The Little Church that Could

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If you’re reading this then you’re a survivor of the total mess that has been the past year. St. Mark’s Church Kennington is another survivor that has narrowly dodged fate over the years and we’re here to give you the story. In case you don’t know, St. Marks is the church across the street from Oval tube and site of the very epicurean Oval Farmers Market. 

From the 1600’s the area where St. Marks is situated was part of Kennington Common and was a place of notorious public executions. It was also the site of public fairs and boxing matches and gained a reputation as being a pretty dissolute and riotous place. Since there were a huge number of people fundamentally just hanging about and having a party, it attracted a large number of public speakers, many of whom were there to spread the word of God and deliver these doomed revelers from an eternity of damnation. A few centuries later a different kind of reveler there would rejoice at scoring heritage Enoki mushrooms out of season. 

The Duchy of Cornwall sold this corner of Kennington Common, known frighteningly as ‘Gallows Corner’, in 1822 and work commenced on the building we see before us today. The jury is out as to whether a church being placed on this spot was coincidence or design. Over the years the church grew and evolved, reflecting the changing demographic around it. At it’s height it was a hub of the community and served by a vicar, three curates and 250 church workers.  1,500 children were taught in the Sunday Schools by 125 teachers.

Our little church was almost completely destroyed by a direct bomb hit in 1940 and only the Grecian façade, pillars and cupola survived. It was partially restored in 1949 but the Southwark Diocese found further restoration unfeasible and it was earmarked for demolition, as there were more important things to rebuild at the time.  The building remained open to the elements until 1960 when it was sensitively restored. The church now reflects the much more diverse and multicultural environment which it surrounds, and has adapted in ways we all have recently.

“A busy south London crossroads formerly notorious for death and vice has become a place of life and renewal”. 

St. Marks on the left with Kennington (Park) Common in the middle. The building on the right is the famous Horns Tavern, now ‘Job Centre Plus’.

Getting Classy in Vauxhall

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Twelve months ago the most optimistic of you lot said ‘great, I’m going to use this lockdown period to get really fit/do an online course /Run 15 times around Kennington Park’. But even in this era where time seems to be a meaningless concept, you haven’t actually done any of those things. Well here’s your chance to finally tick something off your list……getting into classical music. 

‘Classical Vauxhall’ returns on 18 – 21 March and can be streamed for free on these dates. It will of course be virtual this year, and we have trusted colleagues who went to the live events in 2020 and said it was amazing. Festival Director and the brains behind it Fiachra Garvey is joined by artists Jess Gilliam (saxophone), Zeynep Özsuca (piano), Elena Urioste (violin) & Tom Poster (piano), Hanna Hipp (mezzo-soprano) and Emma Abbate (piano). We’ve never actually heard of any of these people -BUT – we have seen some of their work on YouTube and it’s remarkable. Jess and her Sax is here   

The press release for this event intriguingly states that the performances will be set in closed venues ‘live in Vauxhall’. That got our grey matter working…where?  Perhaps Gentlemen’s Sauna ‘Chariots’ (doubtful as all the water would wreak havoc with the instruments)?   Notorious nightclub ‘Fire’ (the acoustics under a railway arch must be awful)? With a bit of research we discovered they will be held in the most more rarefied environments of St. Marks Church and Brunswick house, so easy on the eyes as well. 

The streams are free and will also give you a change to learn more about music in Vauxhall and the history of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Book here: http://bit.ly/CVaux-2021

Amici and Their Popup

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In the approximately 15,000 years that have elapsed in the past 12 months we’ve learned a few things, so let’s have a rundown. We now know what to do in those awkward seconds after you say goodbye on Zoom and actually log off. We’ve learned just how much work you can complete while wearing just a onsie and no bra. And third, that  ‘meal boxes’ are really just posh takeaways.  We recently decided to explore the third when we revisited Kennington Cross fixture ‘Amici’.  

Back in the days when it was purely Italian we became somewhat disillusioned with the quality of the food at Amici. Shortly before the world imploded they had a menu overhaul (and presumably a chef overhaul) and now serve Meditteranean and Persian fare – the Persian coming from their much missed restaurant ‘Doost’. Your scribe started with beef carpaccio. It was a large and very finely sliced piece which came with a slightly sweet blueberry vinigrette, dabs of asparagus and thinly sliced cashews. For the mains I had calamari. It came with pureed and whole peas and had a whole sweet/briney thing going on, with a hit of black olives. The calamari was stuffed with herb encrusted Panko breadcrumbs. Both dishes were mighty fine. 

