Category Archives: buildings

Three Buds

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In this climatically challenging spell we’re having, ice cream becomes less of a luxury and more of a need. We’ve just undertaken an almost unheard of face to face interview with Sarah, who’s just opened gelato/coffee/bagel spot ‘Three Buds’ right in the middle of Vauxhall park. The buds refer to Sarah’s kids aged  3, 5, and 7. How she’s managed to start a business with three little ones whist we struggle to find a dropped paper clip eludes us, but this isn’t about us.

Sarah’s lived in Greater Kennington (Vauxhall) for 10 years and recently left her job in the City as she spotted a hole in the market for a quality café in Vauxhall Park. She was inspired by seeing her neighbours and kids using the park and wanted to extend that community feel by creating a space where they could relax. The concept of her business is to select food that she would want her kids to eat. So the gelato has no artificial ingredients found in creams you might get in Tesco (a supermarket). In fact, their gelato is sourced from the same supplier that’s used by the Italian embassy.  Whilst there we indulged on (don’t judge us) pistachio, vanilla and strawberry, Belgian chocolate, strawberries and crème, and salted peanut butter, the latter being vegan. All rich and delicious. And if you’ve never eaten five gelatos at 10am it’s a whole different vibe.

We don’t usually accept freebies but as we’d already broken the fourth wall by pitching up in person we thought ‘screw it’ and accepted a creamy and balanced  iced latte and a raisin bagel with homemade berry crème cheese. This was an example of breakfast fare and Sarah explained that they have a range of lunchtime bagels as well. The bagels are sourced from NYC and ours was doughy and excellent. Sarah road tests all of her goodies, such as coffee beans, before they hit her café. When asked how she makes margins work as food prices increase, Sarah put on her sunglasses and said, wearily, ‘I don’t know’. So this is our call for you to pop over to Vauxhall Park and say hello to Sarah and her new local business. Oh, and buy things.

Free Garden Museum and a Scary Tony Blair Gnome

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Over at the Garden Museum on Sunday (the 12th) they’re having a Neighbours Day and we think its something that you might just want to get your hands dirty for as its yet more free stuff. There will be workshops on flower arranging and pressing, seed bomb making, face painting, and live music. This is mostly kids stuff which we’ll avoid but is great as some of us in the office were once kids ourselves.

The best part of the day is that the museum itself will be open for free (usually £17, which we think is a bit steep) and there will be periodic tours of the exhibits and the beautiful decommissioned church in which it is set. For those who haven’t been, the museum encompasses bedding design, implements, seeds, old lawn mowers, FlyMos, and descriptions of how certain plants were brought to the UK. There is also a small art gallery and you can climb the medieval tower. The garden gnome collection is particularly impressive 

Neighbours Day is on Sunday from 11-4 and is totally free. And by ‘neighbours’ we think they’re liberal in their definition. And this will be your chance, and these chances don’t come by very often, to meet a scary garden gnome that looks JUST LIKE TONY BLAIR. 

A Building and a Smell Tells a Thousand Words

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Buildings in Greater Kennington have stories, and sometimes smells. The story of what is now Vox Studios is a living metaphor for how Vauxhall has evolved over time. From brewery to Marmite factory and from a homeless charity to a Gen Z pop up office space this is the four stage life of a building that reflects how we have changed and the smells we’ve tolerated.

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From the dawn of the industrial age until the 1960’s our patch of south London provided a much needed repository for smelly things that London needed but didn’t necessarily want on its front door. Victorian Greater Kennington was punctuated with vinegar works, soap factories, coal spewing industries and of course Gasometers. So Vauxhall proved the ideal HQ for the New London Brewery Company. From 1897 they produced beers for over 78 local pubs. It was a major regional player in the drinks trade, employing hundreds of local people to work yeast, logistics, and deliver barrels. The present day car park was once filled with horses, carriages and doubtless heaps of acrid horse poo. Sadly, due to the extremely competitive nature of the drinks trade, our mighty brewery went into liquidation in 1925.

With all those hops and stills hanging around, when the mighty Marmite folks began sniffing around for a London HQ the brewery was an ideal spot. Part of the late Victorian building was pulled down and a more suitable edifice created in 1927. For the next 40 years Marmite was produced and hauled away by the lorryload, and the internet is full of tales of the aroma of the area. With Gasometers, Marmite, and a pickle factory (now Beefeater HQ) basically back to back the funk factor must have been overwhelming.

As smelly factories moved out, Vauxhall still acted as a repository of things London didn’t want to look at – the homeless. Older residents might remember the wonderful homeless charities Thames Reach and Centrepoint in Vauxhall, and when St. Mungos was looking for its first building to house the homeless, the old Marmite site seemed ideal and from 1973 it offered 200 beds to the most vulnerable.  Since its humble days at our little factory, St. Mungo’s has become one of the UK’s largest homeless charities and helps tens of thousands of people a year.

