Category Archives: events

War Games at IWM

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We usually like to review the new exhibits at the Imperial War Museum, but had some understandable reluctance to check out their newest show. As it’s about war related video games as we didn’t think it exactly fit, lets just say, the sensitive demographic that we cater to. However, we found it fascinating and it dispelled, among other things, the dated myth that online gaming is a domain for spotty teenage boys. 

War Games: Real Conflicts, Virtual Worlds, Extreme Entertainment is a show displayed in 10 parts, or levels, starting with the psychology of why people  have a long history of gravitating to games involving tactic and strategy. We are then shown a live action game, Wolfenstein 3D (1992) next to Sniper Elite 5 (2022) to see how profoundly gaming has changed over the years. This is where we encounter two enormous screens showing war games and developers telling us in laymen’s terms (it has to be very laymen for us) how they are based on real environments, and they show us how users can play for a few minutes or plan a campaign that takes years to complete. The mind boggles.  

The largest room touches on some of the inevitable ethical complexities involved in developing products based on crushing people’s heads and then running them over. Apparently one of the largest growth areas are games which involve saving people affected by war, which is a relief. And increasingly developers are creating figures which can be succinctly personalised to give gamers a feeling that they have agency with that figure. Video games often reflect the anxieties we face at the time they were created and can be seen as mirrors of the age. For example, imagine a videogame fronted by a resurrected Liz Truss with Covid, running around cutting off everyone’s heating. 

The most enjoyable element of this exhibit can be found on Level 10 (this room is only open until the end of January) which has dozens of retro video consoles from 1980 up until the current day which you can play for free. We saw Sega, Atari, Commodore 24, X Box, Nintendo 64 and others. We won’t tell you which era we played as you’ll then be one step closer to knowing who we are. But suffice it to say that War Games is a sophisticated spread of immersive installations about a culture that many of us know little about. 

For those of you who’ve given IWM a wide berth over the years for moral reasons, we understand your reluctance. However, it is not a temple of jingoistic celebration, and if anything it is dedicated to the human spirit and survival. Galleries dedicated to the Holocaust and women on the home front are very poignant and reminders of the profound impact that conflict has on the innocent.

War Games: Real Conflict, Virtual Worlds, Extreme Entertainment is on now until 28 May and is totally free. 


Always Be Comedy – Tommyfield

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Did you know that we have a top flight comedy night  right here in Greater Kennington? It’s called Always be Comedy, and is a favourite here at Runoff Towers after a stressful day of faxing and stapling . It takes place upstairs at the Tommyfield pub and is MC’ed by the effervescent James Gill. In addition to the comedy, James lays on fun games such as ‘who has the posher name’ (no mean feat with that lot)

On previous outings we’ve seen the likes of Mo Gilligan, Harry Hill, Joe Lycett, Katherine Ryan, Russell Howard, Romesh Ranganathan, Josh Widdecombe (whoops – better pick up those names we just dropped!), all for  £12. And some before they became famous.  The only trick is you need to be quick off the mark, and also some are billed as ‘secret’ so it is probably a good idea to be on their mailing list. And if you’ve never heard of the comedian, you might discover somebody new and only exerted a walk over and stumble back from Kennington Cross in the process. 

The crowd at ABC makes you feel a bit like you’ve stumbled across an audition for the next season of ‘The Apprentice’, but if you can move beyond that (and the pricey pints) then it’s a fun night. If you plan to make a night of it, for food we would give the Tommyfield a miss and suggest the excellent Korean/Japanese joint ‘Kuma’ a few doors down. ABC also do a night in Wandsworth, but that isn’t Greater Kennington so who cares.

There are people with actual full heads of hair at these shows

Gardening Fun in Walworth

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We were overcome with giddy thrill when we saw a range of free gardening related courses had just been announced over at Walworth Garden. We weren’t so thrilled to discover that they’re only free to our lucky readers in Southwark. But you can still attend if you have a spare £85 or so kicking around. And if you do then, well, congratulations. And even if you don’t book a course, the Garden is a fine place to visit. 

