At the Runoff we pride ourselves on making our reviews totally anonymous, sometimes to the frustration of business owners, and don’t ask for freebies. So we lay our cards on the table and admit to kind of knowing Houman and Seti who run Kennington Cross restaurant staple Amici, and we’re here to tell you about their upcoming summer party because it’s fun and good value for money.
Let’s face it, few restaurants in Greater Kennington appear to be flourishing at the minute and Amici is no exception. Amici has survived the dual indignities of a pandemic and a basement flood (three if you count the time they decided to sell clothes and jewellery) resulting in its closure for almost two years, leading to it almost going under. They’re back with a mixture of Mediterranean and Iranian dishes and a few events to get more people through the door.
The Amici summer party is on Thursday, 21 September at the restaurant and costs £10. We think this is good value for money as it gets you two drinks in their cute pop up stalls in the back previously sponsored by Lillet and Beefeater, but apparently now with a rum twist. Houman and Seti will also be walking around with some of their Iranian greatest hits.* Additionally there will be a band and a host of neighbours to talk to. Tickets can be purchased here and the fun kicks off at 7pm. Your ticket also entitles you to 25% off future meals.
*We stand casually yet strategically near the kitchen to grab said delicacies as the platters emerge.
Short notice klaxon! We’ve just been made aware of what appears to be a fun music activity that has its inaugural run in Elephant Park tomorrow (that’s Saturday, 12 August). We felt particularly excited by the huge number of exclamation points in the press release.
The event in question is called Elephant Sounds and is described as the summer’s newest outdoor music event and party (!) and is being curated by Chris Greenwood (!) from Little Louis. Frankly we’ve never heard of this dude but he’s clobbered together a number of interesting sounding DJ’s and international acts. On the refreshment front our very own local brewery Orbit (!) will be on hand in addition to Rosey Hue pub, Bobo Social and….winning the best name of 2023 award….Feed the Yak pub.
This day looks like it could be a good crack, but if it this turns out to be the opposite of fun please don’t come crying to us as we know little about it. More info can be found in the link and the diverse, eclectic lineup is below. Did we mention that it’s free? Have we mentioned that we love free?
The details When: Saturday August 12, 2023, 12pm-8pm Where: Elephant Park, SE17 1GD
12pm Cal Jader – DJ (Latin) 1:30pm – 3pm Camberwell Connection – DJ (Reggae) 3:30pm – 4:30pm Baque De Axe – Live music (Brazilian) 4:30pm – 6pm Natty Bo – DJ (Ska Mambo Cumbia) 6pm – 8pm Cubafrobeat! Lokkhi Terra featuring Dele Sosimi – Live music (Cuban/Afrobeat)
Looking for something to undertake over the May bank holiday? We’ve just been sent the press release for The Chelsea Fringe Festival taking place this weekend in Elephant Park. Link below. It does have the uncomforting whiff of an event organised by a multinational property development company. But it has free stuff and as regular readers are well aware we here at the Runoff regularly lower our standards. In fact we have a banner above our desks reading ‘we’re all cheap our prices are just different’. And it looks like the new square will be pretty vibrant with live music and the like.
Unfortunately the cocktail masterclass is sold out, but one is being held at hipster haven Bobo Social, who do have some killer cocktails. We love Bobo if for no other reason than it sounds like the name that some posh lady gives to a tiny dog sticking out of her handbag (Bobo, STOP THAT). While you’re in that neck of the woods check out our reviews of great pizza joint 400 Rabbits, retro gaming haven 4 Quarters, Central Chinese Murger Han, and Brazilian brunch spot Tupi. All worthy stop offs. We do get around, don’t we?
Chelsea Fringe is this Saturday, the 27th, from 1 to 6.
Next time you pop over to the big Sainsburys at the top of Wandsworth Road in Vauxhall, look across the street and beyond the soulless high rises that surround you. If you were in that spot 150 years ago you would have been met by raucous female ex convicts and the smell of starch and soap. This is all due to an extraordinary enterprise by a campaigner named Sarah Meredith, and we’re about to tell you what she did.
