The Ship is 250 years old

The Ship pub on Kennington Road is celebrating its 250th birthday tomorrow with a pirate-themed evening. 250! Ten generations of Charlie Chaplin’s family have drunk in this pub.

The Ship underwent refurbishment recently and it’s really rather nice inside now, not to mention outside thanks the hanging baskets and picnic tables you can see below. They have an extensive selection of real ales, board games, live music twice a week, decent local-sourced food, and best of all, they have a bar billiards table, which is great fun if you can figure out the rules.

The Ship - Kenningtonrunoff.com

Durning Library

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. 

Durning Library - kenningtonrunoff.com

The Old Red Lion

If you like your pubs homely but lively, head to the Old Red Lion on Kennington Park Road near Kennington tube. It’s a grade II listed building full of nooks and crannies, with a kitchen serving superior pub grub, a nice beer garden, board games, books and more.

The Old Red Lion exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

Music features prominently. They tend to play nineties indie music, and they once had a guest ale by the band Ellen & The Escapades despite the fact that we and Steve Lamacq may be the only patrons know who Ellen & The Escapades are (they’re good though – check them out).

Here’s a recent selection of real ales. We opted for Cornish Mutiny – if we’d wanted anarchy, we’d have gone to the Dog House:

Old Red Lion drinks - kenningtonrunoff.com

In the conservatory they have a small selection of vinyl and an HMV stereogramme on which to play it. Be warned – keep the volume low or risk hearing damage – it might look like your Grandma’s dresser but this is a seriously powerful piece of kit:

Old Red Lion record player - kenningtonrunoff.com

The conservatory can be hired for private parties at no cost, but be sure to remind them of your booking on the day.

The piano is a new arrival:

Old Red Lion piano - kenningtonrunoff.com

Their monthly events include a quiz, a folk night with jam session, a vintage clothing fair, and a rock ‘n’ roll night.

Old Red Lion events - kenningtonrunoff.com

The bar is two-sided in the eighteenth century style:

Old Red Lion bar - kenningtonrunoff.com

Old Red Lion main room - kenningtonrunoff.com

ArtsLav is open for business

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.

ArtsLav - Kenningtonrunoff.com

The Prince of Wales

Early this year Londonist asked “What’s the best pub in Kennington and South Kennington?“. The Dog House came out top, and it’s certainly the most visited pub in Kennington. The Old Red Lion was second and has a lot going for it, including its garden and its record player. But for lovers of traditional boozers, outside drinking, and boules, there can only be one winner – The Prince of Wales on Cleaver Square.

They offer real ales from “Britain’s oldest brewery”, Kent’s Shepherd Neame. They serve a menu of high end pub classics. If you want to be outside on the square, they will serve your drink in a plastic cup and even loan you a boules set. When you’re inside the pub, you’ll feel like you could be anywhere in the countryside in the south of England, any time in the last 100 years. Their website boasts that the Richardson gang used to hang out there in the 1960s. Nowadays the Countryside Alliance gang would feel more at home there.

The Prince of Wales pub, Cleaver Square - kenningtonrunoff.com

Cleaver Square and boules

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.

Cleaver Square houses at dusk - kenningtonrunoff.com

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:

Boules, petanque in Cleaver Square - kenningtonrunoff.com

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-01722-750 Kennington, 1964 from ideal-homes.org.uk

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

Apple Day at Roots and Shoots

The Roots and Shoots HQ is one of the best modern buildings in South London. Designed by Paul Notley and finished in 2005 on the site of a former Meccano warehouse, it’s the kind of building that will make you think “Come back Tony Blair, all is forgiven”. Momentarily.

Roots & Shoot building

Roots and Shoots is a charity providing agricultural training for young people from the surrounding area, a little like Kennington Flowers but on a much bigger scale. They have an eco-training centre, a plant nursery, a shop, a wildlife study centre and a wild garden. The garden is one element that can be visited all year round, but by appointment only.

If you’re not a 16 to 19 year old in need of education or training then the easiest way to visit is their annual Apple Day which takes place this Sunday October 6th. Learn about and sample the hundreds of varieties of apples that are all-but extinct nowadays, plus you can buy plants, local honey and second-hand books, and all that other good stuff one sees at these events. COMMUNITY.

Snap up the apple juice before Kennington’s own Prince Charles does – apparently he sends his butler down every year to buy most of what Roots and Shoots press.

Apple Day at Roots & Shoot - kenningtonrunoff.com

It’s open from 11am to 4pm and it’s £1 to get in, or free for children.

Roots and Shoot Apple Day 2013

Always Be Comedy at the Tommyfield

One of London’s best small comedy nights takes place every second Thursday upstairs at Kennington gastropub The TommyfieldSign up to their email list to find out about occasional big name attendees like Russell Howard, Russell Kane and Jason Manford, but even when the big names are absent the line-up tends to be more hit than miss. Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award Nominee Carl Donnelly headlines this Thursday. Don’t sit in the front row unless you want to participate – last time around the actor Marc Warren was there and was roped into more than one routine. Tickets are £6 online or £7 on the door – a bargain for five acts plus some energetic compering.

That Pair at Always Be Comedy at The Tommyfield

That Pair at Always Be Comedy at The Tommyfield

Space Station Sixty Five

Richard & Judy’s Channel 4 TV show was filmed in Kennington for eight years, and part of the former TV studio is now the Space Station Sixty Five art gallery at 373 Kennington Road. SS65 is run by artists and features modern art and sculpture, often with a feminist aspect.

At times, you might feel like you’re in the art gallery equivalent of Reginald Perrin’s Grot, but there is great stuff such as the automata by Paul Spooner. This one is called The Dream although the version in the gallery is slightly different:


I’m not sure who this is by but it’s quite fun:

Hairy biker, Space Station Sixty Five - kenningtonrunoff.com

The current exhibition is Long Time Dead by Debra Swann:

dustpan and brush by Debra Swann at Space Station Sixty Five - kenningtonrunoff.com Space Station 65 cardboard sculpture by Debra Swann - kenningtonrunoff.com

Some items are for sale including these toby jugs by Cathie Pilkington for just £425 each. Better pictures of them can be found here, and they do sell some cheap items as well:

Space Station Sixty Five - Toby Jugs by Cathie Pilkington - kenningtonrunoff.com

The gallery is open Thursday to Saturday midday to 6pm, or by appointment, and they stay open until 8.30pm on the last Friday of every month, which means tonight.