Category Archives: culture

That funny house in Kennington Park

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You have doubtlessly walked or run by these little brick cottages in Kennington Park a million times, but have you ever stopped to wonder what it is or how it ended up there? Well, dear reader, consider yourselves to be demystified. 

The first clue to our mystery is the inscription ‘Model Houses for Families Erected by HRH Prince Albert’ on the side that faces the street. We doubt that Prince Albert himself took off his ermine lined gloves to build the edifice but with the Prince as patron, it was erected by the ‘Society for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring Classes’ for the Great Exhibition in 1851. The cottage was located outside of the exhibition grounds in Hyde Park and entry was free, unlike the Exhibition itself. After the Exhibition closed, the cottages were moved to our sanctified patch of green and became a minor Victorian tourist attraction.

The model cottages were designed to house four families, with two flats on each level. It was envisioned that the cottages would provide suitable accommodation for people from “the class of mechanical and manufacturing operatives who usually reside in towns or in their immediate vicinity”. Each family was designated a living room, kitchen/scullery, three bedrooms and a toilet – but no bathroom, as was still generally the case in houses built at the time.  What we see in our park was a protoype, and it’s unknown whether any were actually executed. 

Since 2003 the cottages have been inhabited by the wonderful charity ‘Trees for Cities’ so it isn’t open to the public.  However, have a spin around it and contemplate that this one little building was meant to house at least 16 people. It makes you appreciate the era we’re in.    

Damien Hirst at Newport St.

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Without a great deal of fanfare, on Wednesday Newport Street Gallery reopened with  a survey of Damien Hirst’s early work called ‘End of a Century’. The timing of this retrospective might be a coincidence or an intentional and very prescient observation of the world around us in 2020, as Hirst’s early work explored themes of death, healing, life saving medication, infection, and anatomy.  We checked out the show on it’s opening day. 

In the first gallery we were introduced to one of Hirst’s trademark dissected animals; this one being a baby shark in formaldehyde. Moving into the main galleries you might think you’d just wandered into aisle three at Iceland, as there were several freezers stuffed with frozen cow heads (we asked, and they are real). Also on show were Hirst’s trademark medication cabinets and a variety of medical implements. After an enormous anatomical model we’re left to ponder the slightly humorous ‘Shut Up and Eat Your Fucking Dinner’ (pictured at bottom) which was fashioned as a butcher shop window featuring a variety of meats encased in formaldehyde. Is meat murder? 


On the first floor we got to grips with several of Hirst’s spin paintings and dot paintings, with one actually spinning in the room. Surprisingly, there were several cubist inspired collages of found materials which Hirst created before he was a student at Goldsmiths, even then showing his early interest in mortality and resurrection. The most arresting work upstairs was ‘A Hundred Years’, in which a bloody severed cow head is being eaten by maggots who turn into flies who then get executed by  an inect-ocutor. We’re not making this up. 

Some of these works are almost 30 years old and don’t have the shock value they once possessed. But if your artistic taste embraces decapitated cow heads, meat, pills, blood, dead flies, and medical implements then this show will be right up your street. Vegetarians might want to steer clear. And lest you don’t give your mortality much of a thought during the pandemic, this show is a reminder of the profound fragility of organic matter. 

End of a Century is on now and until the end of March, 2021. Tickets are free and can be booked here.

A celebration of Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre

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Well it’s finally happened. Like that scatty aunt you loved dearly but never bothered to visit, Elephant and Castle shopping centre is finally gone forever, and we would like to mark the event with a visual celebration. 

The shopping centre was the sight of many ‘firsts’ for staff here at Runoff HQ and will be hugely missed. For example, it was the first time we ever had our shoes nicked at a bowling alley, the first time we were ever frisked before entering a restaurant, and our first ever experience of being sexually aroused by a massage chair.  

The centre was also reminiscent of a bygone era of truly one stop shopping and formica. Where else in London could you buy Christmas ornaments in June, have your phone unlocked, score plantains and have a vegan sausage roll all under one roof?  To be serious, while never fully realising it’s potential even after 55 of years of existence, the wonderfully eclectic centre served a vital function to parts of the population often overlooked by retailers and put food on the tables of the people who worked there. In addition to offering food and clothing from around the world which acted as symbols of our diverse community. 

Some of the smaller independent retailers have set up shop in a temporary structure in Elephant Street, behind the centre. The iconic Elephant sculpture will also find a new home there. However, it is only a matter of time until they close and we’re left with another identikit shopping centre catering to a small element of our varied population. But please remember a better era by the photos we took several years ago. And a mind boggling illustration at the bottom of the Elephant of the future. 

The future site of the now former shopping centre is circled.

Spirits in the Drawing Room

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With the Gasworks gallery closed for now (reopening on 1 Oct) and Newport Street Gallery closed for the foreseeable, you might be feeling a tad culture deprived. We would like to share with you a little gallery in Elephant and Castle that has recently come to our attention, The Drawing Room.

