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The Ever Changing Face of Vauxhall (or, We Attend a Consultation).

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As Observer regulars will be aware, we love few things more than attending/disrupting a planning consultation, so we recently headed over to the wonderful Vauxhall City Farm to attend a consultation about the development of the Bondway site in Vauxhall. The site is at the far end of the bus shelter (more on that later) and sits in front of the Versace designed DAMAC tower where for £13 million you too can live in front of the bins at Fire Nightclub. But we digress.

When we entered the consultation we were greeted with signs reading ‘A New Vision for Vauxhall Square’. Frankly we weren’t aware that a Vauxhall Square even existed, but we went along with it as part of the mythmaking. Through a series of posters it was explained that the project will centre on two very large residential towers, with the largest topping out at almost 700 feet. St. George Wharf tower is 590 feet. 35% of this will be dedicated as social and student housing at affordable rents. When we asked how they define ‘affordable’, lets just say the answer was less than direct.

If it can be pulled off, Vauxhall Square has the potential to be interesting. A developer droned on about the exciting inclusion of a medical centre, cinema, bars, restaurants, and a library. To be honest we slightly nodded off at this stage as we’ve heard the ‘we’re giving back to the community’ spiel a hundred times. However, when said developer started to talk about the redevelopment of the railway arches, your scribe perked up and pointed out that some of these arches house nightclubs and restaurants that have been there for decades. Said developer said that they will not be affected. OK

To wake us up fully, we moved over to a 3D model of Vauxhall and got chatting to the perky and positive architect. He said that one goal is to create more walking/cycling areas free of traffic, which we support. As the two towers could actually be lifted out of the 3D model, we asked the architect if the buildings could be lifted over to Pimilco. He took this opportunity to tell us about how the project is funding more affordable housing around Lambeth, and we started to nod off again. The project will be delivered by 2030-2032.

 
And yes, the bus shelter will be going to that massive bus depot in heaven, but this is has nothing to do with the development at Vauxhall Square. Lambeth sold that scrappy piece of land in front of the bus shelter in 2013 with the agreement that the shelter would go to creating more pedestrianised spaces. On the scrappy piece of land will be two towers, 53 and 42 stories respectively (below), designed by Zaha Hadid and Partners, called Vauxhall Cross Island. This is Vauxhall, people, blink and you see something new at every turn. May the bins of Fire be testament to a more innocent and down to earth Vauxhall.

And yes, you can leave a comment here. But be nice, people, as we know what you lot are like.

The New Elephant and Castle in CGI

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OK people. You all voted with you feet and in 2020 the Pink Elephant Shopping Centre went to that great shopping mall in the sky, and they even took the erotic massage chairs. This is whats going to replace it, please tell us that you’re now happy.

It will be called Elephant and Castle Town Centre, and it reminds us a bit of Westfield. You know Westfield, the place you tell your friends you’ve never been but secretly find yourself there because ‘its just has everything’.

The Bouquet and Beans Breakfast

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We recently escaped from our publishing house hatch to pay a visit to Bouquets and Beans in front of St. Anselms Church in Kennington. And unless you’ve been stuck behind a hatch yourself, you’ll be aware that it is run by the hardest working man in Kennington, Abraham.

For this breakfast excursion your scribe was accompanied by office ‘fun guy’ Phil from accounts. We both ordered the savoury stuffed croissant. It was delivered to us grilled, as requested, and this explains why the croissant in the photo looks like Phil sat on it (and not for the first time). To add to the order Phil said ‘can I get a pint with that’. Your scribe tactfully pointed out to Phil that this a breakfast venue, in addition to it being 9:30 in the morning. He then ordered a coffee and your scribe had a tea.

Our croissants were filled with a generous heap of high quality mozzarella cut from a ball, sun dried tomatoes, and a big dollop of pesto. It was almost a shame to see it melted and grilled, but the grilling brought out the buttery feel in the mouth. Plus, it gives us a flimsy excuse to go again and get the non grilled version. At £4.50 we can recommend this. Other options on the day were a pain au chocolate, almond croissant, and pistachio pain au chocolate.

And as you’re devouring your calorific croissant, why not buy some flowers! B&B’s also has a fine selection of blooms and Abraham or one of his perky Gez Z assistants can aid you in making a bouquet.

In the end Phil stared despairingly at his coffee which wasn’t a pint, and confirmed  the quality to be rich, rounded, and right up there with another Observer fave, Urban Botanica around the corner. Another reason to go is the great community feeling it has, with many of your fellow Kenningtonians chatting and sipping.

The Craggs, the Kennington Family of Acrobats Who Went Global 

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In an age before Netflix and Hulu +, Victorian folk of all classes were entertained at music hall entertainment venues. An almost constant presence in the Halls in their early years was the Cragg family who were multigenerational acrobats specialising in trapeze acts, acrobatics, and it looks like basically just throwing each other around. For 45 years the Cragg family lived at 68 Kennington Road (now the China Walk estate) and even installed a private gym to practice their trade.  

