Category Archives: buildings

City & Guilds Degree Show

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Earlier this week we made the unholy decision to leave Greater Kennington in order to attend the City and Guilds Fine Art Graduates Show at the Oxo Tower. It had to move from the school in Kennington Park Rd. due to the sheer size of the show, but by the time you are reading this it will all be over. But fear not, we’re here to tell you about the upcoming Degree show at City and Guilds from 18 – 22 August. As with everything you need to book, and it is totally free. 

These graduate shows are the high point of the Kennington art world calendar, and a great way to poke around some lovely Georgian buildings that are usually closed to us non arty folk. The shows are slightly bonkers, often beautiful, and never boring. In 2019 we deduced the main themes to be – 1. Saving the planet   2. Nudity   3. Saving the planet through nudity  4. Rocks.  Top tip- if you’re ever questioned about the meaning of that swing set covered in fur, just  look the person square in the face and say ‘its about IDENTITY’. Or be bang on trend with ‘It’s about COVID, obviously’. In addition to swings with fur, they also have exhibits of wood carving, masonry, and conservation. On most days the students studying these crafts are on hand and happy to show you what they are working on and how they do it. And it’s pretty wonderful. 

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!


Rebel Dykes in Kennington

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We’ve just checked out the intriguing ‘Rebel Dykes, Art and Archive’ exhibit at the rarely used Space Station Sixty-Five gallery in Central Kennington and we’re here to tell you what we unearthed. 

The London Rebel Dykes synthesised several feminist movements to pursue a fresh exploration of sex, art, writing and activism. The group informally came together during the all female protests at Greenham Common in 1982, and this grew organically through music, parties, the lesbian bar scene, by building families and in squats from Brixton up to Kennington. Rebel Dykes represented (and still do) a converging of communities of outsider lesbians such as punks, bikers, clubbers, protesters, kinksters and gender outlaws. 

The exhibition at Sixty-Five seeks to embrace and represent as many elements of the Rebel Dyke experience as possible and this is largely achieved in a multimedia manner. In the exhibit are photos, paintings, videos, testimonials, flyers, and a motorcycle engine revving  amongst black leather jackets. According to the organisers, they want to celebrate the work of groundbreaking rebel dykes in the past and connect them to a younger generation who continue to disrupt the world to this day. 

If you’ve ever wondered what transpires behind those foreboding steel gates branded ‘Kennington Film Studios’ well this is your chance, as the Space Station Sixty-Five Gallery is located in a studio inside the courtyard. We can only recall one other show being held in that great creative space, so if you’re reading this review Kennington Film Studios, if you put the shows on we’ll all come. 

Rebel Dykes Art and Archive Show is free and open from 12 to 6 Thursday to Sunday until 25 September. Another news event relating to underrepresented LGTBQI+ populations is this interesting piece in last weeks’ Guardian about the origins of UK Black Pride in Kennington Park. 

A Party for the Elephant

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This coming Saturday (26th) the much loved and much refurbished Elephant and Castle elephant will be making a return to the area and perched in its new home in Castle Square, which is in Elephant Street behind the now mostly past tense shopping centre. We are dearly hoping that the statue will be dragged trojan horse style through the streets by the executives of Lendlease, but our dreams rarely come true. 

We give you this information as the return will be accompanied by a kind of street party, and we are all invited. According to the press release, the Elephant and Castle Town Centre Team (whoever the hell they are) will be laying on a whole day of family fun that includes world music and food, cocktails (!), history, dancers and talks. It runs from 11:00 to 17:00. 


A selection of local traders will make up the backbone of the event and will include Coma Y Beba and Caribbean dishes from Kaieteur Kitchen. As this is Elephant, also expect lots of Venezuelan and Colombian fare, in addition to African dishes. Also on hand is Vauxhall staple and ‘wow I never knew a pint could cost 12 quid’ taproom Mother Kellys, who will be opening a new outlet in Elephant Square. We expect free samples. 


And if you are thinking that this celebration is just a cynical way for the property developers to win over local residents we could not POSSIBLY comment. What we can comment on is the chance  to support local traders, eat some interesting global food and catch some free music and stimulate that long dormant grey matter.  For a video of the elephant losing it’s perch, see below.

