Kennington architecture in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

This week is the last week of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Its architecture section features the design of the new building where the Florence Nightingale pub and concrete monstrosity York House used to be on the roundabout at the bottom of Westminster Bridge. What’s being built in their place is a “glistening, crystalline 18-storey landmark office building” in an area already ripe with redevelopment – there are three relatively new Park Plaza hotels nearby including two on the roundabout, plus Foster & Partners’ new towers on Albert Embankment.

In the Summer Exhibition you can also see some of the alternative designs that were considered for York House, but this was the chosen design:

Brunswick House and LASSCO

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

LASSCO is an architectural reclaim company based in Brunswick House, a cavernous Georgian mansion on the gyratory in West Kennington. If architectural reclaim doesn’t sound much fun, it really is – imagine a museum where everything’s desirable and everything’s on sale. A whole room of taps. Antique baths for only £4000. If money was no object, this is where you’d go to furnish your house.

Brunswick House is also the best restaurant in the area, with food that’s more than matched by the atmosphere as you eat amongst the antiques and curiosities – look for the price tags on your chairs and tables. The restaurant is run by one of the Boxer family, who are also behind the nearby Italian deli and cafe Italo (which is just off Bonnington Square, the best advert there could be for squatting, but more on that another time), and Frank’s Café and Campari Bar atop a multi-story car park-cum-sculpture gallery, which is leading the regeneration of Peckham. For more on the Boxer family, see here.

Adrian Amos from LASSCO was featured in this week’s ES Magazine in one of the rooms at Brunswick House:

This is the main restaurant room:

Here’s a collection of signs from the exterior wall of the house:

For more photos of beautiful LASSCO objects, click here.

The Siobhan Davies Centre

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

The Siobhan Davies Centre in North Kennington has won a RIBA Award for architecture and deservedly so. With the addition of a roof of wood and glass, this old brick building has been transformed into a beautifully light and rather magical space for dance, yoga and such like.

Our photo doesn’t really capture the full glory of the building so click here for more.

Wansey Street and the Mobile Gardeners’ Park

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

It may be the wrong side of Walworth Road but Wansey Street is becoming one of the most interesting streets in the area. The neighbouring Heygate Estate is due for demolition, but there are a huge number of mature trees on the estate. Campaigners christened these the North Kennington Urban Forest and convinced developers to preserve most of them. Along the way the campaigners also secured a site on Wansey Street for a community garden, called The Mobile Gardeners’ Park. At some stage in the next few years, Wansey Street will be extended through where the park is currently situated, at which point it will move elsewhere, hence the mobile element.

It features an ingenious and rather beautiful use of an old sofa.

Most of the plants are growing in pots so they can easily be relocated:

A volunteer has built a geodesic dome on the site:

The wild flower meadow won’t be relocating unfortunately:

Wansey Street is also home to the pilot project for the North Kennington regeneration masterplan, and if all the planned new buildings come out looking as good as this one then North Kennington and surrounding areas will be transformed.

The Kennington Observer (formerly Kennington Runoff)

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

Category Archives: buildings

Kennington architecture in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition

Brunswick House and LASSCO

The Siobhan Davies Centre

Wansey Street and the Mobile Gardeners’ Park