Skipping jauntily ahead to its most recent incarnation. The Workspace group has built a massive extension and has styled the factory as ‘Vox Studios’ with the forecourt smell of hops, Marmite and horses being replaced with £5 skinny white lattes. Some might view the young tech types that it attracts as being good for the local economy. Others might see them as contributing little to the economy other than by making home prices higher. Making it yet another thing that Vauxhall doesn’t want but nevertheless needs.

If you want to watch a creepy, AI generated film about the smells of Victorian London, watch away! But you might need a nice shower afterwards.

Cricket a la Mode

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As a person who lives near the Oval you may at some point be asked to attend a cricket match, and if cricket isn’t exactly your wicket then this piece is for you as we’ll introduce you to other things going on there. Recently some of the Observer staff attended the T20 Blast series at the Oval.  This was booked through  our underused colleague Mark over on the sports desk. Or his name might be Mike. Anyway, we wholly thank Mark/Mike for making this unusual sports foray possible.

The primary feature of T20 cricket is that the matches are compressed into three hours, and are fast past and undertaken in the evening, making it more appealing to neophytes such as us, and we used AI to teach us the basics. We saw the London Derby of Surrey vs. Middlesex and the punters were certainly more, shall we say, energetic than the punters we saw on a previous daytime session, who appeared to engage with the sport primarily whilst snoring.

One fun activity is to wander around and learn about the history of the grounds and cricket greats such as Alec Bedser and Ian Ward. We frankly have no idea who these people are but they have very interesting stories. On the pitch you can grab £1000 if you catch a ball, which appeared highly unlikely given the sobriety level of the crowd. There were also fireworks, ozone destroying fireballs, a T-Shirt cannon and of course nothing could yell ‘Greater Kennington’ more than the addition of a drag queen. As a bonus, cricket appears to be one of the only sports that you can enjoy while chatting with people around you or even on the phone. It was a wonderfully lively bunch.

No day out for us would be complete without stuffing our face, and it was provided by the excellent Kerb catering, who do a more upmarket version of football grub. We saw venison burgers, loads of hot chicken, Indian, Greek, fish-n-chips, loaded fries, BBQ and more. Your scribe had a chicken shish wrap from Lil Watan and intern Paul had a delicious Punjabi naan wrap from Baby Dhaba. One place where they sting you is at the bar. They have fancy craft beer and fine wines, but our Brixton Pale Ale and a can of wine (they’re a thing) was over £18. However, on some fixtures you can bring in your own booze but sadly not T20. This probably explains why Phil from accounts vanished when it was his round. But as it was Phil he could have just been kicked out.

We greatly admire any sport that you can observe while scrolling on your phone, talking, sleeping, or being flogged a car. So if you’re feeling inspired by this article, admission starts at £20 and there are many other matches available. If you want to discover more about the history of the Oval, including the man who walked 1000 miles around it fuelled only by brandy infused tea, we’ve got you covered.   

Jack White at Newport Street Gallery

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Once you’ve written probably the best known guitar  riff of the 21st century you’d think that life is pretty much downhill after that. But clever Jack White from the White Stripes thought of a backup long before creating the chant a from thousand terraces. His first ever public art exhibition, These Thoughts May Disappear, is an overview of White’s artistic space outside of music. Some of these works are from the 90’s but most have been created specifically for this exhibit/salesroom at Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall. And yes, amongst us we figured out that a terrace isn’t just a place where you gossip and sip Rose.

At first glance White’s artworks are pop art, Tim Burton-ian inventions to the extent that you expect Helena Bonham Carter herself to pop from behind a sculpture, but they invite a closer look. People who are aware of the Stripes work (not us) will detect his colour coded references to the Stripes back catalogue. An upstairs room acts as a nod to White’s start as a Detroit upholsterer and features a stripey table with a levitating ping pong, as all good tables should possess.

Gallery one is comprised of a number of small ceramic figurines which all bear a striking resemblance to White himself, which to us acted as sinister, almost Trumpian introduction to the exhibit. In the third gallery we encounter White’s mythical Pallet Cleanse Corporation, which repurposes redundant pallets into glamorous objects of adoration, often in high gloss. As if you forgot the identity of the artist, there are stripes of every sort to remind you. And apparently references to songs we’ve never heard of.

After the furniture jumble sale with aforementioned levitating ping pong, the third room becomes immersive and allows us to play with all sorts of Moog synthesisers and other fiddly bits which integrate into the works. The overall impression are of works manufactured out of household objects from a man shed in the back of a garden,  which across this impressive group of more than 100 sculptures, paintings, photographs, and pieces of furniture White achieves.