These courses are aimed for people who have gardens and also those who garden from a window. There are courses on composting, herbal medicines, soap making, houseplants, terrariums, how to lay out a garden, and many more. Imagine all the pleasure you can give your loved ones at Christmas by saying ‘look aunty Claire, I made you a bar of soap with some thyme stuck in it’! Or by taking the moral high road with your flat mates when they complain that your bedroom smells like a decomposing rat, by saying  ‘excuse me, but I’m HOME COMPOSTING’! 

For those of you not aware of Walworth Garden, it is a small, green, urban oasis our not so green patch of land. Their motto is ‘if it isn’t in the ground then its for sale’. So you can buy plants (including loads of cacti), soil, herbs, and even a few pots. It is also a very relaxing place to just wander and sit on the many benches. The Garden also has an apiary, which got us very excited at first as we thought it had something to do with actual apes. It is in fact a place where bees are kept and they even offer a course on bee keeping.  

So, you lucky folks in Walworth, Elephant, or wealthy people in Lambeth, click here to book those courses! 

The Currency in Newport St.

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When Time Out, or as we like to call it, ‘that listings site from a bygone era’ described the new show at Newport Street Gallery as ‘stupid, lazy, arrogant, crap art’ we knew we had to get over there as soon as possible.  This very controversial show is called ‘The Currency’ by Damien Hirst and features 10,000 of his dot paintings in several eras of existence. These range from physical paintings to photocopies and then cinder, as the artworks are torched on the first floor. 

For people not aware of Mr. Hirst’s oeuvre, he has spent a large amount of his career preserving dead animals in formaldehyde, sticking diamonds of skulls, and exterminating flies. We reviewed a previous show at Newport in October, 2020.  An abiding theme of Hirst is the repetitive nature of objects and their cycle from inception, to life, to being fetishized and worshiped, and eventual meaningless demise. 

Hirst’s interest in the repetitive nature of dots is well established, and last year he gave 10,000 people the option to buy an NFT .jpg dot painting for £2000. The NFT could then be traded for an original 8×10 work. About half the punters traded it for an original and the remaining suckers  folks stuck with the NFT option. It is these physical works which are on display in monumental floor to ceiling displays and ultimately dispatched into ashen bits above Vauxhall.  

The exhibit is peppered with TV screens featuring live footage of the works being prepped and torched. When the fires aren’t on, there are clips of Mr. Hirst in conversation with actually responsible people such as former Bank of England boss Mark Carney and Stephen Fry, with topics ranging from the absurdity of the art market to the meaningless value of money. Try telling that to the single mum who can’t heat her home at the moment. But we digress. 

Damien Hirst: The Currency is on now until 30 October and is free. Even if you find the theme distasteful, the exhibition itself is quite thought provoking as the paintings/photocopies begin to incrementally disappear. There is also a great gift shop. The fact that over the past 12 months the NFT market has crashed is just a side giggle. However, we at the Runoff would never capitalise of personal loss as that would make us no better than a Florist. 

Best Pub Quizzes in Greater Kennington

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After a long day at Runoff Towers, a gaggle of us hopped over to gastro pub The Rose in Albert Embankment to bask in their pub quiz, among other temptations. The quiz is held upstairs and MC’ed by a slightly bumbling but endearing American chap who ironically lays on some very, very tricky questions involving songs, maps, letter games and general trivia (mind bending picture round clues below). There are free drink questions and prizes to be won and on our night the jackpot was at £200. The crowd was very convivial but contained, and there wasn’t a cheating mobile in sight. 

On the food front, it pains us to say that the mains had, well, spent most of their short lives in a freezer. However, some of the starters were very tasty and we can recommend the calamari. And, as if arisen from the ashes, there  was a pop up menu selection from the short lived Kennington Cross burger joint Rare Burger Co. which looked more enticing. The Rose pub quiz is on Monday nights from 19:00 and can be reserved on their website. Time well spent after a day at work. 