When forced deportation of prisoners to Australia was outlawed in 1857, the government had to decide how to reintegrate people who had served their time. Work for men was plentiful in places such as factories, but a unique dilemma was posed for females. People didn’t want them working in their homes for reasons of trust, and Susanna was aware of this. She started Nine Elms Laundry in a disused and shabby Victorian building with a goal of giving jobs exclusively to women who were trying to piece their lives back together.
Some women lived at the laundry and others commuted to their daily 10 hour shift. The rules of the laundry were prominently displayed but not enforced punitively. These included no alcohol or money on site, and the expectation that they would not leave the premises without permission. Women who served a subsequent sentence were not judged and welcomed back into the fold after they’d served their time. Women from all denominations were accepted, which was unusual at the time.
The laundry was arranged as a self financing enterprise with mostly middle class patrons. Such was the success of the business that Sarah was able to offer to clean the clothes of poor people in Vauxhall at a discounted rate. This was crucial at a time in which your appearance alone could determine whether you could put food on the table. Susanna was also able to off free laundry services to people living with infectious diseases.
Records show that Susanna and her sister were living in South Lambeth Road at the time so were close enough to keep an eye on the shop and give a little extra support to the vulnerable women in her employ. We all need a Susanna Meredith in out lives now and again, and we hope there are more folks out there like her.
Thank you to the good people over at Vauxhall History who wrote most of this article. They are a great place to explore.
From the archives, the fifth edition of our month of best history posts
Beyond the soon to be demolished Vauxhall bus station and nestled in the midst of the behemoth known as St. George Wharf lies a beautiful Georgian building that has survived encounters with oblivion, in an area that has become unrecognisable in recent years.
Brunswick House dates from the mid 17th century but was rebuilt in 1758. The back of the house had sweeping views to the Thames and the front overlooked the then booming Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and market gardens of Oval. Just 32 years after being rebuilt the house suffered the ignominy of being split into to, and would never be a single home again.
The destiny of Brunswick House, and indeed Vauxhall, was profoundly affected by the arrival of the railways in the 1840’s in ways both good and bad. The railway was the final nail in the coffin for Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, and poor Brunswick House had its access to the river permanently cut off by a railway goods yard. In the 1850’s the house ended up in the hands of London and South Western Railways and this is when its journey became particularly interesting.
In 1860 a fire almost destroyed Brunswick House, and after being repaired it was used by the railways as a staff canteen for workers, a library, a concert hall, a scientific institute, a bar, and a caretaker’s cottage. In WW2 an army unit lived in the building and, according to legend, in the 1950’s it was used by MI5 and MI6 for secret meetings as they feared that their own HQ was bugged. It was threatened by the wrecking ball on several occasions but was saved from this fate by being listed in 1973.
The house remained in railway hands for over 150 years when it was sold as the railways were being privitised and sold again in 2002 to a property developer. Some readers might remember this period as the building quickly declined as a result of vandalism and was in a pretty sorry state. It was purchased in 2005 by architectural salvage firm ‘Lassco’, who carefully restored the building and filled the rooms with its products, many of which are Georgian themselves.
Next time you are going for your hour of exercise pop over to Brunswick House and marvel at the fact that it’s still there. Lassco is very much open to the public (well, not right now) and a fascinating place to explore. They also have a critically acclaimed cafe. If you’re willing to sell a kidney, or your name happens to be Elton John, you might even be able to buy a doorknob there!
From the archives, the second edition of our month of best history posts
Fixate your eyes girls and boys, as we’re about to give you a little potted history of a lovely neo Classical institution in Kennington Lane with a funny badge on the front of it; Imperial Court.
1. The Licensed Victuallers School, Kennington Green
In 1794 the Friendly Society of Licensed Victuallers was established to educate the children of publicans affected by long term illness, incapacity, or poverty (take it from Peggy Mitchell, running a pub isn’t easy). As this was the era that proceeded free public education, publicans were keen to ensure their children’s education and well being. The school was so popular that admission was granted exclusively on the basis of a lottery, but over time the school was so oversubscribed that a larger building was required.
