I thew this up on Instagram a couple of weeks ago (if you don’t follow us there, please do!) and it seemed rather popular, so we’ll post it again here.
Have you ever noticed some strange looking railings outside a number of Kennington estates? Well they are actually stretchers left over from WW2 and have found a new life. The smaller ones were probably used for children. An early form of ‘up cycling’.
We are spoilt for choice when is comes to Eritrean/Ethiopian food in greater Kennington, and there a number just on our outskirts. We have tried them all as we have a problem with binge eating care about or readers. The best of the lot is called Adulis and is at the top of Brixton Road. It grabbed the #7 spot in Jamie’s pick of ‘best of Kennington’ earlier this year on the Runoff and is certainly on our long list and has been for a while.
As with any cuisine that might be new, if you’re not familiar with the cuisine the best launching point is a sampler plate. At Adulis it is the ‘Kirchat’ (and there is a vegetarian version). It is fundamentally a selection of their best meat and veg dishes served on a platter usually including Kifto, which is tender meet in Ghee and to die for. All of the dishes haver have a sweet and sour, almost vinegary tinge to them. They gladly pimped our 2 person serving up to 3 as we had a third diner, and the pic is below. Please don’t let my bad photo below put you off, as not all Eritrean dishes look like cat food.
This dish is served on a platter with a base of bread called ‘injera’, which is a leavened pancake made with sourdough (and if you run out you can get more for free). Almost all meals here are served with it and the whole shebang is to be eaten with your good hands. One speciality of the house is their Adulis honey wine. We’ve had this previously and lets just place it in the category of ‘experimental’. Since then we’ve stuck to the Kenyan beer ‘Tusker’ or South African whites.
Adulis has a slightly retro Eritrean feel to it with memetoes both current and from the past. The staff are very friendly and a good chunk of the punters are (tick!) Eritrean themselves. The place also wafts with the aroma of their coffee (and popcorn) ceremony. Tsibuk E’dl!!!
As we love all things related to cheese, carbohydrates and comfort food, we recently checked out a newish Italian place called ‘Theos’ in Elephant and Castle. Trust us reader, this was one of the best pieces of dough we’ve stuck in our gobs into for a long time.
As with most good restaurants, the menu at Theos is very small and focusses squarely on the thing they do best. I had the Napoli Salami pizza, which was spicy, full of cheese, and presented with a crust so fine that it had be eaten with a fork.
My dining partner had the Nduja and Ricotta pizza. It featured sun dried tomatoes and huge mounds of ricotta. As you can see, both pizzas are deliberately charred and blistered, giving them a very earthy and almost smokey taste.
The vibe at Theo’s is youngish, but not so young that they shy away from playing 80’s music. The venue is bright, airy and staff very friendly. They explained that the venue is the ‘little cousin’ of their original branch in Camberwell. It therefore represents the good side of gentrification in Elephant. Given that the previous occupant was a dreary mattress store with the sinister name ‘Beddie Buyz’, anything would have been an improvement.
As you can see from the bill below, the price point is very reasonable, with pizzas coming in at £10 or less. As you can also see from the bill below our bar tab was more than the food bill, but don’t judge us. Theo’s also does a brisk takeway trade, as evidenced by the many men in helmets who came and went, so you can enjoy your pizza at home. We don’t recommend this manouver, however, as an ethos of KR is getting people on their feet and exploring….Plus Deliveroo is evil.
Next time you are out and about in SE11, SE17 or SE1 look up and you might detect something slightly less fading than the value of your home. They’re called Ghost Signs, and we are the lucky recipient of fast least three of them (and I challenge you to find others). The most intriguing is for a motorbike shop called ‘Ariel’, and it once inhabited the small courtyard next to Durning Library. The image below is old, as the sign now has now faded almost into obscurity. There are whole websites, blogs, apps and even tours dedicated to fading signs. The most comprehensive is called ‘Ghost Signs’,
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There are two more Ghost Signs that we’ve found with images below. The top is to be found at the top of Brixton Road and advocates the virtues of smoking, The other is to be found in Iliffe Street in Walworth.
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An underlooked gem on the gastronomic landscape of greater Kennington is a newish place called Seveni Bar and Grill, at the top of Kennington Road across from the Imperial War Museum. Kennington Runoff has recently been to central China (not for this specific review, mind you, as the budget usually ends at tea bags) and we can assure you that this joint is the real deal, organs and all.
What first strikes the patron is the presence of Chinese pop music (tick) and actual Chinese diners (triple tick). As a starter I had the lamb intestine. I’ve never actually eaten an intestine before, and I can only describe it as kind of like squid. It was heavily seasoned with cumin (as a lot of dishes are), sesame, and a great deal of pepper. I thought about ordering the pig brain, aorta, or tongue but then thought that my table would end up looking more like a post mortem dissection, so I gave them a miss.
For the main course I decided to go a bit more mainstream and order the stir fry sliced beef with sour pepper. I got the mild version (you can choose the hotness) but it was so hot that I had to order an extra 5 Tsingtao beers (oops). The peppers can be avoided to make it less hot, but it was excellent. Slightly fatty beef and a great combination of sour and slightly sweet and the portion was huge….And you ain’t gonna get that in Gerrard St, mister.
