It’s Kennington’s busiest week ever!

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Kennington Runoff

Forget Brazil, it’s all about what’s going on in Kennington for the next few days.

The Pungent Subway opens tonight in a subway underneath the North roundabout in North Kennington, organised by the team behind Save Our Subways. As part of the London Festival of Architecture, the subway passage will be filled with fragrances from herbs and flowers. It’s free, no booking required – just turn up between 6.30pm and 8.30pm today, tomorrow or Saturday.

Pullens Yard Open Studios takes place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday in East Kennington. Here’s what we wrote about it last year.

The Summer Open Studios also takes place this weekend at Make Space. It’s open from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday with a private view tonight from 6-9pm. Saturday afternoon from 3pm their “performing artists will display their skills with DJing, live musical performances and dance events”. Newnham Terrace, London SE1 7DR.

And last but not least, the ninth annual Kennington Village Fete takes place this Sunday from noon till 4pm in Cleaver Square. We’ll be there, playing the Amazing Human Fruit Machine and stocking up on local honey (you haven’t tasted honey until you’ve tasted this – it really is special).

Cycle the Greater Kennington alphabet

Posted on April 25, 2014 by Kennington Runoff

Join Kennington cycle warrior Charlie Holland (the force behind the Kennington People on Bikes blog) on an Alphabetical Adventure in the Greater Kennington area this Sunday 27 April. Taking in the districts formally known as Vauxhall and Waterloo, Charlie has planned a route with 26 stops of historical, cultural, scientific, or other significance across his patch, all traversed in alphabetical order. These look set to include the grand entrance to Necropolis, and the well-hidden North-West Kennington William Blake mosaics.

We note that the letter X has been left with apologies, presumably for lack of inspiration. In light of this, Kennington Runoff would like to suggest a couple of possibilities in X for Xanax at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and X for Edward Cross, the man who brought giraffes and tigers to Kennington Park Road.

Book a free place on the ride at Cycle Confident and then meet at 10am on Sunday for a quick bike check before departing by 10.15am, to finish by 1.30pm. The ride starts on the segregated cycle track by Lassco, 30 Wandsworth Rd, SW8 2LG. Would recommend eating breakfast first before embarking on the ‘dozen or so’ miles, but not at Brunswick House or you’ll miss the ride.

Hula Boogie Bunnyhoppin’ at South London Pacific Tiki Bar

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Kennington Runoff

If, as evening draws in on Easter Sunday, you’ve dropped a couple too many of Sally White’s Speckled Praline Quail Eggs and you’re looking for some vigorous physical exercise within staggering distance, let Hula Boogie come to your rescue. The award-winning 1950s-obsessed night will be celebrating Easter at the South London Pacific Tiki Bar with a Bunnyhoppin’ vintage dance on Sunday 20th April, where they hope to form the longest bunny hop line ever. Oh, and there’s also an Easter egg hunt in case you haven’t yet over-indulged.

Club founder Miss Aloha will be on hand at 7.30pm to lead a 1950s jive/rock ‘n’ roll taster class, followed by a class in the exotic Hawaiian hula dance, the Hukilau, at 8pm.

Free Easter eggs and £1 off the entrance fee for those who attend wearing bunny ears (entry without bunny ears is £7). Or FREE ENTRY for one lucky Kennington Runoff reader and their friend with our exciting competition. To win two guestlist places just tell us which Kennington musical celebrity performed onstage last year at the South London Pacific:

a) Morrissey
b) Florence Welch
c) Chilli from Palma Violets.

Send the correct answer via email to kenningtonrunoff@gmail.com by midday on Good Friday, please.

Hula Boogie is held at South London Pacific Tiki Bar, 340 Kennington Road, London SE11 4LD. 7pm to midnight.

Fashion & Gardens at the Garden Museum?

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Kennington Runoff

No, us neither, but it’s worth going to visit the Garden Museum while the Fashion & Gardens exhibition is on (until April 27th) to see floral artist Rebecca Louise Law’s installation called ‘The Flower Garden Display’d’. She has hung over 4,600 flowers from the roof of the museum (a former church), and it’s quite something.

Join Rebecca Louise Law under ‘The Flower Garden Display’d’ for a discussion with photographer Rachel Warne about The Beauty of Decay, dying flowers and the afterlife of gardens, on Tuesday at 6.30pm (tickets £10).

The museum is open every day and admission costs £7.50 for adults, but it’s free if you just want to go to the cafe, which is good and vegetarian, and you’ll walk under ‘The Flower Garden Display’d’ on your way through.

On your way out, you can check out The Garden Museum’s expansion plans, which involve re-creating part of Tradescant’s Ark. Tradescant’s Ark was Britain’s first museum open to the public, started by John Tradescant and his son John Junior, who are buried in what is now the garden of the Garden Museum. The original Tradescant’s Ark was in North West Kennington and featured a stuffed dodo, drums from Africa, weapons from Java, and a series of complaints from Walworth.

The Tunnel Of Love

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Kennington Runoff

Valentine’s Day: a purely commercial construct designed to entice otherwise sensible individuals to shell out on teddies and red foil balloons, yes, but when have we ever been ones to kill a romantic notion?