The Drawing Room is a space to discover both historic and contemporary drawing in an open and accessible manner. They have an impressive art library and (probably not right now) have a series of talks, artist led projects, and hands on learning. The show currently on until the end of October is called ‘Not Without My Ghosts: The Artist as Medium’ and features work by Victor Hugo, Yves Tanguy, Sigmar Polke and William Blake, with many newer artists who, unlike those guys, are still very much of this mortal coil. 

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of the metaphysical, occult, and communicating with higher powers to 18th and 19th century society. This was not missed by artists and writers, who often considered themselves to be mediums who could communicate with the dead and other spirits. The output which resulted from this communication was strikingly at odds with prevailing artistic tradition at the time, which was increasingly concerned with learned artistic forms and rigorous training. The exhibit moves into the 20th century by examining current artists who continue using the concept of the unseen to grapple with the ambiguities of the world around us. Quite prescient given how 2020 has unfolded.

Not Without my Ghosts is totally free but it’s best too book first. It should be noted that most of the works in this exhibit are sketches and drawings, so don’t go in expecting a blockbuster experience. But on the bright side, after the show you might find a way to have a nice chat with your auntie Vera who popped her clogs back in 2015.  


Getting a bit botanical in Montford Place

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The Beefeater Distillery became an ‘experience’ in 2014 and since then the Runoff has been keen to visit.  However, we rather balked at the notion of shelling out £16 a head to tour what is in essence a factory, even with the added benefit of getting sozzeled in the end. So when we saw that #beinvauxhall were offering two for one tickets we leapt at the chance. We wrote a little missive about the history of Beefeater in Kennington last year. 

The Beefeater experience starts self guided, with a very slick history of the sauce, covering everything from the ‘gin lane’ era of Hogarth and unregulated spirits, to US prohibtion and the rise of the speakeasy. Intertwined are fun little videos about how gin is produced and the propagation of gin distilleries in London over the years. 

Our enthusiastic Italian tour guide Maria took over for the second part of the tour and put more depth into the gin making process. In the tasting room we sampled different kinds of gin and the botanicals that give different varieties their unique flavour. This included not only juniper but also orange peel, coriander, tea, licorice, and angelica seed. Our only slight digression was when Maria asked ‘so what does that remind you of’ and your scribe shouted ‘Bombay Sapphire’. Moving on…

The last part of our journey was indeed the most fascinating as we had a very informative tour of the stills and learned more about the distillation process. Maria was also able to verify a long held Kennington urban myth-…..only five people are employed and produce all of the Beefeater gin sent around the globe. 

The event ended with a G&T in their tasting room and we left with the best of both worlds – feeling cerebrally enhanced and a bit tipsy. With the added benefit of being able to say to our mates with confidence – ‘yeah, I’m really getting heavy notes of angelica seed here’. 

The Be in Vauxhall deal runs at least until the end of the year, and details can be found here.  Even if Be in Vauxhall is a faceless marketing company they still seem to know what’s going on, so its fun to have a root around their website if nothing else.

A celebration of Kennington pubs

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Do you remember a halcyon time when we could go to a place and have a drink with people we didn’t live with? Well those days will be upon us again in some kind of fashion on 4 July. Some of these pubs are gone forever, some others rebuilt, and few looking amazingly familiar. We could stare at the pictures all day, and enjoy….

The Victorian Elephant and Castle pub in Vauxhall, 1970. Same building, but now ‘Starbucks’.
The King’s Arms pub, Chester Way and Kennington Lane, 1880. Destroyed in WW2, rebuilt 1946.
The Horns Tavern, Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road., 1910. A local institution damaged in WW2 and never really recovered. That and a dislike of Victorian architecture meant its demise in 1965. Now JobCentre Plus and Nisa Foods.
The Roebuck pub, 1972. Still very much there and known as The Dog House.
The Cricketers pub in the Oval standing proudly on game day, 1957. Closed for aeons, but the building is still there.

The Tankard pub, Kennington Road, 1880. Altered through time, but looking amazingly familiar.
The Vauxhall Tavern, 1950. The RVT had shops on either side of it and a thriving community behind until cleared for Spring Gardens in the late 1960’s.
The Prince of Wales, Cleaver Square, 1973. The only thing different is the cars (and the house prices).

Blitz Children

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The other day we were on our permitted one hour perambulation in Vauxhall and stumbled across a quite poignant sculpture. We put it on Instagram (where we’re much more clever) and that started a small conversation about its origins. This spiked our curiosity, so we decided to step back from trying to remember what day of the week it is our hectic schedule of Zoom meetings, to undertake some research. 