And with recyclable boxes, to boot

My associate opted for the Persian fare, and for the starter s/he had the smoky, roasted aubergine mixed with tomato. It came with a haltingly generous serving of proper Persian bread. For the mains, said associate had a generous and well cooked duck breast smothered by a silky  pomegrante and walnut sauce. It was as rich as it sounds and a taste sensation as the slight bitterness of the walnut contrasted nicely with the sweet pomegranate. It was served with saffron rice, and Amici/Doost have pretty much always known how to nail a rice. 


The total came to £46, which ain’t cheap for a takeaway but hey, what else are you spending your dosh on at the minute? 

What really put Amici firmly back in our field of vision is their new pop up shop, which covers the whole restaurant. On sale is fresh pasta, cakes, wines, herbs, beers, curry paste (?) and Italian beans, amongst others. 

Change Please?

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The jury is still out as to whether the mind boggling juggernaut that is Elephant Park is actually in the Runoff catchment area (if you live there don’t get your hopes up). However, for the purpose of this review it is, as one of the few good things to emerge from it is a social enterprise coffee and cocktail shop called ‘Change Please’, which opened in December.

Change Please is a London based social enterprise venture started five years ago by Cemal Ezel. Disillusioned with his work in the City, Ezel set up Change Please in order to help homeless people become expert Baristas by a offering them training and a London wage job. They also assist people with housing, getting a bank account and therapeutic support if needed. All profits from the company go to reduce homelessness more generally in the UK. How is this possible, you might ask? According to Ezel, ‘The margins in coffee are very wide indeed, but usually not used in the right places’. And that even goes for you, Starbucks. 

There are several branches of ‘Change Please’ and our little outpost enticingly advertises cocktails as well. When we enquired about this the Barista explained that cocktails aren’t on the menu at the moment as lockdown takeaway alcohol just ain’t happenin’, but will be back. This was probably all for the best as it was 10am. For coffee, they have your standard bearer espresso, macchiato, Americana, latte, flat white, cappuccino, teas and baked goods. All of their cups are 100% recyclable. They also stock an impressive range of non coffee items such as soaps, chocolates, peanut butter, teacups and little gift hampers. 

We would love to tell you that we discovered Change Please as a result of our deep and abiding contacts within the social enterprise community. We actually saw it profiled on ‘Jamie and Jimmie’s Friday Night Feast’ on Channel 4. Scroll down on the Change Please website to see what they found.

Change Please is at 131 Walworth Road and well worth a lunchtime/weekend wander. 

A Strangely Named Street and a New Library

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It’s up to the oldest part of Greater Kennington once again. For some time we’ve noticed a very peculiar street name in Lambeth North parts so we’ve done some digging and this is what we’ve come up with.

Old Paradise Street runs east of Lambeth High Street and is a very rare example of ‘paradise’ being used in a London street. The name conjures up visions of things that now seem exotic and far away, like a palm strewn beach, ordering food in a restaurant, or standing at a bar. In earlier times the word ‘paradise’ was often applied to a great walled garden and was sometimes an indirect reference to a royal property. 

Now that you possess that little nugget of wisdom you might ask, what’s so royal about Lambeth North? Well, long before the Archbishop got his hands on it (we’re talking about 800 years ago), the land around was the location of Lambeth Manor House. In comparison to the farmland and folks around it, the house and gardens were grand indeed and extended far beyond the confines of the current palace. Old Paradise Street therefore was the name given to the thoroughfare that led the approach to the gardens. 

And while we are in that neck of the woods, when the world pivots back into a sphere of semi normality Greater Kennington will have a new, enormous library at it’s disposal! Work has just finished on (who knew) Lambeth Palace Library, just outside the Palace walls. It’s actually more of an archive and museum of treasures from the Palace, and will be a resource for academics and the merely curious. This article from The Guardian does it justice very well. When the gala opening is announced in order to bag an invite we’ll pull the ‘don’t you know we’re Kennington influencers’ card*.  Afterwards we’ll give you a full review.

