Peruvian restaurants are a relatively new phenomenon in London so it’s exciting to see one on the Kennington side of Walworth Road. We haven’t been yet but the reviews online are promising. Another benefit of North Kennington’s status as London’s Latin Quarter (St Mary’s Churchyard also hosted the Azucar Flower Festival last weekend).
We were recently given the book Quiet London by Siobhan Wall, which features “over 140 quiet places to meet, drink, eat, sleep, read or browse”.
Nine of them are in Kennington:
* The Cuming Museum which is currently closed due to fire, but their events programme continues
* Bonnington Square Garden, a magical place which we will write about another time
* Italo Delicatessen on Bonnington Square
* The Tibetan Peace Garden in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, which also deserves its own entry here, being one of London’s nicest and quietest parks
* G Baldwin & Co., a health food shop and apothecary on Walworth Road, which according to Siobhan has “probably the largest selection of essential oils you can find anywhere in England”. Entering the apothecary side of the shop does feel like stepping back in time (it has been open since 1844).
* Danielle Arnaud Gallery – another of Kennington’s art galleries. It is based in one of the lovely Georgian houses on Kennington Road and we can testify as to how quiet it is – when we went we were the only visitors.
* The Ragged Canteen at Beaconsfield
Quiet London by Siobhan Wall
Beaconsfield, based in a former Victorian Ragged School, is the biggest and architecturally most impressive of the surprisingly large number of art galleries in Kennington, although it’s likely to be trumped by Damien Hirst’s new gallery which is due to open just up the road in 2014.
Art at Beaconsfield tends towards the modern and the conceptual, and they are funded by the Arts Council.
On weekday lunchtimes their Ragged Canteen serves really great vegetarian food (at other times they serve drinks and cakes). In an area with various good veggie cafes in surprising places – see also The Garden Museum and the Jamyang Buddhist Centre – The Ragged Canteen is the best. If only it were open more often and for longer.
The door is permanently locked – ring the bell to get in.
Dirty Burger is a burger joint from the Soho House Group and its second branch opened tonight in West Kennington under a railway arch right by Vauxhall station (the first was in Kentish Town).
It won’t take you long to work your way through the menu, especially if you’re a vegetarian:
Let me guess, you chose the cheese burger? Good choice – juicy and tasty – even the aspiring vegetarian in our party enjoyed it. Here it is:
And for the actual vegetarian, there are always chips:
There are stools inside, or four small tables on the roadside:
[Update July 2017: The Garden Museum and Cafe have been redeveloped since this post]
The Garden Museum (formerly the Museum of Garden History) is in the deconsecrated St Mary’s church next to Lambeth Palace in North West Kennington. Even if you’re not interested in gardening, it’s worth a visit for the good quality vegetarian cafe and the lovely garden (there’s a charge to enter the museum but not the shop, cafe or garden).
The knot garden with the walls of Lambeth Palace in the background:
William Bligh lived in Kennington, on Lambeth Road in a house that is now a B&B, and was buried at St Mary’s. Appropriately enough for a site that was to become a garden museum, his grave features the breadfruit plant which he discovered and brought back to England. Presumably whoever designed his grave was hoping he would be remembered for this, rather than for being the ship’s captain who inspired the Mutiny on the Bounty.
The well-stocked shop featuring gifts for gardeners and books:
The interior of the museum:
For more on Sally White, see our earlier post.
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 Lobster Pot is one of London’s finest seafood restaurants. It’s also arguably London’s funnest restaurant. And it’s a North Kennington institution – it has been here since 1991 and it’s frequently booked up. Really, you should just go there without knowing what to expect, but if you don’t mind a spoiler then read on.
After ringing a buzzer to gain entry (a precaution that dates back to the nineties rather than being necessary today), you will find yourself inside a ship, with port holes looking out into the sea (i.e. an aquarium):
Upstairs you are on the deck on the ship, with a view of a nearby port painted on the walls, and the sound of seagulls piped through the sound system.
Ship memorabilia is scattered throughout the restaurant:
If you order the lobster (and you should – it is excellent), you will be given a special Lobster Pot bib when it arrives:
I don’t have photos of the staff but the chef looks like Poirot, the staff dress as sailors and one of them is six foot four with model good looks. Eating here is an experience.
Relatively new on Walworth Road are two exciting arrivals within the same premises. Aobaba is a top notch and very reasonably priced Vietnamese street food restaurant. The veggie options are particularly good, the Vietnamese beers are cheap, and there’s a multitude of choice about how to flavour your bubble tea.
Lots of choice of garnishes:
Nice food, beautifully presented:
Even if you’re not a big buyer of oriental foods, the Longdan Express Oriental Supermarket is worth a visit for quality Western brands that aren’t otherwise easy to find in the area, like Teapigs tea.
As you can see from all the elements on the flier below, it’s really more than a fete – it’s a hyper-fete.
Although the alarmingly popular Bat the Rat stall has sadly departed for pastures new, the Amazing Human Fruit Machine still remains – and it really is amazing, or at least highly amusing the first time you see it.
Several Kennington restaurants will be serving food including The Lobster Pot which is one of London’s finest seafood restaurants, and definitely the most fun.
There will be live music, and who will the surprise special guests be? Morrissey? Florence? The Machine? Dot Allison? Giles Fraser performing A Change Is Gonna Come?
Finally, be sure to buy some Walworth Honey as harvested in East Kennington – previous years’ batches have been deliciously lemon-y like nothing you can buy in the shops, and eating local honey is supposed to be good for hay fever.
See you there.
