Newport St. Gallery and Damien Hirst

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Honorary Kennington resident Damien Hirst has the very fortunate problem of having too much art on his hands. We at KR Towers can sympathise and have a very similar problem. Well, if you substitute ‘art’ with ‘chipped coffee mugs’. He’s allowed us to dip a toe into his voluminous collection and it is currently show at his very own Newport Street gallery in Vauxhall. We recently zipped along to check it out.
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This tiny sample of Hirst’s vast collection gives the viewer an intriguing insight into his tastes and influences and includes works by Francis Bacon, Helen Frankenthaller, Andy Warhol, Sarah Lucas, and the man himself. His interest in shocking the viewer is evident in this grouping, but perhaps less so than in much of his personal body of work. Themes of death and despair are certainly evident, but so are whimsical motifs (his interest in Jeff Koons springs to mind). Be sure not to miss his barnacled Mickey Mouse upstairs. The collection spans genres and mediums and includes sculpture, oils, and even a door by William S. Borroughs.

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In the midst of this collection are two rooms dedicated to the current work of artist John Squire. We didn’t really engage with this, but it is heavily influenced by music, motion, with multimedia aspects. And for the music nerds out there, this is the same John Squire who was the guitarist for the Stone Roses.

‘Reasons Give no Answers’ and ‘John Squire: Disinformation’ are on now and run until mid November. And totally free…..and we love that…..

Damien, if you are a KR enthusiast (and we reckon you are) feel free to drop us a line and we will return the favour by showing you selected works from our own collection.

Below:

‘Chipped coffee mug with PG Tips bag’                                                                                                   ………Ceramic and mixed media, 2019                                                                                                     ……….Collection of Kennington Runoff

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Extinction Rebellion in Lambeth County Court

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A few months ago you might recall that we visited Lambeth County Court. Well it appears that it was unknowingly rented to Extinction Rebellion and was raided yesterday. Oh dear. The following below is  from Cleaver Sq. residents association. 
A number of you will be aware of the current police activity outside the County Court in Cleaver Street.Offices in the County Court had apparently been rented out by a charity linked to Extinction Rebellion, and these ended up becoming the main storage depot for equipment destined for the major ER protests planned from Monday onwards. There were a large number of lorry deliveries throughout the day and evening on Thursday/Friday. I understand from the organisers that other more suitable warehouse space had failed to materialise.The ER team barricaded themselves in when police tried to gain entry this afternoon, but the front door of the court was broken through and several activists were arrested. Here are further details in BBC and Guardian news reports:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49946821

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/05/london-police-arrest-extinction-rebellion-activists-in-advance-of-environment-protest

There has been liaison between us, the ER team and the police over the previous 36 hours to keep the situation peaceable, but we are now leaving the matter to the police.

The manager of the building has been on site and will be securing the court building once the police have finished clearing the offices later tonight.

Best wishes
Penny

Chair, Cleaver Square, Cleaver Street and Bowden Street Residents’ Association and Neighbourhood Watch

 

The Prince of Wales and Their New Menu

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For the uninitiated, the Prince of Wales is our own little country pub smack dab in the middle of Kennington. Tucked away in a corner of Cleaver Square, it rather feels like you’ve been spirited 200 miles north of our knighted patch of earth.

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The Prince of Wales have been going cray cray on social media recently to promote their new menu, so on a recent balmy night we decided to succumb to the pressure and check it out. Our modus operandi was ‘well it couldn’t be any worse then their old menu, so lets give it a twirl’. When we arrived we were pleased to discover that it has not only a new menu, but new owners, having evolved from a chain pub to one that is independently owned. And how often do you see that in 2019?

The pub has a few new cask ales and wines but in true KR style we were more interested in stuffing our faces. My dining partner had the spiced buttermilk chicken burger on a glazed brioche bun. This undefined person got nice spice from the chipotle mayo and the chicken was soft and made succulent with the creamy buttermilk. The chips were big, triple cooked and definitely not out of the freezer. Our verdict; probably better in Belgium, but for SE11 it was pretty flipping good (geddit…flipping, burger?).

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Your author had the cornfed chicken and chorizo hash. Mine was a mighty chunk of chicken served with a confident splash of bourguignon sauce. The hash was really more of chunky mash potato with very spicy, paprika punched chorizo. I never got to the bottom of the hispy cabbage affair, but it bulked up the plate and acted as a crunchy counterpoint.

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In conclusion, if you crave some pub grub and want a place without music, shouting or people coming up to you every two seconds asking  ‘are are alright’, then the POW might be your thing…..And they even have candles on the table now. Fancy!

A Brief History of Lambeth Workhouse

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As promised, this next piece is about the ground around the Cinema Museum and its former life as Lambeth Workhouse. The workhouse was founded in Black Prince Road in 1726 and moved to Renfrew Road in 1871. The Cinema Museum occupies the former master’s house and chapel. The only other building of note is the water tower, which was converted into a bonkers house in 2011 and featured on ‘Grand Designs’. If you ever want to tour it, the home seems to be on sale about four times a year. You  can easily spot the tower in North Kennington

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The Workhouse was a home to 800 inmates (as they were actually referred to) who entered the house as a result of abject destitution. People also came with children if they were unable to care for them. Charlie Chapin was one of these unfortunate lads. It was referred to as a ‘total institution’ as it provided accommodation, food, healthcare, vocational training and a school. Inmates could come and go but had to work some miserable tasks in order to keep a roof over their head.