If you like a bit of stand up injected into your pub quiz, we highly recommend the quiz at The Old Red Lion pub in Kennington Park Road. Hosted by the deadpan and pseudo legendary ‘Paul Partridge Experience’, there is often a theme (music is common) and games such as throwing rings around bottles or dancing. Listen closely and he will manage to insult most celebrities, and even if ask himself existential questions such as ‘how did my life end up like this’. The Old Red Lion pub quiz is on Sunday nights from 20:00 and can be reserved on their website. 

Paul Partridge, Quiz supremo.

And if you’re wondering if team Runoff won the pub quiz then let me be the first to tell you that we didn’t. That honour was bestowed on the young men with great hair who scored our quiz sheet, who then eagerly informed us that they live in north London and are great friends from Uni. We resisted the urge to say ‘oh yeah, well we all work at an imaginary publishing house so TAKE THAT’ and throw our crumpled quiz sheet at them. 

Roots and Shoots Goes Wild

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As our local climate slowly gravitates in the direction of semi normality after the drought, we could all use a little green patch in our lives. And what better than local institution Roots and Shoots and their annual open day called ‘Roots and Shoots Goes Wild!’. 

For those not in the know, Roots and Shoots is a registered charity and vocational hub dedicated to educating disaffected young people aged 16 -25 in Lambeth and Southwark and preparing them for the world of work through one year internships in areas such as horticulture and retail.  It’s also a green space for urban biodiversity and is frequently visited by school groups eager to learn more about plants and how much of our food is grown. In addition to all of this good work, it’s open to all for a wonder around its verdant and leafy half acre.

The Open Day is on Sunday, 9 October from 11-4. It features a display of Birds of Prey (don’t worry, they won’t prey on you), children’s storytelling, face painting, children’s art, and workshops. Also featured are beekeeping and floristry demonstrations which we saw several years ago and are very interesting indeed. There will also be food stalls and baked goods. We’re particularly interested in their promised ‘mechanical dragon’. This could refer simply to small dragonfly to enchant the kids, but we’re secretly hoping for a Komodo that pops out from behind an Oak, resulting in general chaos and people running out of the gates. 

We attended the Roots AGM a few years ago and they always have interesting things afoot. But, and we say this because we care, we hope that ‘going wild’ refers to plants and not the staff as this might result in more than a few broken hips. But, broken hips are not, these great volunteers will be on hand to answer all of your questions and ensure it’s a great day. 

Beaconsfield Gallery

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We have an intriguing exhibit and sauna (?) to tell you about at the ever avant garde Beaconsfield Gallery in Newport St. The exhibit is ‘Monica Soo – The time is NOW and it is overdue!’. Soo was a feminist Swedish painter who explored subjects which are now researched and discussed but were at the time still mostly not part of the common vernacular. Namely, anguish about the environment, systemic violence against women, and non binary ways of living. This is told through the vehicle of the celebration of the Goddess culture. This isn’t the most uplifting giggle of an exhibit, but it is thought provoking and in a way is even immersive, as the paintings and drawings snake up the wall. 

Sticking with all things Scandi, also being exhibited is ‘The Finnish Sauna’, created by architect Sami Rintala in collaboration with architecture students from the University of Westminster. We had a chin wag with gallery staff about just how in the world a mobile sauna ended up in their car park, and they explained that it has been transferred from the London Festival of Architecture, who they have collaborated with for years. Inside you’ll find all of the usual accoutrement associated with a sauna, such as coals and a giant ladle to pour water over your head. Also in the car park is a watchtower associated with the Soo exhibit. We’re not sure what it was for, but it afforded sweeping views towards Pimlico Plumbers. 

Monica Soo – The time is NOW is open until 10 September and the Sauna until October, and private bookings for the sauna can be found here. When a show is on (which isn’t very often) Beaconsfield Gallery is open Wednesday – Saturday from 12-5 and is totally free. However, getting inside the sauna costs £20 and Runoff bosses refused to sign off on it. Perhaps we approached the topic wrong when we said ‘please give us 20 quid to visit a sauna in Vauxhall’. We’ll try to be more subtle in future. 

