from the soon-to-be relaunched Lambeth Archives website
The Roebuck, 1972, now The Dog House
The King’s Arms, 1972
The White Hart, 1972, now the Tommyfield
The Cricketers, Kennington Park Road, 1945
the derelict Lamb & Hare public house, 41 Kennington Lane, 1950
The Black Prince, 1974
The Tankard, 1880
The Horns Tavern, which stood on the corner of Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road until 1965
from the soon-to-be relaunched Lambeth Archives website
The Old Red Lion in the late 1930s
Kilner House protest squat, Clayton Street – more info here – plus ca change
Methley Street, 1975 – nothing has changed except the cars
Kennington Road, 1950
Cleaver Street, 1975 – bit of a different vibe from today
‘Reclining Figure’ by James Butler A.R.A. – bring this back to Cleaver Square please!
Brook Drive, 1985 – looks tranquil right?
Bonnington Square, 1981 – the year the squatters moved in
More soon.
The Boule-In is sadly missed in Kennington – we used to buy most of our presents there. But their original Suffolk business was proving such a success that they chose to focus on that, and hand their Kennington site over to the next generation – Brocket Gallery who were previously in their basement are now upstairs too.
The original Brocket was purely an art gallery but as you can see from the above, they’ve now added concept store, consultation and lifestyle to the mix, which means we can once again buy presents from there, if we’re feeling flush with cash.
Artworks are on display both upstairs and downstairs. We enjoyed this recent exhibition by Cat Roissetter:
They’re open Wednesday to Saturday, 12 to 6pm.
Address: Brocket Gallery, 16 Windmill Row, London SE11 5DW.
The Hangout cafe was the previous occupant of this site (on Kennington Green at 344 Kennington Road, next to Papa John’s), which was derelict for years prior to that. Although The Hangout seemed fairly popular, we weren’t entirely surprised when it closed down as the manager and the chef were having a stand-up row throughout our visit, and when our food eventually arrived, we could understand why.
The new arrival is Rare Burger Co. which very much looks like a chain-in-waiting in the vein of Honest Burger et al. But haven’t we already passed peak gourmet burger in London? Quite possibly, but whether Rare Burger Co. turns into a successful chain or not, we’re tipping the Kennington branch to last a good while.
First of all, there’s nothing like this in the area – Dirty Burger is the closest thing, but that’s more of a shack in the middle of a gyratory, and we think we’re right in saying that Black Acorn at Artworks is no more.
Rare Burger’s proprietor is friendly and modest, telling us they want to perfect what they do before doing any marketing. They’ve done a good job on the interior and branding.
Most importantly their burgers are great. The shrimp burger was seriously indulgent for £8.80, and this beetroot burger (£7) was delicious and moist.
We didn’t stay for dessert but people on Facebook are raving about their cheesecake (£3.50). We’ll be back there soon to give it a try.
They also serve brunch options like avocado on sourdough and various eggs options.
Address: Rare Burger Co, 344 Kennington Road, London SE11 4LD.
The Tommyfield has cranked its boutique hotel credentials up a notch with an intimate in-house yoga session every Monday evening from local teacher Tim Mosley.
Tim offers a dynamic vinyasa flow class in the first floor Master Room. It’s a nice, calm space, usually used for the ABC comedy night or private events. You may even find a sprinkle of 40th birthday party confetti alongside your mat as a neat reminder of why you’re there in the first place. We have been along a couple of times and Tim is attentive and will provide a quick head massage at the end of the class if he thinks you’ve been spending too long at the blogging coalface.
Kennington is pretty well-served for yoga, including long-standing favourite Yogabelle at the RIBA Award-winning Siobhan Davies Studios, and Kennington Osteopaths for a gentler class (that is a bit of a tight squeeze – not one for the claustrophobic yogi).
Limited mats available, £10 per class
Tim Mosley is also available for private lessons.
It has been all change on the Kennington lunch scene recently.
The Hangout is a new cafe next to Papa John’s. The interior is lovely and the exterior will come into its own once the Northern Line Extension works at Kennington Green are finished. The chef and the proprietor were arguing throughout our visit, perhaps about our burnt toast and uninspired vegetarian brunch. We’ll give it another try once they’ve had a chance to get over their teething problems.
burnt cheese toastie at The Hangout
vegetarian brunch at The Hangout
Vergies is now Cafe 303 but otherwise seems unchanged. A nice, light cafe, good for unusual sandwiches.
Livewire Kitchen is a relatively new arrival in Vox Studios in West Kennington with good fresh lunch options, and generous portions of salads and tortilla.
The only down side is the feeling that you’re eating your lunch in someone else’s work canteen.
Little Lisbon is a greasy spoon with added Portugese options like octopus salad, and very friendly service.
Louie Louie is a very exciting addition to the Walworth Road – more of that soon.
All this means that Sally White hasn’t been quite as busy as it used to be since reopening, but the advantage of that is you can often get a seat, and the brownies remain flawless as ever.
Firecracker, at the former site of Thai Ming on Windmill Row, has been open as a takeaway business for months now, and doing a roaring trade through every delivery service you could think of, which might explain why they’ve been relaxed about opening the restaurant to eat-in customers. But it finally has opened, albeit with temporary chairs.
Their tagline is Modern Oriental Dining and their extensive menu features Thai and Chinese favourites, including Dim Sum.