The original school was demolished in 1835 and the core of the building we have inherited was erected in 1836 (with extensions in 1890). The school was now able to expand its enrollment from 100 to 250 pupils, both boys and girls. The children were generally taught apprenticeships and educated from the age of 7-12 until they were 15, and then sent on their way with a small bonus for good conduct. The school moved to Slough in 1921.
NAAFI
Following WW1 The comprehensive welfare of Forces was put into sharp focus, and from 1921 to 1992 Imperial Court again served the public proudly as the headquarters of the Navy, Army, and Air Forces Institutes, or ‘NAAFI’. NAAFI existed (and on a much smaller scale still does) to provide catering and recreational activities needed by the British Armed Forces and their families posted overseas. This included mess services, selling British goods, and organising entertainment and activities.
Providing non combat services to troops and families required trained staff, on a voluntary and on a paid basis. To this extent NAAFI in Kennington served as a training centre for cooks, cleaners, caterers, and people interested in the logistics of getting auxiliary services to people overseas. Training at NAAFI was often undertaken by women, and their work in the war effort is duly celebrated at the Imperial War Museum (keeping it local).
3. Flats
Imperial Court was Grade 2* listed in 1980, so it is luckily beyond the grasp of the wrecking ball. After it was sold in 1992 it was converted into flats and now functions as a home to your neighbours.
Merry Christmas from the Runoff family to yours. We like to think of ourselves as a bit like St. Nicolas himself. We bring people mirth and joy, while at the same time no one has actually seen us or even knows if we exist!
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.
We’ve added a new ‘subscription’ button to the website as the old vanished, was stolen, or perhaps eaten. So this way you can miss none of the highlights and numerous low lights here at the Runoff. Oh, you can also see pics of our Instagram feed, just to waste a bit more of your precious time!
We recently had a chin wag with long time Kennington resident Baylen Leonard. Baylen is a presenter at the increasingly popular ‘Absolute Country’ and in fact was the first voice on the channel when it launched a few years ago. Described as the ‘oracle of country music’, Baylen just won ‘International Country Broadcaster of the Year’ at the Country Music Awards.
Baylen hails from Bristol, Tennessee and arrived in London via New York in 2000. He started his career as a voiceover artist, worked with Sara Cox, had a podcast with Danny Baker, and then landed his first job working at Radio 1 London. He has also presented the massive (and it must be because even we’ve heard of it) Country 2 Country Festival for Radio 2. He also runs an online country music magazine called Holler. Whew….and to think, here in the office we get exhausted when we ask Sue to order more staples.
Baylen is passionate about country music, pointing out that Absolute Radio wouldn’t have touched it with a bargepole unless they recognised it was probably the largest growing genre of music in the UK.. Baylen observed that what people appreciate about country is that often songs tell stories, and that people are moving back to ‘honesty and authenticity’ in their musical tastes. When asked how people can tip their toe into home grown country talent, Baylen tipped The Shires and Twinnie.
When interviewing folks we always like to ascertain what Greater Kennington means to them, and Baylen said ‘it is constantly evolving but not over run with chain shops’. When not behind a microphone Baylen can be found at his local The Dog House, The Vauxhall Tavern, or The Eagle. In terms of grub he’s a fan of Oval Farmers Market, Mimi’s Deli, Theos Pizzeria, and Kuma. For sushi it has to be Taro, and for him the best burgers can be found at The White Bear. We fully endorse all of these selections and no money has changed hands.
As if all of the excitement above isn’t enough for our local boy, he’s even gone and started a country music festival called The Long Road with over 100 acts, and tickets are available now. On the subject of festivals, we at the Runoff are a very modest sort and we don’t like to show off. But since you asked, we did see Dolly at Glastonbury a few years again and a short video is below *picks up name just dropped on the floor*.