Summer Fun in Greater Kennington and Beyond

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Its summertime and we’re on board to tell you about two free (and we love free) festivals and the first is this Sunday (the 10th) in Kennington Park. We attended the Kennington Park Festival a few years ago and departed quickly after feeling like we’d just crashed a poorly attended family reunion. However, thanks to the guilty conscience of Berkeley Homes it is now properly funded and looks to be back with a vengeance. This is a family friendly event so one can expect face painting, non scary clowns, organised games, music, dancing and of course some pretty yummy looking food stalls. 

If you’re a regular reader you’ll be aware that we greatly caution against leaving Greater Kennington. However, if you do so just once in your life you could do a lot worse than attend the fantastic Lambeth Country Fair. This massive soiree accommodates over 100,000 people and includes a mind boggling selection of food stalls, bars, loads of music and stages, real life farm animals, and a fun fair. And the best bit is that the activities reflect the diversity and eclectisim of Lambeth. Our favourite bit is the competition where people carve their garden veg into famous people or pieces of anatomy. This bit of the Fair is so heralded that its been written about in Time Out

Lambeth Country Fair is next weekend (16 and 17 July) in Brockwell Park. Our top tip for this fandango is that if you happen to own a car don’t use it as you’ll still be looking for a parking spot come Christmas. Plus, you won’t be able to enjoy all the great craft beer on offer. 

Bee Urban

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If you’ve ever seen people at the back of Kennington Park who appear to be cleaning up following a small nuclear accident, they are in fact beekeepers tending to their buzzy brood at social enterprise Bee Urban, and we’re here to tell you about them. 

Bee Urban is a secret garden and bee sanctuary located behind the pavilion in Kennington Park. We recently totted over to have a conversation with manager Barnaby to find out more about their good deeds. Bee Urban has at its core a goal of promoting positive, ecologically sound gardening and greening with a focus on farming and the preservation of our buzzy friends. They are particularly skilled in offering courses and training for vulnerable people and kids, but also for the larger community (on our visit they were having a honey beer tasting). 

Bee Urban is not only a free lovely refuge from our urban lives but also a place to stroll, contemplate, and to purchase honey and other accessories associated with bees. It’s also a place to get stung by a bee but we’re sure you can avoid that. There are also many ways to get involved on their website. And if you don’t like dirty hands, you can get involved by making (and buying) honey or courses dedicated community gardening and biodiversity.  On our visit we saw on sale honey candles, soaps, moisturisers and honey comb. And in a few days it will be high season to buy Kennington branded honey (yes, it’s a thing). The best way to find out about these is via their Insta or Facebook feeds

Apologies for the slight delay in posting but we recently had our annual team building long weekend at Glastonbury. It went off without a hitch other than Phil from accounts who, after grabbing ciders during Diana Ross, claims to have been lost for five hours. We also flew this flag our our MD’s head but we don’t think he was buying it. 

North Lambeth Parish Fete

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The North Lambeth Parish Fete is coming up on Saturday and if we weren’t on a team building retreat (more on that later) we wouldn’t miss it. It’s  the new incarnation of the dearly departed Cleaver Square Festival. Fortunately it’s now much larger thanks to the intervention of Daniel Cobb and none other than Jesus Christ himself. 

While we may have never been to this 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 (£4) justifies a wander around.   According to our sources, the Fete is more kid friendly than its Cleaver processor 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 like 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. And there are a number of local food stalls available looking pretty delish to us. 

The Fete is this Saturday, (25 June) from 12-5. To whet your appetite we found this totally manic video on YouTube. Did somebody say ‘free coffee mugs’?

And we would be absolutely thrilled to join you for this event but, alas, we will be on a team building long weekend at Glastonbury which will prove memorable. Or perhaps unrememberable. Look out for our pics on social media and please don’t hate us. *drops mic and leaves the room*