Third in our series of historic photos of Kennington takes us to St. Anselm’s church. This photo was taken during the summer of 1933 and depicts the frieze above the Romanesque doors being carved. The artist is Alfred Gerrard, who at the time was head sculptor at the Slade School of Art and is at the bottom of the photo. Carving must be very good exercise, as Mr. Gerrard lived to be 99, 65 years after this photo was taken.
We have a shameless obsession with old photos of greater Kennington here at the Runoff and here is a little mid week fix for you, the first of a series over the next month. My predecessor Jamie put up quite a few last year and they are delightful.
This picture is of a very different Vauxhall Cross circa 1958. The shot is looking east up Albert Embankment, and might have been taken on the top floor of the building were Starbucks now resides. The buildings on the left are now occupied by the bus shelter, and were the billboards are is now an expanded approach to Albert Embankment. So changes to the flow of traffic is not a new occurrence in Vauxhall! 
The annual North Lambeth Fete is back on 22 Jun from 12:30 to 4:30pm, and its a thing. We’ve never been as we usually opt for the Cleaver Sq. Fete, which has apparently been moved to Christmas in order to avoid clashing with this event. This is a bit of a shame, as we’ll miss the annual Cleaver summer spectacle of Kate Hoey getting heckled, a slightly drunk Vicar acting as MC, and a wholly inappropriate Punch and Judy show for the kids. But life goes on…
While we may have never before been to the Fete, we have been to the gardens of Lambeth Palace and they are stunning, extensive and almost never open to the public. The price of the ticket itself justifies a wander around. According to our sources, the North Lambeth Fete is more kid friendly than its Cleaver counterpart and is known for its dog show and features prizes, including fastest sausage eater and least obedient (we assume these prizes are for the dogs and not humans). There is also face painting, live music, and races for the kids. And if you don’t have kids there’s a Pimms tent to keep you sane. And if you do have kids there’s a Pimms tent to keep you sane.
To whet you appetite we found this totally manic video on YouTube. Free coffee mugs!!!!
Our second gardening blog in a week, you lucky devils! Over the weekend we popped over to the Gardening Museum to inspect it’s not so recent (2017) renovation and to see if it’s worth getting your hands dirty for.
The museum is set within a 12thcentury church next to Lambeth Palace (and visitors can climb the original tower). Surprisingly, the church was almost demolished in the 1970’s but saved by gardening enthusiasts (and Charlie Chaplin) keen to preserve the memory of John Tradescant, who’s garden themed tomb still stands in the outside garden. The deconsecrated church setting is one of the primary features.
The museum itself is on the small side and encompasses bedding design, implements, seeds, and how ‘plant hunters’ brought plants to the UK from around the world which still flourish to this day. There are also paintings and sketches. The exhibits also includes interesting displays of old lawn mowers, FlyMo’s and even (wait for it) a collection of garden gnomes! Our favourite is a slightly psychotic gnome which bears an uncanny resemblance to Tony Blair:
The author of 90% of content here on the Runoff was undertaken by my brilliant predessesor who heretofore shall be referred to as ‘Jamie’. Jamie was a big fan of the café at the Gardening Museum and s/he made it their number one pick for best local restaurant earlier this year (In case you wondered Jamie isn’t dead). It is bright, open to the gardens and very informal if not a bit pricey. A little courtyard in the middle of the restaurant is dominated by the tomb of William Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame) and family. The inscription to his wife being every bit as moving as that of his on the front.
At £10 the museum is a bit on the steep side but if you want to get the dirt on gardening it is certainly the place to be. And it has a nice shop!
Do you like architecture? Do you like site specific art stuff? Well the Runoff loves both, and if you are a kindred spirit you’re in double luck. We’ve just noticed that the old Lambeth County Court building in Cleaver Street, which closed forever at the end of 2017 after 90 years hard service as a housing court, is hosting a site specific art installation and it is open both this weekend (1-2 June) and next weekend. This will probably be your last ever chance to see the 92 year old art deco beaut before it is handed over to developers and probably turned into _______ ________ (I’ll leave you to fill in the blanks, but it isn’t ‘subsidised housing’).