Cabinet, Beaconsfield and a Spot of Tea

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For a number of years we’ve been trying to ascertain the function of that strange building that popped up at the back of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens a few years ago. Resembling a posh persons’ house meets North Korean torture centre, it’s actually mostly dedicated to the very intriguing Cabinet Gallery. The current show somehow manages to make a connection between a horse drawn carriage and Oprah so it might be a bit of a stretch for some, but this place is definitely something for that pocket diary that we’ve been telling you get for years now. Check out the website for what’s on. 


As we were up in the lovely upper Vauxhall neck of the woods anyway, we checked out the critically acclaimed but rarely open Beaconsfield Galley. It’s open this Saturday (12th) and the next (19th) showing one large immersive work by Korean/Uk artist JinHan Lee called ‘Extended Realities’. The concept is an exploration of themes of virtual versus material art and how (or if) they complement one another. Very thought provoking and out questions the limits of how much we can take in without actually seeing it.


All that culture was proving exhausting to our lockdown addled  brains, so we popped into the wistfully eccentric Tea House Theatre for some tea and sandwiches. The sandwiches needed a bit of work (and if you’re reading this Tea House we’re wagging a coronation chicken stained finger at you) but the list of teas were endless and the cakes abundant. Check out their eclectic website for things that are going on there such as themed suppers, talks and kids stuff. When we visited they were even offering a course in….wait for it….picking locks! Another for that pocket diary that you’re on the very cusp of purchasing with your newly socially activated fingertips. 

Refugees and Al Weiwei at the Imperial War Museum

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Last week we visited our very own Imperial War Museum to see the extremely evocative and until recently long closed exhibit ‘Refugees: Forced to Flee’ and its related exhibit ‘A History of Bombs’. The latter was created by Chinese conceptual artist and dissident Al Weiwei, who himself was forced to flee China. A History of Bombs is a site specific illustration of the power of bombs and their impact on human lives. On the floor in the main gallery are illustrations and descriptions of bombs so small they can fit in your hand, and others so life shatteringly huge the snake up a staircase. It is a moving reminder of how the human race built up a mind boggling arsenal in the 20th century just to obliterate ourselves. The parallel between bombs and something else that has obliterated ourselves over the past 18 months can’t be overlooked. 

The brutal reality of bombs is one reason why people become refugees in the first place, and the intriguing Refugees exhibition delves into different global conflicts such as the German invasion of Belgium during WW1, ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War and the treacherous Mediterranean crossings of the present day. The exhibit begins by the societies that people departed from and often the brutal choices involved in leaving your culture behind for a place of safety where you may or may not be welcomed. 

The main section of this exhibit is dedicated to the journey that refugees take, both physically and mentally, and efforts of organisations like UNHCR which are there to help them. This includes camps where people set up a vibrant temporary community in a sometimes harsh and unforgiving surrounding. The final section explores the somewhat ambivalent attitudes of countries who accept refugees, and their efforts to help them assimilate and to preserve their culture. 

Included in the exhibit is a 360 degree immersive film installation created by CNN depicting life in a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece. 

While this exhibit might not be the most cheery way to spend a Bank Holiday, it certainly gets the grey matter jiggling after 16 months of watching ‘Homes Under the Hammer’. And it is open all next week during half term. Both shows are free but you must book in advance. Refugees runs until 13 June so get crackin’.

The Kennington/Oval Gas Holders

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Frequent Runoff readers will be aware that over the past two years we’ve taken a keen interest in the development at Oval Village, or as we call it ‘UpTown KenVo’. On our visits we’ve challenged an architect who was exhibiting the buildings by use of wooden blocks to a game of Jenga, and during an illustration of how the flats will look inside the remaining gasholder we asked another architect if their design aesthetic was to give residents a taste of life behind bars. 

Last week we had a tour of the Oval Village site and please see the highly professional video below. This involved a lateral flow test, hazmat suit and the indignity of  donning what appeared to be Ugg boots from 2010. Our primary objective was to ascertain when the new Tesco would be open and whether it will have a cheese counter the fate of the two Victorian gas holders and how much noise will be created as the site is levelled. We need to accept that Oval Village will soon be a part of our cherished terrain, but hopefully it can be improved with a bit of your helpful feedback.