*This never works

Kuma Korean and BTS

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It’s Saturday night and time for a takeaway! Astute readers will be cognizant of our love of the Korean/Japanese joint ‘Kuma’ in Kennington Cross, and it even featured in our much lauded but-ain’t-gonna-happen-this-year-for-obvious-reasons top 10 list. We recently had a takeaway from there and, while not achieving the olfactory heights of being in the restaurant, is definitely worth a Saturday nosh. But Kuma, if you’re reading this we need to have a serious conversation about your excessive use of Styrofoam. Moving on..

Your zealous scribe started with the painfully bang on trend Korean Fried Chicken. Kuma has three options; traditional, spicy, and we opted for the sticky soy garlic. The medium portion was huge and suitable for two. It had a great crispy crunch and slathered in a sticky soy garlic sauce. For the mains your scribe opted for the chicken bulgogi (say it like a pro…..Boo-GOH-gee) which were very thin strips of chicken grilled on a BBQ coated with a very good sauce called gochujang. Spring onion featured and it was consumed in lettuce wraps. It was billed as ‘hot’ and it certainly was, and so generous that your scribe couldn’t finish it.

My associate had the Kimchi Bokkumbap as a main, a Korean fried rice dish with the national ingredient kimchi (spiced fermented cabbage) topped with barbecued beef strips. A bit like Chinese stir fry rice with a heavy dose of red chilli sauce. It was topped with a fried egg and came with miso soup, and again was a very generous portion. 

  • Photographing food is hard
  • The Kimchi

Eating this great Korean food rekindled our late 2018 slight obsession with K-Pop. As it happens, eating your Kuma takeaway while listening to K-Pop is a great escape from the interminable, repetitive drone of our lockdown lives. We chose the greatest K-Pop band of them all, BTS. If you want to get a taste of what BTS are all about, you need only to listen to one BTS song as their music is about as repetitive as your days are at the minute. But very catchy nevertheless. 

Walking, Testing, and Tubes

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We don’t usually provide public service announcements as that would make us no better than, say, Time Out. And we’re better than that. However, we’ve recently stumbled on some interesting information which you might find useful. We’ve also stumbled upon a very nifty app called ‘Go Jauntly’ which recommends walks based on your postcode. Put in your own and you might find a historical garden tour in Vauxhall, mutinies and executions in Greater Kennington, and another relating to Banksy and William Blake (don’t see much of a parallel between the two but that could be half the fun). Or you could just stand outside your favourite pub and bang on the door while you burst into tears. The choice is yours. 

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS!

Northern Line Extension trials running smoothly


Successful trial journeys have run along new Tube tunnels between Kennington and Battersea Power Station ahead of the Northern Line Extension opening in 2021.

READ THE STORY

Input on future plans for Nine Elms 

Wandsworth Council has drawn up a draft plan to guide development in Nine Elms and across the borough and is now seeking local people’s views.

READ THE STORY
Live in or work in Lambeth? Get an asymptomatic COVID-19 test
You can now get a COVID-19 test even if you are not displaying symptoms. 

BOOK YOUR TEST


After Taste

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Since realising just how poor value for money Firecracker in central Kennington has become, we’ve been looking for a new Chinese takeaway. What’s been on our radar for a while is a Chinese joint in Elephant called ‘After Taste’. We have to childishly admit that what peaked our curiosity was the name, as ‘After Taste’ are usually the words that come after ‘unpleasant’ or  ‘I have to brush my teeth as I’m getting a bad____’. But our new find is pleasantly none of these things. In fact quite the opposite. 

The first thing that strikes you about After Taste is the size of its menu. At 260 items (say what?!) you’d be hard pressed to find anything they can’t throw your way, and there are a few surprises. My dining partner had one such surprise and it was the deep fried smoke chicken  (number 9 on the dizzying menu). A starter of mains sized proportions, it was ladled liberally with Sichuan peppercorns and was both smoky and blow your head off hot. For the mains the dining partner had Szechuan chicken with egg fried rice (153). It was hot but just this side of sweet, with plenty of dried chilis for added kick (and consumption if you’re feeling dangerous). 

