these galleries are made more accessible by the integration of devices such as a mock up of an early 40’s British home, clothing, music, air raid shelters, and the effect of the war on children who were evacuated from London. The final rooms are cogently dedicated to something usually overlooked by war memorials. Namely, how the world repaired itself after the event. 

For those of you who are reluctant to visit the IMW out of a concern that it celebrates conflict and warfare, let us assure you that it doesn’t. As the galleries above indicate, it is more of a museum dedicated to collective survival in times of crisis and individual resilience in times of oppression. As conflict and warfare very much exist on this planet as we speak, it also introduces concepts of how we can help war ravaged people in the present.  

The two galleries are permanent and free but are ticketed. You can get tickets on the day but to avoid waiting around it might be a good idea to book. If you are wondering about taking kids please not that these galleries are partially designed for children, but for under 11’s it might be a good idea to speak to them about what they are about to see.

While you’re swishing around the museum building brain cells you can also check out a small photographic exhibit from Oscar nominated photographer/filmmaker Wim Winders taken at ground zero in the weeks after the atrocity. The photos are large format and quite powerful. Afterwards we fully approve going to a Greater Kennington  pub to obliterate all of those brain cells you just obtained. 

City & Guilds MA Show

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The pinnacle of the Greater Kennington arts calendar is upon us again in the guise of the MA Show over at City and Guilds in Kennington Park Road. Now if you’re thinking ‘hang on, didn’t I just go to that’ then you’re thinking about the BA Show in August, so keep up. The MA show is a more mature and subdued affair, usually, so don’t expect any swing sets wrapped fur which talk to you. But nevertheless expect a few surprises.  

The MA programme at C&G focuses on fine art and does not include other speciality areas such as carving, conservation or restoration. Most of the artists are on hand and are more than happy (we’re talking, almost dying) to talk about their work. An obvious theme this year was isolation and vulnerability, and this was expressed in various ways. One artist worked exclusively in parsley (yes, the herb) and another one we got chatting do expressed herself by making doll sized dioramas filled with dust. Another crafted his work by a very heavy reliance on table salt. 

More traditional mediums are mostly used across the vast Georgian buildings of the school and it is easy to lose yourself as you wander about. A number of artists are working in sculpture and some pure drawing, but the majority of works are on canvas by use or oils, acrylics, or watercolour. Some interesting deviations are present, such as an artist who likes to depict 50’s ‘femme fatales’ in oil on Perspex (below). Some of the works are large format, others miniscule. The volume of work on show can be a bit overwhelming, but the impression is of a well curated and at times stunningly beautiful body of works. 

The MA show is open daily (other than Monday) from 10 to 5 until Saturday, 23 October. Even if you don’t really care for art it is totally free and a fun way to whittle away a lunch break, even if you’re not the arty sort.  

City and Guilds London Art School has a very long and fascinating connection to Greater Kennington. Before being in its present location it was in Vauxhall, with one its early patrons being the Doulton Pottery factory who used their students to embellish their works. With a strong contingent of female students, it also has links to the Suffragette movement in the early 20th century. You can even but some of these works on Ebay!

The Ragged Canteen

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Last week we popped over to the lovely but rarely open Beaconsfield Gallery in Vauxhall to check out their Ragged Canteen. It had been closed since before The Event but has now reopened as a ‘vegetarian, not for profit and kind to our planet’ establishment. So everything we aspire to be here at the Runoff. Well other than those days when we’re dealing with work related stress by cramming a £3 meal deal ham sandwich down our gobs…..Moving on…..

  • Yes we are aware that the sandwiches look exactly the same

Toasties are the main draw at Ragged Canteen, and on this outing my colleague had the carmelised onion, oregano, mozzarella and cheddar. It was nice and crispy around the edge, with a bit of cheese oozing out and well filled. Your scribe indulged in a gherkin and red pepper sandwich. Both on a nice thick sourdough and with all that goodness we just wish there had been more. All sandwiches can be made vegan if you ask them to substitute the mozzarella and cheddar with vegan cheeze.  Frequent readers will be aware that we have a long and somewhat tortured relationship with vegan cheeze so we bypassed this option.  

Also on offer at the Canteen are a host of snacks including croissants, crisps, brownies, cakes and cookies. Also available are a range of teas and coffees. We sat outside in their ample plant filled garden with just one another diner and a giant cat to keep us company. 

The name ‘Ragged Canteen’ prosaically references the buildings’ previous life as school for underprivileged youth in Lambeth, and we wrote about this noble and glorious past a few months ago. When it is open to the public the upstairs gallery is home to some very cutting edge and challenging shows. Some folks here in the office recently enjoyed an immersive exhibit about contemplating seeing art virtually versus seeing it in the flesh with the use of virtual reality goggles. 

    Voyages at Newport St. Gallery

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    The spanking new exhibition at Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall is called ‘Voyages’ and is the first major show outside the US of the work of New York photorealist Richard Estes. For those of you not in the know, photorealism is the ability to precisely depict a photographed scene by paint. Now you might be saying to yourself ‘then why bother – just because you know how do so something doesn’t mean you should do it’. So a bit like yodeling or skipping. But draw closer and the 45 paintings made over 35 years become abstract and aren’t really photographic at all. 

    His best work is on the ground floor and NYC is in the spotlight. Estes makes use out or glass, angles, light, refractions and the constant repetition of this urban field. He also examines people examining other things, such landmarks, cameras and their phones. All of these come together to create something that seems photographically familiar to us but when you get closer to the canvas becomes more like wedges of colour that have been thrown together. 

    Upstairs are more traditional landscapes that capture the small, intimate moments of the artist’s adventures. The paintings tend to become less personal and less real when they aren’t populated by human activity but are nevertheless interesting. Touching down in Copenhagen, approaching Antarctica by sea, and exploring the landscapes of New Zealand, Nepal,  and Tanzania all seem even more exotic given that they have been off limits for the past 18 months and you don’t have to take a lateral flow test to see them. 

    Richard Estes ‘Voyages’ is open now until 12 December. As ever, Newport Street Gallery is totally free and open Wednesday to Sunday.