Our tour was conducted by the community engagement officer and the project director. They explained that the two smaller gas holders (circa1873) will be removed over the next few weeks and the wrought iron will be recycled. The beautiful Phoenix seals will be removed and preserved in some fashion. The officer would not be drawn on where or how this would happen, however. The tanks are full of millions of gallons of sludge and they will be sucked out and removed. And in case you’re not aware, the gasholder that will remain is the largest one that overlooks the cricket ground. It is now listed and will have flats built inside of it. Hence our comment about life behind bars. 

When you enter the site the first thing you notice is just have massive it is. It’s also raised several metres higher than the land around it and the project manager explained that the elevation was created in order to accommodate the gas tanks. Over the next few years this soil will be incrementally removed and taken away via Montford Place and then up Kennington Lane to the river. This will take place in the daytime, apparently. And for those of you wondering about the height of the buildings, the tallest will be 17 floors. The building underway now, Phoenix Court, is not quite topped out (check us out with the lingo) but will be in a few months. We were assured that the buildings will have a community feel and the space between Kennington Lane and The Oval will be open to the public. 

If you want any more information the community engagement officer Richard Daley at richard.caley@berkeleygroup.co.uk or project director Graham Cook at community@berkeleygroup.co.uk

And for those of who still have the yearning question of ‘when will be new Tesco be open’, the answer is 12 AUGUST! The site manager would not be drawn about the possibility of a cheese counter, however. Enjoy our nifty video below.

Damien Hirst at Newport St.

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We originally posted this in October 2020, and this thought provoking exhibit closed just a few days afterwards. Newport St. Gallery is opening on Wednesday of next week, again with little fanfare. Once Time Out (if they still exist) and others review this it will sell out very quickly and we cannot reccommend it enough. It is totally free and available for now, but not for long!  Book here.

Without a great deal of fanfare, on Wednesday Newport Street Gallery reopened with  a survey of Damien Hirst’s early work called ‘End of a Century’. The timing of this retrospective might be a coincidence or an intentional and very prescient observation of the world around us in 2020, as Hirst’s early work explored themes of death, healing, life saving medication, infection, and anatomy.  We checked out the show on it’s opening day. 

In the first gallery we were introduced to one of Hirst’s trademark dissected animals; this one being a baby shark in formaldehyde. Moving into the main galleries you might think you’d just wandered into aisle three at Iceland, as there were several freezers stuffed with frozen cow heads (we asked, and they are real). Also on show were Hirst’s trademark medication cabinets and a variety of medical implements. After an enormous anatomical model we’re left to ponder the slightly humorous ‘Shut Up and Eat Your Fucking Dinner’ (pictured at bottom) which was fashioned as a butcher shop window featuring a variety of meats encased in formaldehyde. Is meat murder? 

On the first floor we got to grips with several of Hirst’s spin and dot paintings, with one actually spinning in the room. Surprisingly, there were several cubist inspired collages of found materials which Hirst created before he was a student at Goldsmiths, even then showing his early interest in mortality and resurrection. The most arresting work upstairs was ‘A Hundred Years’, in which a bloody severed cow head is being eaten by maggots who turn into flies who then get executed by  an insect-ocutor. We’re not making this up. 

Some of these works are almost 30 years old and don’t have the shock value they once possessed. But if your artistic taste embraces decapitated cow heads, meat, pills, blood, dead flies, and medical implements then this show will be right up your street. Vegetarians might want to steer clear. And lest you don’t give your mortality much of a thought during the pandemic, this show is a reminder of the profound fragility of organic matter. 

Getting Curious in Walworth

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We’ve experienced an inordinate amount of giddy thrill at the recent opening of Walworth Library and Southwark Heritage Centre in Walworth Road. Granted, when the biggest thrill of the day involves matching Tupperware containers to lids the threshold is pretty low. But this is a library with a difference. 

The library offers your usual library accessories in an open and quiet environment on several different levels. These include quiet places to read or work, bookable PC’s, a kids area, a curiously large travel section, and individual rooms to book. On our visit all of the seating was occupied as some chairs had been removed for obvious reasons. Intriguingly, set amongst the books are curios and artefacts from Southwark’s collection that very cleverly match the subject matter to the books around them. 