  • Smoke chicken
  • Szechuan chicken. Photographing food is hard work

Your more gastronomically cautious scribe started with some very dandy prawn dumplings called ‘Prawn Ha Kow’ (1). A bit on the small side but meaty and steamingly hot. For the mains I had the king prawn chow mein (140). Lots of noodles, sprouts, and so many huge prawns they had to be eaten on their own. For all this Chinese goodness we paid the princely sum of £22.62. We walked up to get it, but it is also available on Ubereats and Just-Eat. On the value versus taste continuum, we think the place punches far about it’s weight.  Its at the top of Newington Butts, near Theos Pizza.

Those prawns were huge

If you are a purist when it comes to your Chinese cuisine and instead of Lo mein your desires veer towards aorta, brain and intestines, then we suggest the almost haltingly authentic Sevini restaurant in Lambeth North, which we reviewed in 2019. 

The Elephant (not) in the Room

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If you’re the astute sort you’ve probably noticed that the famous statue that used to adorn the primary entrance to the ‘now past tense’ Elephant and Castle shopping centre has been removed. And if you aren’t astute then trust us, it ain’t there anymore. We’re here to tell you more about the Elephant and if we’ll ever see it again. 

The original

When the Elephant and Castle pub closed for redevelopment in 1959 the metal statue was removed and then given a second lease on life as the centrepiece when the new shopping centre opened in 1965, above. Unfortunately it vanished in still mysterious circumstances a few years later and the centre was left without a mascot. Fast forward a few years and our current elephant was fashioned as a fibreglass replica and given pride of place. For over four decades it grew as a loveable mascot of Elephant. Frequently repainted in red and pink, over time it settled into a more grey patina, more suitable for a proud pachyderm. 

The statue has been removed for several months as it is apparently undergoing a million pounds (??!!) in renovation work. According to developers Delancey “We have been keen to keep the Elephant in the local area and are now therefore pleased to announce that the Elephant & Castle statue will be moving to its new home in Castle Square”.  We think this is builder’s parlance for ‘we wanted to get rid of it but Southwark told us we had to keep it’. Castle Square is a surprisingly spiffy little square behind the old shopping centre and is the current but temporary home to many of the centres’ former tenants, as seen below. 

If you have a preoccupation for statues that go missing from one place and then turn up somewhere else, first of all you might want to seek professional help. If the condition persists, have a look at our intriguing article about the mighty South Bank Lion that adorns our fair side of Westminster Bridge. 

Black Cowboy Coffee

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The other day we had properly distanced but still aromatic chat with John Otagburuagu, aka the Black Cowboy, in his eponymously named coffee and snacks emporium in Elephant and Castle. Black Cowboy Coffee was one of the many businesses turfed out of E&C shopping centre in October, but the cowboy has landed his booted feet in a more high profile spot in Elephant Arcade, at the base of Perronet House. 

John is true Greater Kenningtonian,  having spent part of his youth between the Cotton Gardens Estate and Brittany Point in Lollard St. His early career took him from accountancy to Pizza Hut to working as a cameraman for the BBC. When John decided he wanted a fresh start and open skies he relocated to Houston, Texas. Looking for a new role that also incorporated his passion for travel, John decided, as you do,  to become a trucker. 

John spent a number of successful years crisscrossing America in his truck which he bought in cash as soon as he could. He also settled in Houston with a partner and had three children. When all was moving swimmingly down the road for John disaster struck….he was deported. Ever the optimist, John returned to the UK in late 2013 and found that he had to more or less start from scratch. He went to the JobCentre with the concept of wanting to start a coffee shop, and with a bit of effort he was able to obtain a business loan and find a mentor. It took a few years to come together, but 2015 saw the dawn of ‘Black Cowboy’. 

Black Cowboy Coffee features six coffees which you can also purchase bagged, either ground or still in the bean. He uses organic Arabica beans sourced from Brazil, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. The most popular brew and which keeps the customers coming is called ‘Boca Chica’. He also features latte, Americanos, cappuccino, hot chocolate, and an array of teas. If it’s food you’re after the specialities of the house are the Belgian waffle ‘liege’ and bagels made to order (selections above). There are also a range of paninis and baked goods. 

Black Cowboy is a perfect destination for your daily get out of the house perambulation. However, if you aren’t able to leave the house they are available on Uber Eats and soon Deliveroo. Keep on truckin!