Following the war there was a shift from commemorative to public sculpture as a way to lift spirits and add to public enrichment. However, after the war Lambeth were seriously short of cash. Equally skint was Hungarian artist Peter Peri, who was able to make works cheaply by means of applying moulded concrete onto wire mesh. When local authorities began commissioning artists to create works in newly constructed housing estates, he put has name forward and he was commissioned to create three works in Vauxhall and Oval. 

The sculpture in Vauxhall is called ‘Following the Leader’ and was created between 1949-1952. This moving composition depicts children holding hands in a spiral to the sky, as an homage to children killed during the blitz.  Fortunately it is Grade II listed. The other two sculptures are in Oval are of slightly lower quality but still very interesting (both below). ‘Boys Playing Football’ depicts a group of lads doing just that, kitted out in their awkward leather boots. ‘Children Playing’ depicts a mum playing ring o’roses with her children. Curiously, all three works face internal courtyards. Perhaps this testifies to Mr. Peri’s background as a socialist and champion of everyday folk. 

One of our goals as the Runoff is to get people out of the house and explore, but of course this is largely not possible at the moment. But if you find that your daily exercise is getting a tad bit monotonous, set these little gems as your destination:

Following the Leader – on Darley House, Laud St. 

Boys Playing Football – on Wareham House, Carroun St. 

Children Playing – on Horton House, Meadow Road. 

The pieces in Oval are very close to one another.

Once upon a time in Kennington

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Once upon a time it was possible to go to a place and have a drink with other people. One of those places was in central Kennington and called ‘The Tommyfield’ and they had a cracking stand up night called ‘Always Be Comedy’. We wrote about ABC in July and have been regulars since its inception eight years ago. We’re big fans of the evening as it’s always nice to see up and coming comics in addition to big names, and of course they’re honoured to be in our manor.

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Last week ABC started a virtual comedy night and we popped along, partially out of curiosity and partially to avoid watching another episode of ‘Tiger King’. They had a few tech problems but considering that they were switching between three comics and the MC, it went pretty well. They have a few upcoming shows and we highly recommend them for a change of pace.

Wed 15 April – Josh Widdicombe and others

Wed 22 April –  Sara Pascoe, Nick Helm, and a ‘mystery guest’ (usually a pretty big name)

Wed 29 April – James Veitch and others

Wed. 6 May Iain Sterling (the guy who does the voiceover for Love Island….not that we watch it) and others.

All shows run from about 8 to 10 and the best bit is you can watch in your underwear without being picked on by the comedians. Tickets are a fiver and can be purchased here.

When this mayhem has subsided places like The Tommyfield and ABC will need our patronage more than ever. When it’s possible to go in the flesh again ABC has a good atmosphere with a fun mix of people. However, on your first visit it’s hard to escape the eerie notion that you’ve just stumbled into a reunion of contestants from ‘The Apprentice’.

Hang in there, folks. After all, by invoking that wartime spirit we all got through the great toilet roll crisis of late March.

Richard Cuming, the most curious man in Kennington

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In the 55 years that have elapsed since the middle of March, we’ve starting undertaking socially distanced walks around Greater Kennington. It was during one of these walks that we became more familiar with a true Kennington original and maybe the progenitor of all the Kennington eccentrics who have come after him; Richard Cuming.

Richard Cuming Kennington

Richard was raised in Walworth Road (intersection of Manor Place, now a McDonalds) in 1777. and it was here that his aunt and other family members sparked his curiosity for collecting all things unusual by giving him fossils, old coins, Indian arrowheads, and other ephemera which were easily available at the time, In adulthood Richard moved to 63 Kennington Road (below) and his collection grew to include items as varied as stuffed animals, ceramics, harpoons, footwear, and even early sunglasses.  Unlike many gentlemen collectors of his era, Richard never actually left the UK but was given these items or picked them up in markets around London.

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Richard’s collection in Kennington Road eventually grew to include over 25,000 objects and he was happy to show off his curiosities to as many people a possible. The home was a haven for collectors, scientists, historians, and  any passing Kenningtonian who shared his passion for all things unusual. The passion was passed on to his son Henry who, after his father’s death in 1870, moved the collection in a more populist direction by collecting objects that revealed the ordinary lives of south Londoners  from rail tickets to cheap toys and good luck charms

 

When Henry Cuming died in 1902 he bequeathed the collection to what was to become the London Borough of Southwark with the proviso that the collection be exhibited ‘in a suitable and spacious gallery or apartments in connection with Newington Public Library’. This wish was realised when the Cuming Museum was opened in Walworth Road in 1906. With a few additions from other sources the museum became very popular, a sort of Welcome Collection south of the river. The museum thrived until 2013 when the town hall complex was engulfed in flames and the building gutted.

Luckily, 98% of Richard and Henry’s collection survived the great fire and it is in storage until Southwark figures out what to do with it. But fear not, dear reader, as the collection very much lives on online and its quirky highlights can be found here. Now wash those hands!

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