JW ‘Papa’ Cragg was the scion of the family and was soon joined by his five sons and their probably long suffering wives. It was an expectation that the offspring join the family trade, and eventually the grandchildren were taking part.  In the early 1870’s the Craggs upped their game and took residencies in Leicester Square and at the Folies Bergeres in Paris. As there were a number of competing acrobatic acts in London at the time, the Craggs distinguished themselves by donning evening wear, as you do.  

After rave reviews In the 1870’s the Craggs went global, and embarked on a kind of Victorian Taylor Swift Eras tour of the world. The troupe made four trips to Australia, the first in 1873, and also toured Europe, New Zealand, India, Asia, and had a two year residency in the USA. After a lifetime of working together the Craggs became a very disciplined troupe and commanded huge audiences for their unique and daring way of flipping, balancing, moving and coordination. At the end of the European jaunt they earned the highest salary of any acrobatic act in the world. 

As you can imagine, juggling, rolling on the ground, and throwing people in the air while wearing evening wear can take a toll on even the fittest person, and Papa Cragg retired from performing in 1916 when he was 70 and his oldest son was 53. The family act then ceased performing but Papa continued to teach circus skills and acrobatics in his Kennington home gym until the 1920’s. In an interview in 1928 he was described as ‘the youngest old man in the world’. Proof, if ever needed, that Greater Kennington has always embraced its share of oddballs, and that’s why we live here. 

Unique in Black Prince Road.

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We’re blessed with an abundance of independent coffee shops in Greater Kennington, and we  recently paid a TKO (that’s The Kennington Observer) visit to new kid on the block ‘Unique’ in Black Prince Road. Located close to the Beaconsfield Galley, it inhabits that patch of land that calls itself Vauxhall but really isn’t.

Unique is a pleasing place to work for a few hours for those of you (not us as we’re in and underground bunker in Kennington Cross) fortunate enough to work from home a few days a week. In addition to teas and juices, they also have the traditional compliment of flat whites, Americanos, lattes, mochas and cappuchinos. And they even sell the coffee range ‘Curious Roo’. It is a quiet place to work and to listen to ambient music while chilling with middle class white people. They also serve croissants, cookies and brownies and have some bonkers art the walls.

And while we never objectify people at TKO based on looks alone, the staff are not bad to look at. 

The Ten Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington #6

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+ One Sunday Roast

Brunswick House Restaurant

If money were no object then Brunwisck House would nab the top spot, but as money DOES matter they’ve bagged the still respectable six slot. Please note that restaurants on this scale have menus that change almost daily. So what you read below (from 2024) might not still be available.

If you’ve ever noticed a large Georgian mansion which appears to be on the precipice of getting inhaled by skyscrapers in the Vauxhall gyratory, it is called Brunswick House (and we’ve written about it here) and for several years they have run a critically acclaimed restaurant, in addition to its main hustle of selling (very) high end architectural salvage.

The dining room sits effortlessly in a large space in Brunswick House selling mostly chandeliers, light fittings and other gorgeous things. For an upmarket restaurant, the clientele was surprisingly young in a kind of ‘please come to my book launch next week’ kind of way. And no sooner do we sit down than we are joined at the next table by no other than TV presenter Miquita Oliver and a gaggle of her gorgeous, hair flicking friends! They were a nice complement to our botanical and creative cocktails, the favourite being their house eucalyptus martini. 

The menu at Brunswick House often requires a diction course or at least a dictionary. But fear not, the drilled to perfection serving staff can help you differentiate between a chicharron and a tardivo. And there is the very modern dilemma of trying to decipher a sharing plate from a mains. Highlights among the snack or starter sizes were the salt cod croquettes, the roasted leeks and the devilled eggs. The croquettes oozed with creamy salty fishiness, while the roasted leeks were winning for an innovative combination with a tangy sauce derived from red peppers and pecans. The devilled eggs had a seventies retro quality but the trout roe filling gave it a more on trend feel.

For the mains, your scribe had the roast cod with sea greens and spring vegetable chowder. The meaty and flaky cod was set off well with what appeared to be a tureen of well matched veg with an aniseed hit.  A big hit on the main size dishes was the fresh maccheroni (note proper Italian spelling). This packed a big flavour hit with the curious sounding combination of roast chicken butter, wild garlic and bottarga (translation: grey mullet roe). Curious it was but definitely lovely – rich and satisfying. 

Fancy Macaroi
Cod

And then, after a night spent with Maquita and her chums set amongst glittering chandiliers  and food we couldn’t pronounce, our night was over and we were deposited into a bus fumed traffic gyratory in Vauxhall. But the wonderful food made it worthwhile. This kind of food is by no means cheap, but one of the few glories of sharing portions is that you can just pop in for a snack of two £5 plates and they’re fine with that. 

Top Ten Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington #10

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(+ one Sunday Roast)

TARO

And were off for 2025! The number ten spot has been grabbed by the Japanese canteen Taro at the bottom of Kennington Road. Part of the Greater Kennington firmament for over five years now, Taro consistently delivers authentic ‘Izakaya’, (roughly meaning ‘pub food’) very similar to  the food you get in Japan, and is good value for money. They also have a menu more diverse than most Izakaya places (not always a good thing but it is in this case), which caters to varied tastes.  Believe it or not there are a number of Japanese joints in our area, but this is reams above the lot, and militantly avoids fusion cuisine.