Is this the evolution of a talented artist or a bored, washed up rock star trying to capitalise on his name? To think in these binary terms rather defeats the purpose of art like this. If you enjoy art for art’s sake, does the artist really matter? And as it’s free who cares, as a seven nation army can’t hold you back.

These thoughts may disappear is on now until 13.9.2026, so you have no excuse to get over there. And for those of you who have no clue who the hell we’re talking about, the video is below.

Pullens Yard Open Studios Spring 2026

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As frequent readers are all too aware, we here at the Observer love nothing more than anonymously sticking our noses where they don’t belong. So why not join the merry ranks of middle class white people and partake of our passion/dysfunction? We’re talking, of course, of the great Pullens Yard Spring Open Studios weekend taking place on 5-7 June (that’s next week and not this weekend, folks. Keep up) in Walworth. It might just prove to be the last warm weekend of the year.

Pullens Yards (Clements, Peacock and the large Iliffe Yard) are an amazing collection of 1880’s workhouses which were originally designed for the people who lived in the nearby Pullens Estate. We wrote about the fascinating squatting history of the estate a few years ago. Instead of being converted into luxury flats, the Yards serve the same purpose as they did 140 years go, and the cabinet makers and blacksmiths have been replaced by potters, jewellery makers, card makers and folks who make things that you want but by no means need. We once bought moth balls disguised as little knitted mice. And as we know crystals are just rocks, but the stall holders might just convince you that they have the power to heal.

The studios at Pullens Yards are usually not open to the public, but twice a year they fling their doors open to give us a glimpse into their creative universe and this is the Spring iteration. The artists are more than happy to show you what and how they create, and of course you can buy what’s on show. And buying is by no means compulsory, as at the end the day these folks just want to show off how clever they are and it’s totally free. Have we mentioned how much we love free?

A visit to the Yards is a fun way to spend a morning or a late afternoon searching for quirky and unusual gifts for yourself or loved ones. In the past we’ve encountered live music, food for sale, a bar provided by Orbit Brewery(!) and live music. A sunny late spring day is an exceptionally optimistic way to see the Yards. And who knows, you just might discover a previously unrealised desire to own a necklace made out of forks or a room deodoriser fashioned as a piece of cheese.

Pullen’s Open Studios is open Friday evening and in the daytime over the weekend. And if you’re overwhelmed by that necklace fashioned out of forks, take a break and check out the great and very quirky Electric Elephant Café. And no, its not a charity shop. It just looks like one.

Save Maderia Star!

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At the Observer we tend to avoid campaigns as that would make us no better than, say, Loose Women. But rules were made to be broken and we’re adding to one.

Madeira Star has been an institution in Kennington Cross for over thirty years. It is one of the few places in Greater Kennington where normal folk can grab an affordable lunch or a decent(ish) fry up. The landlord has decided to not renew Madiera’s lease, the likely reason being that they calculate that a large chain would pay more rent. This would be a true loss to Greater Kennington, as through the years what Maderia has become is more of a community gathering place, and its loss takes away not not only an institution but part of our identity. What is being proposed by the Change.org petition is for Lambeth to step in and protect it as a community asset.

We have to confess that our ulterior motive is that we possess an irrational fixation that any vacant property will be replaced by that scourge of the high street….Gail’s Bakery. And Loose Women, if you’re reading this we do love you. In fact, for reasons relating solely to journalistic research two of the team were in your audience in October. We’re in the picture below between Janet Street Porter and a minor Nolan sister. Yes that us in the grey, right in the middle.

To join the movement click here. Unless you enjoy shelling out £8.90 for a sandwich and £3 for a cup of tea.

Kennington Invents the Taxicab…Sort of.

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You’ve probably walked or bussed by the massive red brick and terracotta behemoth buildings at the top of Brixton Rd next to the park but never noticed them. Built in 1905/07, it was the original home of the General Motor Cab Company and oversaw the first wave of motorised taxis in London. This imposing structure has also had an inordinate impact on our vernacular, as three commonplace words were coined in these very buildings….Taxicab, taxi, and cab.

London’s first petrol fuelled cabs were rolled out in 1903 and by 1905 they became the norm, but they of course needed a depot where they could be parked. The garage of the General Motor Company then came into existence with home for over 2000 cabs and one of its first tasks was to get the new motorised whizzies fitted with meters. Thus became the synthesis of the words ‘taxi’ (from the French taxomiter) and ‘cab’ (from the French cabriolet).

