The Tunnel Of Love

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Kennington Observer

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 Observer

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 Observer

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 Observer

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.

Bedrock’s 15th birthday party at Fire

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

Nowadays, as readers of this blog will realise, we like nothing better than to spend our evenings visiting the pubs, restaurants, art galleries and yoga centres of Kennington. But once upon a time, a night out for Kennington Runoff might have involved a trip to a nightclub – and one of our favourite club nights for its amazing atmosphere was John Digweed’s Bedrock. Back then, Bedrock took place at Heaven in Charing Cross, but like many of London’s more adrenaline-fuelled club nights, it has since relocated to West Kennington. Bedrock celebrate their 15th anniversary this Saturday at West Kennington’s own superclub Fire with a seven hour set from Mr Digweed himself. We won’t be attending – the only place we’d spend seven hours for entertainment nowadays is a test match at the Oval – but we’re sure it will “go off” as the kids may or may not still say. If you haven’t got a ticket, get down by 10pm when there will be 150 tickets available on the door.

Lambeth Open

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

Lambeth Open sees artists and makers across the borough open their doors to the public from 10am to 6pm both days this weekend, October 5th and 6th.

Both the spaces on display in Kennington are new to us so we look forward to having a nosey around:

Eszter Szicso is a Hungarian-born painter based at 6 Gaysley House, Hotspur Street in West Kennington, SE11 6TS.

Three different artists are based at 331 Kennington Lane, also in West Kennington.

Elefest

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

Elefest is the festival for North and East Kennington and runs from October 4th to 6th. In previous years we’ve enjoyed the The StockMKT, a night market on Friday and Saturday from 5pm-10pm with great food, craft beer, arts and crafts, live music and DJs.

This year you can also go on a tour of the subways under the north roundabout with David Bratby, the artist who painted the murals on their walls, and there’s an art exhibition in the old doctor’s surgery on the soon-to-be-demolished Heygate Estate which has got to be worth a visit for lovers of ruin porn. There’s a screening of The Harder They Come, which features one of the Kennington Runoff’s favourite records, Many Rivers To Cross by Jimmy Cliff, followed by a DJ set from Don Letts.

More Elefest events here.

The Elefest branding is really great this year, and will be even better when the festival is given its rightful name, North Kennifest:

Always Be Comedy at the Tommyfield

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Kennington Runoff

One of London’s best small comedy nights takes place every second Thursday upstairs at Kennington gastropub The Tommyfield. Sign 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

The Kennington Observer

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

Category Archives: events