As we know you inhale your Runoff articles like a freshly baked brownie from Sally White’s, you’ll be aware that last year we wrote about the most curious man in Greater Kennington, Richard Cuming. The man collected everything from Egyptian mummies to rail tickets to harpoons. Upon the death of his son the collection was bequeathed to Southwark where it was mothballed for several years following a fire. A number of pieces have now been resurrected and form the backbone of the Heritage Centre It’s a fascinating collection of artefacts and artwork from around the world, interspersed with more recent history from Southwark’s past. In future the library will also have rotating art exhibitions. Check it out and maybe you can be the next most curious person in Greater Kennington.

Yard Cafe at Jamyang Buddhist Centre

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PERMANENTLY CLOSED. SADFACE!

Some of you might remember the vegetarian/vegan café at the Jamyang London Buddhist centre in Renfrew Road. It sadly went under just before we had a chance to review it, which is unusual as most places we review go under just after we review them. Well, it is now back with a vengeance and has just been taken over by the gastronomically acclaimed restaurant Louie Louie, curiously located in the less than gastronomically acclaimed Walworth Road. The new venture is called The Yard, and is open for lunch on weekdays, 10 to 4. 

The menu continues to be totally vegetarian and vegan and they also sell ice cream sandwiches and a few groceries. They also sell…..wait for it…..ice cream for dogs. Your scribe had a feta, labneh, roast carrot and tomato sandwich with rocket, with a bread that also rocked. My dining partner had a salad of chickpeas and chard with baba ganoush, roast carrot and tomato, green beans and leaves. Bagels and toasties were also available and looked good. 

The building that houses Jamyang is an old courthouse dating from 1869, in its later days used as a maximum security court for special remands, including IRA terrorists, the Kray twins, and members of the gang who seized the Iranian Embassy. Despite that, when the sun is shining, Kennington has nowhere more peaceful to eat your healthy lunch. 

Kenny, the Kennington Bowl Skatepark

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If you’ve ever walked into Kennington Park from the Kennington tube end you might have noticed a large concrete edifice on the right. It’s a rare survivor of what used to be in many parks in the 70’s and 80’s, a skatepark. Our unloved relic, affectionately known as ‘Kenny’, was one of the earliest and opened in 1978. Unfortunately, Kenny was fitted out with poor railings and skaters had the inconvenient problem of falling out of Kenny and injuring themselves (which we thought was half the thrill but there you go). It was opened and then closed by Lambeth for a number of years afterwards.  

Fast forward to 2012 and Converse arrived to refurbish and renew Kenny under their ‘fix to ride’ scheme, and this included resurfacing the concrete. While the spiffy looking Kenny was great PR for Converse, it wasn’t so wonderful for poor Kenny. After Converse had their moment the resurfaced concrete soon became chipped and cracked and it was worse than it was before. Lambeth were forced to send Kenny into skatepark purgatory. A Youtube video of Kenny in its Converse heyday can be found here. 

Fast forward to 2021 and the Runoff are having a socially distanced and intriguing conversation with Friends of Kennington Park Secretary Rita Sammons. The Friends, working in partnership with Lambeth, are currently undertaking exploratory work to restore Kenny to its former glory. Lambeth has funded an initial survey to inspect the concrete plates that hold up Kenny (which is why at the moment Kenny has a giant hole in him). If it is stable the goal is try to find a way to gently skim off the concrete that Converse left behind. 

Rita explained that the vision of the Friends and Lambeth is to create a skate area that can be enjoyed by everyone, not just skaters. The could include a viewing area or a ramp up to the bowl, enabling access to people who can’t climb the stairs. In addition to recreating a free amenity for all Greater Kenningtonians (well, those who don’t mind having broken ribs), Rita and the Friends are also trying to preserve a piece of local history. One of the best features of Kenny is some very fine retro street art on the sides. Here is a sample but there are plenty more for you to discover. 

At the moment the Friends are not undertaking a fundraising campaign for Kenny but this might change. For more details and to get involved email skatebowl@kenningtonpark.org/. For other things the Friends are doing have a gander at the flyer below. 

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