Meditation at the Jamyang Buddhist Centre

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Kennington Runoff

Happy new year.

Are you starting the new year in need of spiritual sustenance? Get yourself down to the Jamyang Buddhist Centre on Renfrew Road in North Kennington, one of two Buddhist centres in Kennington with a third one on the way in the former Beaufoy Institute.

On January 6th from 7.30pm till 9pm is one of Jamyang’s regular Introduction to Meditation sessions. We’ve been to one of these sessions before. What can we tell you about it?

– You’ll have to take your shoes off.
– It’s not a brazen attempt to convert you to Buddhism – Buddha barely got a mention.
– There are opportunities to ask questions. Someone else asked the question we should have asked – how to stay awake during meditation? The instructor did provide some practical suggestions but also said it doesn’t matter if you fall asleep, at which point we nodded off.
– They do a nice quiche and salad in the cafe during the day.
– It’s free but donations are welcome.
– Meditation is scientifically proven to boost concentration, reduce stress, depression, anxiety and addictive behaviours, and can even help with physical problems like heart disease and chronic pain (sorry we can’t lay our hands on the scientific proof right now).

So, all in all, an ideal opportunity to have a look around the Buddhist centre – which has a nice, welcoming vibe whatever your religious beliefs – and to try ~~napping~~ meditation.

Read about the history of the building – and old courthouse – here.

The Courtyard Cafe, featuring a Buddha in a glass cage made from pure Nepalese gold:

Kennington Runoff is dreaming of a White Christmas, just like the ones we used to know

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

The cannons outside the Imperial War Museum in the snow:

Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park and Lambeth Road in the snow, with Perspective Building in the background, a building which is heavily inspired by ski jumps.

West Square in the snow:

Happy Christmas to all our readers.

Kennington Park

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

It’s a beautiful day so, on your way to the Pullens Yards open day, why not take a walk through Kennington Park?

This is is Lambeth’s oldest park, having been established in 1854, and was previously Kennington Common where up to 300,000 chartists rallied in 1848, as well as being the site of many other protests. Nowadays it plays occasional host to fairs and London’s version of Oktoberfest, but the rest of the time there’s plenty to look out for:

There are football and hockey astroturf pitches. Bob Marley used to play football in Kennington Park while recording the Exodus album and staying at the Rastafari temple on St Agnes Place (a long-standing squatted street alongside the park that was needlessly demolished in 2007).

Oh, and Kennington Common was the place where football began – the Gymnastic Society played regularly on Kennington Common during the late 18th century.

There are also tennis, netball and basketball courts, outdoor gym facilities, a community cricket area, a skate bowl, and these outdoor table tennis tables which are a recent arrival:

Delicious local honey from Bee Urban is harvested in the grounds of the Keeper’s Lodge, although, controversially, they are due to be relocated within the park as a consequence of the Northern Line extension. You can purchase the honey from the cafe in the middle of the park, as well as at local fetes, and it really does taste great.

Prince Consort’s Lodge was originally built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 as an example of a “model dwelling” and was re-erected in the model location – Kennington – from 1852-3. It was sponsored by Prince Albert, hence the name:

Look out for these trees with weird triangular-shaped trunks (technical term), and there’s also a nature trail through the park (look for the silver signs):

Generally the park looks lovely at this time of year, although the English Flower Garden doesn’t really come into its own until spring:

So how did Kennington Park become so desirable and have so much going for it? Remember the Friends of Durning Library? Well, there’s another mysterious Kennington organisation that are equally feared and equally powerful – The Friends of Kennington Park – and they have a very informative website here. There’s also an exhaustive and exhausting Kennington Park Wikipedia entry.

Pullens Yards

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

In the early 20th century, East Kennington’s magnificent Pullens Estate, AKA the Pullens Buildings, comprised almost 700 properties and stretched all the way to Manor Place. In the seventies the surviving buildings were threatened with demolition. Residents and squatters fought back (Kennington owes a lot to the preservation efforts of squatters) and thank goodness they did – these are some of London’s last surviving Victorian tenement buildings, and their workshops host a thriving community of creative people, as well as providing film sets for the likes of The King’s Speech (in the scene where the king goes to visit the speech therapist for the first time).

Twice a year they host an open day and their Christmas event is coming up next weekend. It’s the ideal opportunity to look around these unique spaces and pick up unusual Christmas presents. How about some Alex Monroe jewellery for a fraction of the Liberty’s price, or some pottery moulded from vegetables, or a handmade loot, or some architect-designed furniture, or a print of all the regions of the shipping forecast? It’s all here, in the most amazing and rather Christmas-y setting.

More info here.

Pullens Yard, with workshops along both sides:

An installation of umbrellas from a previous open day, an idea that later made it to Carnaby Street:

Naomi Campbell used to live in Iliffe St, below, and, wait for it, the young Charlie Chaplin lived in one of the Pullens Buildings for a while:

The loot making workshop, who supply all Kanye West’s loot needs:

The International Maritime Organisation

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

The International Maritime Organisation is headquartered in North West Kennington, near Lambeth Bridge. They have an impressive collection of flags on the front of the building, and the ship you can see poking out of the front continues all the way back for some 300 metres, with the rest of the building having been constructed around it.

Durning Library

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

In these times of austerity, many libraries are threatened with closure, but Durning Library will never close if the Friends of Durning Library have their way. Would any politician dare to cross this fearsome organisation for fear of a cupcake at a community event being served with a garnish of cyanide? But their cause is noble – long may they reign and long may Durning Library remain open. Just don’t mention the Tree of Heaven.

