Four Quarters

Posted on by
Reply

We confess to a degree of shame at our embrace of the soulless juggernaut that has become Elephant Park. That shame is mitigated, however, by the fact that it is now the home of some of the independent shops that were turfed out of the shopping centre (sadly the electric massage chairs didn’t make it over). And also home to some very cool micro chains, and one of them is a 80/90’s video game themed bar called ‘Four Quarters’. 

Four Quarters bills itself as a ‘no fills bar’ but they really don’t do themselves justice as they have a good selection of lagers, IPAs, wines and spirits. We booked a table (a Space Invaders table video game, no less) but this is not mandatory. How it works is that you buy real US quarters at the bar and each games costs 25 cents (about 20p). 

For those of you who get thrilled by your 80’s games, on offer they have Pac Man (Mr and Ms), Donkey Kong, Galaxian, Asteroids, Frogger and a nice range of pinball machines, among others. For those of you who prefer your 90’s games they have early Guitar Hero, Alien v. Predator, The Simpsons, NBA Jam, and Pole Position II. For those of you into gaming after that period then you probably have no idea what we’re talking about, but we’re impressed that you’ve read this far. 

If you register on the Four Quarters website you can compete for a high score with other users which is a fun way to lure you back. They also have console booths with games such as Nintendo and X Box. They do serve food, but we didn’t see anyone eating there in the midst of the fun. If you’re peckish we recommend 400 Rabbits, which we reviewed a few weeks ago and is next door. 

Lambeth County Court Art Show

Posted on by
Reply

If you’re a regular reader with a sharp brain you might recall that in 2019 we implored you to check out the temporarily opened Lambeth County Courthouse near Cleaver Square before it was handed over to property developers. Well, after 2 ½ years of being closed (with the exception of the unfortunate time that Lambeth accidently rented it to Extinction Rebellion and it was raided by police) it is again open very briefly to the public, but now probably for the final time.  

Without Horizon, Without Shore, is a group show of three female artists who are associated with City and Guilds and have a temporary studio in the Courthouse. The exhibit is somewhat site specific and spans two courtrooms and the corridors/stairwell. It explores themes of nostalgia and contemplation and when we visited,  two of the artists were on hand to explain their work and handy viewing notes were provided. The art is very thought provoking, but the real star here is the disused courthouse itself, which still has many remnants from it’s 95 year history and is quite evocative. In the past perhaps more than a few Greater Kenningtonians themselves contemplated their future in these rooms as they waited judge and jury to determine their fate. 

Developers are currently trying to obtain planning permission to gentrify the building into (you guessed it) luxury flats but this is being stridently opposed by local residents. Please don’t ask us for our opinion on planning permission,  as last time we weighed in we opened an almighty can of worms which we are still unsuccessfully trying to put back into the tin.  Inchalla…….

Without Horizon, Without Shore is open now until 26 Sept,  Thursday to Sunday 12-6. The Courthouse is in Cleaver St.

Orbit Brewery

Posted on by
Reply

Were you aware that Greater Kennington has it’s own top flight micro brewery?  Well if not we’re here to tell you about Orbit Brewery, located in a tiny pocket at the corner of the KR catchment area, off Walworth Road. We wrote about it’s more embryonic concept in 2016. 

Orbit Brewery is the brainchild of Scotsman Robert Middleton, who has been producing beers under the arches in Walworth since 2014. Orbit used to sell a small volume of beers on site and about three months ago hired another arch across the road to create taproom selling their wares and, straight on the pulse, pop up food. We went on a Friday evening and sat outside and it proved to be a little urban oasis. Well, if you can escape the notion that you could be in the forecourt of a car repair shop or that place behind a nightclub where they store the bins. BUT, it had a good mix of locals and we were very pleased to see groups of women in what is sometimes construed as a male space. 

In a very challenging assignment, your dedicated scribe opted for the ‘IVO’ pale ale. I was getting hits of tangerine and some tropical fruits, cream and honey with just a bit of bitterness. My colleague had the ‘Peel’ pale ale.  It was Belgian and intensely hoppy, with notes of lemon and lime zest and bits of pepper and other forms of citrus. The colleague then had the ‘Dead Wax’ London porter, with a great deal of malt, not a great deal of bitterness, and spicy hops. And it was particularly coffee flavoured. They also feature a tzatziki flavoured beer which featured notes of cucumber and, yes, yogurt if you want to create illusion that you’re drinking something healthy.  The beer is served in pints, 2/3 and half pints if you like to mix things up. 

On the food front, we must disappointedly report that it was adequate but did not just really justify the £12 price point for a burger and potatoes. Granted, the potatoes were well cooked and the right side of greasy. We had the Challah baps which just didn’t really hit the mark on the flavour and seasoning front. We think bar snacks are the best accompaniment to your very own delicious Walworth crafted beer. And, like us, after a few you might find yourself in Orbit too. 