Some Observer staff have been to Japan and on a previous Taro visit we took KR freelance journalist Mark, who lived in Japan for years and served as our culinary attaché. We had sushi (both tempura-maki and other maki) which was fresh and generous on the fish side. We also had fried chicken (above), which was crunchy and equally meaty. For a veg angle we also indulged in juicy tofu steak, with a surfeit of ginger and wasabi. For sides we recommend onshinko pickles and gyoza dipped in soy vinegar. Both veg and meat gyozas are great. The salmon teriyaki bento box at the next table also caught our eye.

And if you’re lucky, Taro himself will be on hand to guide you through his dishes and can remind us all that sushi should never be served cold. And yes, Tesco have been tagged in this post.

Wes Lang at Newport Street Gallery

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Do you like skeletons, images of corpses and death dinner parties? Of course you do, and for your slightly surreal delectation we just attended the exhibit ‘Wes Lang: the Black Paintings’ which is now on until 9 March at The Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall. And as TKO readers are aware we love free. 

Newport Street is owned and curated by Damien Hirst, who is known for his explorations of mortality, death and the concentration concepts between the two. We have explored his exhibits at Newport at several points in the past, and this frankly bonkers exhibit fits well into his interest base. Lang takes from his inspiration Francis Bacon, James Ensor, and although the website won’t confess to this, probably B-list American horror films meets zombie flicks mixed with that great scene from ‘Carrie’ where all hell breaks loose at the prom.

Central to Lang’s work is his interest in helping people live meaningful lives and understand the concept of the temporality of our existence. In light of what is going on in our increasingly chaotic 2025 lives, this might be a strange solace. 

Betty and Joan’s

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As our new intern Allen appears to be up with the kids, we recently sent him on a mission to check out Greater Kennington’s latest LGBTQI+ bar Betty and Joan’s, with the exciting addition of a Queer Comedy club. Claiming to be the UK (and possibly the world’s) only gay comedy club,  B&J is an independent queer owned venue which was originally based in north London but have relocated to Elephant Park because, not to brag, its all happening down here.  

Allen went to Betty and Joan’s on a Saturday night and was impressed by the young and down to earth crowd enjoying dance anthems and drink deals. The cabaret performer was Karise McCock and spinning tunes was DJ Christina Draguilera. On other nights performers include Tiana Biscuit, Rhys’ Pieces and Ophelia Love. We frankly have no idea who any of these people are, but they certainly sound like a lot of fun. On the website there is also a music quiz night and activities/DJ’s nightly.  

The comedy room is a dedicated performance space adjacent to B&J and opens on 7 January. It will be a combination of free (we love free) nights with paid events later in the week. It will likely be a mix of very experienced mainstream comics trying out new material and brand new acts just taking their very first steps onto the comedy scene. So you might get folks you’ve seen on Live at the Apollo or people who are, shall we say, having their ‘moment in the sun’. Keep checking the website as these kinds of things fill up very quickly. 

Allen, if you’re reading this we’re very appreciative that you worked on a Saturday but you’re not getting overtime for an evening spent downing sambuca shots and flirting with men. And we’ll blithely forget the Instagram video taken at 11:38pm of you dancing to ‘Toxic’. Betty and Joan’s is open nightly and is in Elephant Park. It is also open on New Years Eve and tickets can be nabbed on their website. We expect Allen will be there. 

Twixmas Ideas – Churchill in Cartoons

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The period between Christmas and new years is a funny one. We’ve opened all our presents, drank the fridge dry, partied too hard and are about to do it all again. On top of that we’re skint and have time on our hands. So why not spend some of that free skint time at the free Imperial War Museum? You know, that hulking big institution that we’ve been banging on about since the early ‘80’s?

Churchill in Cartoons: Satirising a Statesman marks 150 years since the birth of the great statesman and this show affectionately celebrates his career through one of his favourite mediums, the cartoon. Churchill himself knew of the power of cartoons, and viewed his ‘V’ sign and cigar as props which he invited to be satirised. In an era before TV, cartoons were a powerful tool of communication between politicians and the public.

This exhibit doesn’t embrace the frankly modish interpretation of satirisation (we’re looking at you, Guardian) which attempts to bring down politicians by exploiting their foibles. Rather, we see a Churchill taking charge and leading a frightened public through its darkest hour with a needed sense of humour. We also see Nazi propaganda used to depict Churchill in a very different manner. However. This exhibit runs through the entirely of his career, from 1909 to the 1950’s. 

You may find it a bit counterintuitive spending the festival season in a place dedicated to blowing things up. But the IWM isn’t that at all, and if anything it celebrates the human spirit. The gallery will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but open every day after that. And if Churchill isn’t the kind of cigar you like to chomp on, then why not visit the great Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries or the exhibit ‘War and the Mind’, which we brilliantly wrote about?