The grade II-listed library opened in 1889 and was designed in the Gothic Revival style by local architect Sidney RJ Smith whose other buildings included Tate Britain and libraries in South Lambeth, West Norwood, Streatham and Balham.

Occasionally they host talks from local authors, politicians and historians – the history of a Kennington townhouse, Kate Hoey on how to kill a fox, that kind of thing.

ArtsLav is open for business

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

For the past 115 years, Kennington Cross’s ArtsLav has been a used then disused public toilet. Now, thanks to the initiative of the local community, after a long period of development stretching back to 2005, it is an art gallery. Well done to all involved. We’ve been inside and it’s one of the most attractive disused public toilets we’ve visited – you can see why it’s grade II listed.

Painter Ryszard Rybicki’s Camera Obscura runs from tomorrow until October 24th, and they are hosting a weekend of family activities on October 19th and 20th as they invite everybody in the local community to create a painting together. Opening hours: Monday-Friday 11am-1pm and 2pm-5pm; Saturday and Sunday 11am-5pm.

Cleaver Square and boules

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

Cleaver Square is one of London’s most desirable residential areas – it’s picturesque, architecturally unspoilt, closed to through traffic yet lively thanks to the pub in the corner, and conveniently located close to the throbbing heart of Kennington, between Kennington Park Road and Kennington Cross.

It’s home to leading politicians, award-winning author Sarah Waters, and a large boules pitch in its centre, surrounded by benches for spectators and outdoor drinkers. Players don’t need to invest in a boules set, they can simply lay down a £20 deposit in the very fine Prince of Wales pub and stroll outside for a game of pétanque. But get there early if it’s a warm evening, to beat the throngs of after-work drinkers, former Liberal Democrat leaders, and students from the City & Guilds art school. A couple of years ago, luxury brands all decided to congregate eagerly around pétanque, with Karl Lagerfeld hosting a pétanque party, Chanel and Louis Vuitton creating their own limited edition boules sets, and style supplements a-cooing, dubbing it ‘the trendiest game in London’. We thought the hysteria had died down, and hoped you could once again enjoy a game of boules in Cleaver Square without someone from Pernod Ricard trying to corral you into their pop-up concept event. But Lacoste took over the square recently for precisely that purpose:

The excellent Wikipedia entry on Kennington has information on the history of Cleaver Square which was once called Prince’s Square, but has barely changed for decades as you can see in this photo from 1964 (with thanks to ideal-homes.org.uk/).

Cleaver Square also plays host to the annual Kennington Village Fete.

The Cinema Museum

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

The Cinema Museum is participating in Open House London again today, and it’s a magical place, so once you’ve given up queueing for Battersea Power Station, jump on the 344 bus towards Elephant & Castle and head there. They’re open until 5pm with free tours of the building at 2pm and 4pm on a first come basis, and refreshments for sale (they always seem to have made way too many cakes). Be warned though – it’s as hard to find as it is enchanting.

The museum co-founder Ronald Grant was a projectionist who would find out when old Art Deco cinemas were due for demolition, and would hand the demolition men a few quid to let him walk away with anything from the seats to the doors to the signs to the uniforms. Now all these items and many more are permanently housed in a building with its own relevance to cinema history – it began life as a workhouse where the young Charlie Chaplin and his mum ended up more than once. It’s basically Cinema Paradiso in the form of a museum. More history here.

The museum receives no state funding and has none of the sterility one might associate with museums that do. It’s run by volunteers who have a real passion for the cinema – expect to be asked if you’ve seen a little-known silent film from the twenties before having the plot explained to you. Wondering who the most popular English actor of 1915 was? The Cinema Museum have the answer – Stewart Rome.

There are rooms full of archive material stretching back throughout the last century. This is the magazines room:

The museum tour ends with a display of uniforms:

If you don’t make it along today, get along to one of their events. Wonder Reels: Malphino present Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria on October 17th looks good – Latin band Malphino play a Fellini-inspired set and screen his 1957 film about an endearing prostitute with a talent for mambo and hard luck. The museum occasionally plays host to more conventional gigs – Keaton Henson played his hugely acclaimed first ever headline shows there. Look out for talks from legends of cinema – the likes of Terry Gilliam and Ray Harryhausen have appeared in the past. They also sell old film posters for anything from £5 to £500.

Open House Kennington

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

Open House London is this weekend and Kennington is well represented.

First up, places that are varying degrees of difficult to visit outside of Open House:

60 Ambergate Street, a “small but well-crafted flat renovation” near Kennington tube

The Mobile Gardeners Park, which we wrote about here

Morley College, the adult education centre in North West Kennington. While you’re there, why not visit London’s largest guerrilla gardening site, located directly in front of Morley College in the giant, lavender-filled flower beds in the middle of Westminster Bridge Road:

Guerrilla tulips in bloom at the Guerrilla Gardening on Westminster Bridge Road, London April 2011, by Richard Reynolds

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain

The Cinema Museum, a true labour of love in the former Master’s House of the Lambeth Workhouse, a Victorian Gothic building where Charlie Chaplin once stayed with his destitute mother. It can be a little tricky to organise tours of the Cinema Museum normally, and there’s a charge, so going during Open House is recommended.

Perronet House, a concrete council block on the north roundabout in North Kennington. If this looks or sounds unpromising then wait till you see the inside – fantastic views across London from two sides, outstanding use of period features, and a sun-drenched terrace full of plants. The photo of Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre below was taken from Perronet House.

Then there are these places which can be visited easily enough outside of Open House:

Beaconsfield, which we wrote about here

Siobhan Davies Studios, which we wrote about here

Lambeth Palace, the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England which dates back to the 13th century, is fully booked during Open House, but you can buy tickets for future tours here.

Kennington Runoff

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

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