All of the tables are set up with BBQs for on table grilling and on the night I visited there was a mix of couples and larger groups. So great for a date, work ‘do, or just ‘we don’t feel like cooking;’ night.
We imagine that a on a daily basis a large number of you think ‘will the Runoff EVER do a feature on sewage and foul smells’? Well dear reader, your time HAS COME!
The Victorians gave London many architectural gems; the Houses of Parliament and St. Pancras to name a few. In Kennington they endowed us with probably London’s most attractive example of a Stinkpipe, and it’s right above your nose in central Kennington. If you’re wondering what we’re talking about, the Victorians solved many problems but struggled with sewage for years. This was called The Great Stink of London and resulted in some radical methods to solve it.. Stinkpipes were one such method and were installed around London to divert the smell of poo and their more noxious byproducts. The idea was to elevate the odours from sewers and subterranean rivers above sensitive Victorian noses.
So while the Great Stink might have been deplorable, it realised great advancements later in the industrial age, such the creation of the Embankment and cleaning up of the Thames. More recently the Stink has also been credited with a number of interesting and slightly unsettling blogs dedicated to Stinkpipes and other above ground sewage devices.
While passing through Kennington central of a morning you might have passed a marquee selling coffee and other items. It is ‘Bouquets and Beans’ and is the brawns and brains of creator Abraham (below), who is on hand to deliver coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cake and a friendly chat to passing Kenningtonians from Tuesday to Saturday, 7:30 to 4:00.
The core element of Bouquet and Beans is floral services, and they provide the flowers to Winkworth and the Doghouse, in addition to services offered online. However, B&B is increasingly servicing the coffee and cake addiction of Kennington by selling 100-150 cups from 7:30-10. Abraham describes himself as a ‘people’s person’ and the best part of his job is talking to people as they buy their cuppa enroute to destinations beyond our cherished area. He also loves the ‘community feel’ of Kennington and tries to be here as often as possible, including the Kennington Fete.
If you’ve ever wondered why there is a kind of ‘Scandi noir’ feel in front of St. Anselm’s in December that’s because Bouquets and Beans also sell Christmas trees, and KR has bought several of them. They are of very high quality and if you ask the right questions Abraham’s burly assistants can even deliver them to your door for free.
You could probably spend a day few days, or in our case years, exploring the BFI Film Archive of old films about London. We recently discovered this treasure called ‘We Are the Lambeth Boys’ and it gives a fascinating insight into Kennington circa 1959.
The film depicts the lives of the girls and boys of Alford House youth club, which still flourishes in Aveline Street, pictured below. To 2019 eyes the 49 minute film appears slightly condescending, but it was in fact intended to dispel conceptions of ‘Teddy Boys’ (hence the conversation about apparel early in the film) and the culture of youth clubs in general.
Examining the (nerd alert!) outside shots of the estates, we think they were filmed around Newburn Street. If you are a fellow fan of ‘ohh, I know where that is’ viewing, scroll to (nerd alert 2!) 33:30 for a distinct view of 50’s Kennington Cross (shown below). If you’re still on board scroll back to (nerd alert 3!) to 26:10 for a glimpse of Cleaver Street toward Cleaver Sq. If you have any further nerd revelations please drop them in the comments box….
I need some nicer clothes…..
Gasworks
Moving on briskly to something overlooking the gasholders that’s a tad less controversial, Gasworks is a petite, pint size powerhouse of a gallery in Vauxhall St. dedicated to visual arts. It prides itself on being cutting edge and gives artists a chance to test new (and sometimes challenging) ideas . Process and development are keywords, and there are an impressive stable of artists who’ve displayed there over the past 25 years.
We just checked out the latest exhibition and it’s called ‘It Bites Back’ and it’s about…. …..wait for it…..…..mosquitos. More specifically it’s a video installation from a Brazilian artist who draws parallels between the Zika virus and the rise of authoritarian politics, while drawing in notions of love and intimacy. Not the most ‘feel good’ show we’ve seen there, but intriguing nonetheless.
Gasworks in open Wed to Sat from 12-6 and is located at 155 Vauxhall St. The exhibits change every three months or so and are a great way to build a few cultural brain cells.
For those of you new to the area, or those who are of a forgetful disposition as we are, you might not be aware that Tesco Kennington Lane will be closing forever in June. It will be replaced by a Tesco (probably the Metro variety) in the soon to vanish car park.
How can this be happening, you ask? Well several years ago Berkeley Homes purchased the Tesco site and the redundant gas holders behind it. After several years planning permission was granted for the construction of 728 new homes ranging from 4 to 17 stories, and 23, 000 sq. feet of commercial space. And taking a page out the King’s Cross book, one of the gas holders will have flats in it. The Lambeth planning application (great for insomniacs) indicates that this will take 30 months (a gentle way of saying 2.5 years) but the Berkeley homes website indicates ‘Phase 1’ will take 40 months.
Not to worry, dear reader, when all is said and done there will be a new all singing and dancing Tesco, and a pic of it is below. The footprint is slightly smaller than the old store, but according to a consultation I went to last year it will be better laid out. Precisely how Berkeley Homes know how Tesco will lay out its store I’m not exactly sure.
If you want to make yourself feel all warm inside about our neighbourhood, have a gander at the slightly fictionalised description of Kennington/Oval on the Berkeley Homes website . Oval Village beckons!