In a time before Waymo driverless cabs threatened to mow you down in Kennington Lane, the regulation of taxis was a laborious undertaking and made compulsory by 1907 and an administration extension to the depot was erected that year, likely used to oversee revenues from the cabs.   And for the young ones out there, taxis are something that old people used wave down to get home from a boozy night out. You might still see a few of them about. They’re black and driven by guys named Gary who want to talk to you about football and ‘all those people coming over in boats’.

The current occupant is largely the shared office outfit ‘Workspace’, offering shared and personal work environments at an extortionate rate….but if that subsidises their cheap coffee and free Wifi in their café then we say ‘keep up the good work’!  The building is so massive, in fact, that until recently part of it was rented to the National Theatre as a storehouse for all their costumes. That space is now occupied by Pure Gym, where our PR assistant Adam once somehow managed, with devasting consequences,  to get his shorts trapped in a stationary bike. Other occupants include firms of architects, consultants, catering and, most tantalisingly, a K-Pop dance school. Sign us up!

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Beauty and Destruction at the Imperial War Museum

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We love nothing more than a four day weekend, but after a fifth episode of ‘A Place in the Sun’ things can get rather, shall we say, boring…..So we’ve decided to build some brain cells by popping over to the Imperial War Museum to see the petite, pop up exhibit ‘Beauty and Destruction: Wartime Art in London’. Its free (we love free) and open throughout the weekend.

Through the medium of oils, watercolours, pen and ink drawings and even letters we can see the destruction wrought through 57 days of the Blitz and beyond. Included are works by Paul Methuen, Evelyn Gibbs and Leonard Rosoman. We frankly have no idea who any of these people are, but they’re good artists who were either commissioned by the government to undertake these works or were casual painters. The most notable of these being Henry Moore. As with all exhibits at IWM, this is not a glorification of warfare, and many of these works are testaments to resilience, depicting mums shopping or people just getting on with their lives. So you have no excuse to get your Guardian reading selves over there.

Beauty and Destruction is on now until 1 November and is totally free. As the exhibit is small, why not pop over to the Blavatnik Art, Film and Photo Gallery on the same floor? They have a number of stunning works and it’s a fun way to spend some time.  Well, if you can sidestep the unfun fact that’s been endowed by a dodgy Russian oligarch. So Guardian readers, you get a free pass on this one.  

Elizabeth Bligh, the Most Patient Person in Greater Kennington

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For a number of years we’ve wanted to write a piece about William Bligh as his family lived in a house facing the Imperial War Museum. However, after a fair amount of research we’ve reached the scholarly conclusion that he was in fact an irascible and nasty piece of work who was given roles he wasn’t qualified for merely because of his connections. That led us to investigate into a more worthy resident of 100 Lambeth Road; his long suffering and patient wife Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth and Bligh married in 1781 she was aware that they would be apart for long periods of time, and after reading his history perhaps that’s one thing that attracted her to him. While not running a household with four kids and staff Elizabeth was a Conchologist; a collector of seashells. Many of which Bligh lovingly obtained as he sailed the South Pacific yelling at people.

Bligh is best known as the cause for the Mutiny on the Bounty, instigated by sailors who grew weary of his incompetence and abuse (Observer bigwigs take note of this). Less well known are his hijinks afterwards. In a ‘deju vu’ moment, several years after the Bounty he was involved in the Nore Mutiny and was once again forcibly removed from the ship has was captaining. Through all of this Elizabeth remained devoted to William and stood by him.

Possibly because they wanted to get him out of the way, in 1806 the Navy appointed  Bligh as Governor of New South Wales. He requested that Elizabeth join him but she promptly shut him down. We’re picturing a Regency version of Elizabeth putting her hand in his face and saying ‘I don’t think so’. When stories began to circulate from New South Wales that he was trying to be deposed, the caricatures and rumours started to fly.  As if she didn’t have enough on her plate, Elizabeth actively campaigned on his behalf by writing letters to persons with influence regarding his fitness to remain and defiance in what became known as the Rum Rebellion.

Despite her prolific letter writing, Bligh was dismissed from his role down under just two years after being appointed. In what must have been a ‘Oh FFS not this again’ moment for Elizabeth, he joined her again at 100 Lambeth Road. Elizabeth was probably Bligh’s only friend, and to repay her for a life spent raising kids, running a household, writing letters and collecting shells Bligh infected Elizabeth with syphilis and she died in 1812, aged 59. Websites indicate that Bligh contracted syphilis by ‘talking to natives in Tahiti’. Well, here at the Observer we know a thing or two about catching STD’s and they aren’t transmitted by talking, thank you very much.

The tranquil family resting point is in the courtyard of the Gardening Museum, next to their very swishy restaurant which we’ve been trying to get the aforementioned bigwigs to fund for ages, to no avail. Could a mutiny be brewing in our underground offices?