If you’ve still not made a grand gesture, Sally White may have some of their Jammy Dodger love hearts left:

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(photo credit @WHITECAFESally)

You’ve left it too late to go to the West Kennington Village’s cinema pop-up The Tunnel of Love tonight (all sold out I’m afraid), but you can still get tickets for Moonrise Kingdom and Lost In Translation tomorrow, screened in a disused railway arch by Vauxhall Station. They’ve laid on a champagne cocktail bar, Rococo chocolates stand and a flower stall so that you can lay it on thick with your date in the hope that they won’t moan too much about celebrating Valentine’s Day a little later than expected.

(Tunnel of Love photo credit @vickybattcock)

If that leaves you feeling a bit icky, head next door to Fire, and blast yourself to Oblivion at their Vagabondz Valentine’s Party.

Meditation at the Jamyang Buddhist Centre

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Kennington Runoff

Happy new year.

Are you starting the new year in need of spiritual sustenance? Get yourself down to the Jamyang Buddhist Centre on Renfrew Road in North Kennington, one of two Buddhist centres in Kennington with a third one on the way in the former Beaufoy Institute.

On January 6th from 7.30pm till 9pm is one of Jamyang’s regular Introduction to Meditation sessions. We’ve been to one of these sessions before. What can we tell you about it?

– You’ll have to take your shoes off.
– It’s not a brazen attempt to convert you to Buddhism – Buddha barely got a mention.
– There are opportunities to ask questions. Someone else asked the question we should have asked – how to stay awake during meditation? The instructor did provide some practical suggestions but also said it doesn’t matter if you fall asleep, at which point we nodded off.
– They do a nice quiche and salad in the cafe during the day.
– It’s free but donations are welcome.
– Meditation is scientifically proven to boost concentration, reduce stress, depression, anxiety and addictive behaviours, and can even help with physical problems like heart disease and chronic pain (sorry we can’t lay our hands on the scientific proof right now).

So, all in all, an ideal opportunity to have a look around the Buddhist centre – which has a nice, welcoming vibe whatever your religious beliefs – and to try ~~napping~~ meditation.

Read about the history of the building – and old courthouse – here.

The Courtyard Cafe, featuring a Buddha in a glass cage made from pure Nepalese gold:

Ava Catherside

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

Ava Catherside is an East Kennington-based, ready-to-wear, androgynous fashion label created by Anna Gloria Flores and Veronica Todisco. From an austerely chic Victorian studio in Pullens Yards, the duo produce minimal designs that are stocked in boutiques around the world- including London stockist LN-CC (alongside heavyweights Balenciaga, Comme Des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto). Their clothes, produced using environmentally ethical fabrics such as Alcantara, have been featured in style bibles Vogue Italia, Tank and iD, and have been spotted in the real world catwalk that is the Cleaver Square summer fete.

For one day only (tomorrow) Ava Catherside will be selling their wares in Kennington, at their first ever private sale event:

Ava Catherside A/W 13:

Pullens Yards

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

In the early 20th century, East Kennington’s magnificent Pullens Estate, AKA the Pullens Buildings, comprised almost 700 properties and stretched all the way to Manor Place. In the seventies the surviving buildings were threatened with demolition. Residents and squatters fought back (Kennington owes a lot to the preservation efforts of squatters) and thank goodness they did – these are some of London’s last surviving Victorian tenement buildings, and their workshops host a thriving community of creative people, as well as providing film sets for the likes of The King’s Speech (in the scene where the king goes to visit the speech therapist for the first time).

Twice a year they host an open day and their Christmas event is coming up next weekend. It’s the ideal opportunity to look around these unique spaces and pick up unusual Christmas presents. How about some Alex Monroe jewellery for a fraction of the Liberty’s price, or some pottery moulded from vegetables, or a handmade loot, or some architect-designed furniture, or a print of all the regions of the shipping forecast? It’s all here, in the most amazing and rather Christmas-y setting.

More info here.

Pullens Yard, with workshops along both sides:

An installation of umbrellas from a previous open day, an idea that later made it to Carnaby Street:

Naomi Campbell used to live in Iliffe St, below, and, wait for it, the young Charlie Chaplin lived in one of the Pullens Buildings for a while:

The loot making workshop, who supply all Kanye West’s loot needs:

Make Space Studios

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

Make Space Studios is a complex of arts and craft studios run by the people behind Studio 180. If you want to see handbags made out of recycled material, screen printing of posters for leading alternative bands, and savagely accurate parodies of twee middle class consumerist products, get along to their Christmas open evening ~~today~~ tomorrow, Thursday, from 4pm to 9pm (sorry we got the date wrong initially). There will be mince pies, mulled wine and special magic punch*.

Make Space runs alongside the railway lines going in to Waterloo Station, while the entrance is on Newnham Terrace in North Kennington, opposite Lambeth North Tube. They also have an art gallery, The Simulator Gallery.

Follow the pink bannister below to enter and on no account allow yourself to be diverted into CP Hart, the world’s largest and therefore most terrifying bathroom showroom.

* we can’t be sure but it seems like that kind of place

Apple Day at Roots and Shoots

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

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 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.

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

The Kennington Observer (formerly Kennington Runoff)

Surreptitiously observing Kennington, including the suburbs Vauxhall, Oval, Walworth, and Elephant since 2012

Category Archives: events