This Pad Thai was great comfort food:
Their butternut squash red curry wasn’t quite as successful, and isn’t suitable for strict vegetarian as it contains shrimp paste. Also we’d like to see them add coconut rice to the menu.
For vegetarians we recommend the veggie crispy duck (actually deep fried soy skin) and pancakes. We also had some tasty chicken and spinach gyoza, and a Tsing Tao beer.
The staff were very friendly despite the constant rush to get takeaway orders out of the door, and we’ll be heading back before long – we prefer the food to Oaka.
Address: 1-5 Windmill Row, London SE11 5DW.
Head to https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KOVNPLAN to give your thoughts on how at least £15 million of developer money should be spent in Kennington.
If you’re looking for some extra proposals, we have some for your consideration:
Like the Elephant & Castle, the White Bear is a Kennington pub with a very long history, which has recently relaunched in impressive style.
Thomas Ellis owned the Horns Tavern pub on Kennington Common, where Guy Fawkes stored his gunpowder in the cellar. Mary Cleaver leased White Bear Field to Ellis in 1780, and he laid out Cleaver Square, the earliest London square south of the Thames, and built the White Bear (read more Kennington history on their blackboard).
We first knew The White Bear as a rather edgy, although rarely busy, Irish sports pub, with the White Bear Theatre feeling very incongruous in the back. It was bought by Young’s around 2012, after which there was a short-lived relaunch (bye Irish sports fans, hello not many other people), then it closed for a long time for a much more thorough overhaul.
Now it’s huge – Kennington’s biggest pub – with two dining areas where the theatre used to be, plus a garden stretching the width of two properties.
The theatre (which we’ve not visited since the relaunch) has relocated to the first floor – the bear will show you the way.
The new White Bear has the feel of a country pub, and we can’t think of another like it in central London. Perfect for Kennington Village!
They serve food which is good if pricey. Mains at launch ranged from toad in the hole for £11 to black Angus sirloin, mushrooms and tomatoes, chips, Bearnaise sauce for £21. Being mostly vegetarian we haven’t tried either of their specialities yet, which are beef Wellington, black cabbage and chestnuts (£21) and steak and kidney suet pudding, calcannon (£20). But we have tried rainbow chard, pine nut and blue cheese quiche (£13):
And the roasted pumpkin cobbler, purple sprouting broccoli, not entirely successful but relatively cheap at £12:
The Queenie and monkfish scampi, chips, peas cost £16.50:
And the ale battered cod, chips, mushy peas, tartare sauce are £13, which is £2 more expensive and not quite as good as the Duchy Arms’ equivalent:
Nonetheless, we keep going back there to eat and find the service exceptionally friendly and helpful. They have a good selection of ales on tap, and it’s always busy in the bar area – great to see after years of emptiness. Well done The White Bear and Young’s brewery.
Address: 138 Kennington Park Rd, London SE11 4DJ.
When we first wrote about The Royal Oak on Fitzalan Street, it was Kennington’s mystery pub. Now its mysteries have mostly been revealed, but it remains a magical place, with decor and atmosphere quite unlike any other pub we’ve been to.
Marcello is their new Italian chef and since his arrival the pub feels less like a squat and more like the finished article. It’s still highly eccentric, with resident pets and children, and the landlord William temporarily unable to serve because he’s fixing someone’s bike or showing off fossils he has found on the banks of the Thames, but you no longer feel like the flooboards are about to collapse beneath your feet.
There’s a lovely beer garden which catches the evening sun:
If these stacks of animals were at Newport Street Gallery they’d be selling for millions:
The Dundee Cake is not on the menu sadly, but the wildly diverse clientele did include a large contingent from Dundee, plus some twenty and thirty something hipsters, pillars of the community like the Earl of Bedlam and the queen of the Ragged Canteen, and a few stalwarts who’ve been drinking there for decades.
So what is on the menu? They serve food on Fridays, which is burger night with veggie and vegan options, Saturdays, which is fresh pasta night, and Sundays, when we went along. The food has a homemade vibe, with lots of flavour and lots of salt (like the pub and their fliers, come to think of it). They also serve sizeable, slow cooked meat and veggie brunches on weekends from 10am-3pm.
Starters cost £4. We went for some moist and salty fried courgettes with polenta chips:
Mains are £8.45. There were only two options so we had one of each. Chicken breast wrapped in parma ham served with taleggio fondue and braised fennel was creamy and indulgent. And this was a hearty risotto of radicchio & balsamic vinegar, with mature cheddar grated on top:
They have an uninspiring selection of beers on tap including Meantime Pale Ale, but we’ll forgive them as they make a point of serving our favourite Kernel by the bottle.
this is an old photo of the bar, which looks about 10% less chaotic now
There is so much going on in this pub we almost forgot there was a jazz/blues guitarist playing live. Before the guitarist came on, the music choices included Decades by Joy Division (one of the darkest pieces of music you’ll ever hear, requested by one of the Dundee contingent), and Topknot by Cornershop, which William informed us featured M.I.A. before she was famous, or as he called her in the manner of an old friend, Maya.
As you can probably tell by now Oxymoron is not your average pub, and it might just be our favourite.
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Address: 78 Fitzalan St, London SE11 6QU
Phone: 07515 878976