St. Anselm’s Festival

Posted on by
2

We don’t have a great degree of inside intel on the St. Anselm’s Festival, but we are aware that it is this Saturday, 11 September, in Cleaver Square. If it is the new iteration of the Cleaver Square Festival, and we think it is, then it’s certainly a highlight on the Greater Kennington social calendar. Recently this magical and hilarious festival has transported us to some mythical location 200 miles and 20 years from from Greater Kennington. A tipsy Vicar! A tombola! A wholly inappropriate Punch and Judy show! Kate Hoey giving out Brexit Flyers! Posh dudes in Barbour jackets slurring into their fifth Pimms! 

But aside from all the side splitting antics outlined above, it looks like the day will feature loads of great stuff for kids, a dog show, music and good food. But most importantly, it will likely feature local small businesses and people selling their wares (Kennington Tandoori and Bee Urban usually pop over) and people selling homemade cakes and pies. The Festival is from 12 to 4, and there is a Festival church service from 10 to 11 at St. Anselm’s itself with refreshments (probably not involving Pimms, but one lives in hope). 

Open House London 2021

Posted on by
Reply

If, like us, you can think of nothing more enjoyable than sticking your nose in other people’s business, then you’re in luck! It’s our favourite time of year again (we know we’ve said this five times in 2021) and it is Open House London. After taking a hiatus in 2020, Open House is back but as an understandably more circumscribed affair. There are a number of venues open to the public and others available online for viewing. As per usual, most of the buildings are staffed by friendly people who can tell you all you need to know about the place and what goes on or went on there. 

St. John’s Newington

For those of you not in the know, Open House London is an event which promotes the appreciation of architecture by flinging open the doors of otherwise closed spaces to the public, and is totally free. It is happening this weekend (4-5 September) and next weekend (11-12 September). What we have included below are local Open House venues where you do not need to book, but look carefully as not all venues are open both weekends. And if you possess the audacious gall to travel outside Greater Kennington you’ll find below other nearby bountiful buildings.

Greater Kennington 

Ken Art Space 

The Camera Club

Elephant Park

Amelia Street 

St. Paul’s, Newington 

Nearby

Lambeth Town Hall

Reliance Arcade, Brixton

Waterloo City Farm

Kaymet Tray and Biscuit Factory, Old Kent Road

Kirkaldy Testing Works, Borough

Lowline Walking Tour, Blackfriars

Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors at IWM

Posted on by
Reply

The other day we visited our very own world class institution the Imperial War Museum to check out the thought provoking and quite moving show ‘Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors’. We discovered this show by seeing an interview with Kate Middleton , and as an amateur photographer she was involved in photographing two of the families. 

In partnership with the Royal Photographic society, what the IWM has created is an exhibit of people who experienced unbelievable trauma at various stages of their life. Some people in the exhibit came to the UK as infants to escape the Nazis, some as child refugees via Kindertransport and a few have direct experience of surviving life in a concentration or slave labour camps. What the exhibit focusses on is not so much their lives in occupied Europe, but instead about how they built families and careers in the UK. The most riveting takeaway from the show is how these larger families have incorporated what happened to their older family member into their daily lives. 

This show is not as depressing as it might appears, as what it leaves you with is a sense of how resilient we are as humans and our ability to put our lives back together in times of horrific adversity. It is also a celebration of the lives they have lived and the legacy that their younger family members will carry into the future. Generations runs at the Imperial War Museum until 9 January. It’s totally free and you don’t need to sign up online before you go. 

400 Rabbits

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve done a lot of soul searching and have decided to embrace our inner hipster and allow the top knotted dinizens of the Elephant Park development into the Kennington Runoff catchment area. One reason is the good places to eat which can be found there. A recent discovery is the delightful ‘400 Rabbits’, a south London based pizza, craft beer and gelato micro chain that has recently emerged next to the spiffy Elephant Park park itself. Like it’s neighbour, Theo’s Pizzeria, it is all about the sourdough at 400 Rabbits and theirs is a slow fermented sourdough affair that is thinner and crispier than Theo’s but without the burnt blistering which we happen to love. 

The first thing you should know about 400 Rabbits is that it’s seriously cool. We’re not talking mismatched cutlery here, more like vintage toilets. We went on a weeknight and it was very quiet, and we attribute this to lingering hesitancy of eating out and also the inexorable rise in home deliveries. My work associate had a £4 negroni cocktail and ‘The Chorizo’ pizza. The nice base was offset by a good tomato sauce and decent mozzerella and chili and basil, with the chorizo supplied by Brindisa. 

  • Chorizo
  • Anchovy. Photograpphing food is hard.