The artist in question is called Greta Alfaro and the show is called ‘I Will Not Hesitate to React Spiritually’. I’ll let the website do the talking about the content of the show. Meanwhile, open to Kenningtonians is the main reception area, the stairwell, a courtroom, and a further room which features a video installation of a person in a powdered wig and a veil tap dancing on a table. Enjoy!
I also accidentally opened the doors to some other rooms which were unlocked, but I couldn’t possibly recommend that you do likewise. Photos below…..
It’s that time of year again! The ever expanding City and Guilds of London Art School in Kennington Park Road is having it’s annual Foundation Show right now and as we love you so much we decided to take a break from Loose Women working to investigate it for you.
The artists are completing their foundation year, so the work is less advanced than the much grander Degree Show (I’ll get on to that in a sec). The students are studying a more proscribed range of styles than their more advanced counterparts but are much more experimental (read, slightly mad). The themes this year seem to be 1. Saving the planet 2. Nudity 3. Saving the planet through nudity 4. Rocks
The Foundation show is on tomorrow (Friday) from 10 – 5 and Saturday 10 – 5. It is in the old telephone building in Kenning’s Way
Coming up from 26 June to 30 June is the mighty (we’re talking huge) Degree Show in the main buildings of the college. It showcases a range of up and coming artists arranged in small rooms, so you can see a selection of their works. What we find most interesting is that you can see the work of historic wood and stone carvers in the back garden area. Also of interest is the areas dealing with conservation and restoration on the upper floors. And if you don’t care for something keep your trap shut as chances are the artist is within earshot. Ta!
You could probably spend a day few days, or in our case years, exploring the BFI Film Archive of old films about London. We recently discovered this treasure called ‘We Are the Lambeth Boys’ and it gives a fascinating insight into Kennington circa 1959.
The film depicts the lives of the girls and boys of Alford House youth club, which still flourishes in Aveline Street, pictured below. To 2019 eyes the 49 minute film appears slightly condescending, but it was in fact intended to dispel conceptions of ‘Teddy Boys’ (hence the conversation about apparel early in the film) and the culture of youth clubs in general.
Examining the (nerd alert!) outside shots of the estates, we think they were filmed around Newburn Street. If you are a fellow fan of ‘ohh, I know where that is’ viewing, scroll to (nerd alert 2!) 33:30 for a distinct view of 50’s Kennington Cross (shown below). If you’re still on board scroll back to (nerd alert 3!) to 26:10 for a glimpse of Cleaver Street toward Cleaver Sq. If you have any further nerd revelations please drop them in the comments box….
I need some nicer clothes…..
Gasworks
Moving on briskly to something overlooking the gasholders that’s a tad less controversial, Gasworks is a petite, pint size powerhouse of a gallery in Vauxhall St. dedicated to visual arts. It prides itself on being cutting edge and gives artists a chance to test new (and sometimes challenging) ideas . Process and development are keywords, and there are an impressive stable of artists who’ve displayed there over the past 25 years.
We just checked out the latest exhibition and it’s called ‘It Bites Back’ and it’s about…. …..wait for it…..…..mosquitos. More specifically it’s a video installation from a Brazilian artist who draws parallels between the Zika virus and the rise of authoritarian politics, while drawing in notions of love and intimacy. Not the most ‘feel good’ show we’ve seen there, but intriguing nonetheless.
Gasworks in open Wed to Sat from 12-6 and is located at 155 Vauxhall St. The exhibits change every three months or so and are a great way to build a few cultural brain cells.
Next time you’re walking up the west side of Kennington Road take a look up at the plane trees just beyond Tesco Metro and up to the IWM. If you look closely you’ll notice the names of all 12 Apollo astronauts who walked on the moon on metal plaques (Buzz Aldrin is hangin’ on for dear life in front of Texaco) plus 3 other Apollo astronauts. No one appears to know how the plaques turned up there, but the very handy Londonist website speculated in 2017, and the dearly departed Smoke magazine had a go a few years prior. If you dig deeper into the web you’ll also find some pretty cray cray theories, including one claiming that seeds for the (100+ year old) trees were actually on the Apollo missions. Hey ho..
The plaques appear to have been there for at least 25 years, so their creator might have moved on or indeed joined the heavens. If you have any theories please leave a comment. Best of luck looking, and may god’s love be with you………..
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.