Your scribe had a craft beer and ‘The Anchovy’ which featured a parsimonious amount of the little fishies and the salt kick was supplemented by a load of capers. Also featuring was red onion and a very dominant presence of earthy rosemary, which is not often encountered in a pizza. To top it all off our chirpy server then said ‘would you like some dips with your pizza’. We have no idea what this means but, feigning a kind of hipster confidence, we replied ‘ta, we’re good thanks’. 

400 Rabbits also prides itself on the gelatos and they did look splendid but after the pizzas, gelato wasn’t on the top of our list. The interior is fresh and bright with green highlights, a stone fired oven and open kitchen. 

Cleanup on Aisle 5!

Posted on by
4

Today, and perhaps only for today, Greater Kennington has well and truly cleaned up as it is the proud recipient of the newest Tesco on earth! At the Runoff we champion the underdog and Tesco is exactly the opposite of that, but it is nevertheless a crucial part of our community. So much so that we reached out to Tesco to ask if we could cut the ribbon this morning. When they didn’t get back to us we sent them a handwritten letter and asked again, including the term ‘influencers’,  and we even CIRCLED THE WORD! 

They must be very busy….

As much as we adored the diminutive ‘Tesco in the carpark’ it is now the stuff of history. The footprint of our new Tesco is much bigger than the carpark version but a little bit smaller than our previous shop. The aisles are wider than the previous Tesco, minimising the risk of buggy collision and allowing for our expanded lockdown backsides. It is well lit and well signposted and amenities include a very user friendly pharmacy, loads of self checkouts, a bakery that is better than before, and larger than before selection of booze. They seem to be showcasing a disturbingly large array of meringue nests and sauces at the minute so if that’s your fetish you’re  in luck. 

If you are a regular Runoff reader (and if not then you should be) you’ll be aware that this opening  is the first phase of the new and very drawn out development at Oval Village, the final stage being completed in 2028. The largest gasholder will be filled with flats (we call this ‘life behind bars’) and the rest a mixed use affair of flats and businesses.  Something we cheerily refer to as ‘UptownKenVo’. 

    Swimming at White Bear

    Posted on by
    1

    Last night we hopped  over to the White Bear Theatre Pub to catch a play called ‘Swimming’ which is part of a season of new writing at our little local and oft overlooked local playhouse. White Bear Theatre is a very intimate and almost immersive experience. In fact, on our last outing the naked people onstage getting gouged with shards of glass seemed almost personal. 

    Swimming is an altogether more accomplished play and involves a group of four friends as they explore issues of relationships, intimacy, timing, and honesty. Breaking up with friends and making friends is a key theme here, but the base is about gay and straight relationships forming, falling apart and then forming again. And believe it or not the play is rather funny. And if you’re not accustomed to theatre on this scale what makes it interesting is that the action happens only a few feet away from you. 

    White Bear Theatre is totally independent and not associated with the White Bear Pub downstairs. Having said that, the pub is offering 10% off your total food bill if you book a ticket. Having said that, unless you like your dinner cooked by sous chef ‘Mike ro Wave’ we’d give dinner at Young’s pub owned White Bear a wide berth. Having said that, the ‘check us out we know our community so well’ Kennington paraphernalia festooning the walls are fun to peruse and are worth a gander and a drink before the show. 

    Swimming is on until 21 August and is  75 minutes without an interval. So you can just swim home in the August daylight afterwards. Or walk if you prefer. The venue is well ventilated and your temperature is taken on entry. If this play doesn’t float your lilo then have a look at their website for other offerings. 

    City & Guilds Degree Show

    Posted on by
    Reply

    Earlier this week we made the unholy decision to leave Greater Kennington in order to attend the City and Guilds Fine Art Graduates Show at the Oxo Tower. It had to move from the school in Kennington Park Rd. due to the sheer size of the show, but by the time you are reading this it will all be over. But fear not, we’re here to tell you about the upcoming Degree show at City and Guilds from 18 – 22 August. As with everything you need to book, and it is totally free. 

    These graduate shows are the high point of the Kennington art world calendar, and a great way to poke around some lovely Georgian buildings that are usually closed to us non arty folk. The shows are slightly bonkers, often beautiful, and never boring. In 2019 we deduced the main themes to be – 1. Saving the planet   2. Nudity   3. Saving the planet through nudity  4. Rocks.  Top tip- if you’re ever questioned about the meaning of that swing set covered in fur, just  look the person square in the face and say ‘its about IDENTITY’. Or be bang on trend with ‘It’s about COVID, obviously’. In addition to swings with fur, they also have exhibits of wood carving, masonry, and conservation. On most days the students studying these crafts are on hand and happy to show you what they are working on and how they do it. And it’s pretty wonderful. 

    City and Guilds London Art School has a very long and fascinating connection to Greater Kennington. Before being in its present location it was in Vauxhall, with one its early patrons being the Doulton Pottery factory who used their students to embellish their works. With a strong contingent of female students, it also has links to the Suffragette movement in the early 20th century. You can even but some of these works on Ebay!