While offering safety and food, The Lambeth Workhouse was a stifling place to live and deliberately so. Its small, dank rooms were intended discourage anyone except the truly needy from taking a bed. Some of the degrading tasks of the workhouse included breaking stones and crushing bones to produce fertiliser. Some found escape by actually learning a skills, but many languished at the Workhouse for years. Boys and girls who arrived without a parent had it a bit easier, as they were trained to either be domestic servants or join the navy.

About the time of WW1 the demographic of Lambeth Workhouse was evolving and was mostly populated by the elderly, infirm and sick as opposed to the poor, and from 1930 the day to day running of the Workhouse was handed down to Lambeth council.  From the Metropolitan Archives it appears that our workhouse was in operation until 1948 when the National Assistance Act saw that the last vestiges of workhouse life were dealt with, making Lambeth find more suitable places for it’s most vulnerable people to live. More about Workhouses can be found here.

The picture below is from inside the women’s section of the Workhouse

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The Cinema Museum and Lambeth Workhouse

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The Cinema Museum is without question a local institution, and often one that is sometimes overlooked in our busy lives. The first of this two part piece is about the Cinema Museum itself. The next is about the intriguing history of the building and space in which it inhabits. Namely, the Lambeth Workhouse and former home of Charlie Chaplin (who seems to have lived in every property in Kennington).

The Cinema Museum was founded as a private collection in 1986 in Brixton. In 1998 it moved to the then derelict masters quarters of the Lambeth Workhouse which offered it the chance to expand it’s growing collection of cinematic ephemera and to also show films and provide a space for film related events. This hybrid role meant that it could act as a cinema and also a quirky and weird museum of lights, film posters, projectors and costumes which persists to this day.

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Given their limited budget the museum is usually only open to the public by appointment or before and after a screening, gig or a talk. On film nights you can pitch up early and have a intrusive KR prod around its nooks and crannies. Coming up on Thursday BBC journalist Samira Ahmed is speaking as part of their Argentinean film series and vintage flicks are shown on an almost daily basis. They also have upcoming film screenings introduced by Ken Loach and even *clutches Kennington pearls* former porn stars.

The Cinema Museum is a local asset very much at risk of closure without donations and relies entirely on people turning up to events (mea culpa!).   Even if you don’t give a hoot about the film on offer it’s a great chance to have a nose around and learn a bit about of cinematic history. And they have a bar!

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Open House London

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We love nothing more than sticking our noses where they don’t belong, and what better opportunity to undertake this sniffy task is Open House London weekend, which beckons in a few days (21-22 September).

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. There are a range of venues open for us to see in Lambeth and Southwark but lets not be precious about our anointed patch of earth; there’s stuff going on around the capital (800 and counting, apparently). Below are links to local things we have seen recently and recommend. Last year we particularly enjoyed a gander around the former Beaufoy Institute in Black Prince Road, which has been turned into a Buddhist centre.

International Maritime Organisation

https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/7730

National Theatre

https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/1172

The Beaufoy (Diamond Way Buddhist Centre)

https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/7275

Kia Oval

https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/7143

Waterloo City Farm

https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/6775

Kirkaldy Testing Works

https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/856

The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret

https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/1268

If you have your heart set on seeing the inside of Lambeth Palace don’t get your hopes up as we’ve tried for the better part of 20 years and solving the great pong of Kennington tube is probably more achievable. If you want to have a go at seeing it and other iconic venues (such as 10 Downing Street and Mansion House), bookmark Open House in your diary and apply next summer.  Here’s to being nosy!

Kennington Runoff Eats a Sandwich

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We haven’t reviewed any lunchtime spots recently here on the Runoff, so to rectify the matter we hopped along to local institution Mimi’s Deli, located at the cusp  of Brixton Rd. behind St. Mark’s church.

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Mimi’s is an excellent lunchtime sandwich/salad joint that also stocks a range of deli items such as Italian meats (salami, prosciutto) and cheeses (mozzarella, parmesan in addition to soft cheeses), and also features Italian pantry staples such as beans, tuna and wine (a staple frequently deployed at Runoff Towers). A real feature, however, is its range of different pastas, from spaghetti and gnocchi to obscure, multicolored pasta you’ve never heard of.

 

 

 

Back to sandwiches. Yours truly had a massive chicken and provolone affair that looked less like a sandwich and more like a baby leg. It was generous with the meat but too big for one human. Other sandwiches are filled with meatball, porchetta, chicken parm, and peppers. I didn’t see any vegan options. Some are served on Italian breads and others more curiously on croissants and bagels (lets apply the word ‘fusion’ here).

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There is a small dining area at the back of Mimi’s but it is a teensy bit soulless so you might want to eat your sandwich in Kennington Park. If you are not based in Kennington on weekdays they are also open at weekends. Happy lunch eating!

Top tip: If you want homemade pasta walk five minutes down Brixton Road to Di Leito, who make it on the spot. To impress your friends, before they arrive throw flour over the pasta you’ve bought and then tell them what an exhausting day you’ve just had kneading dough.

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City and Guilds MA Show

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Yesterday we scooted our little Kennington legs over to City and Guilds to catch the preview of their mighty MA show. We highly recommend it but please be forewarned that it is huge. And we’re talking ‘take a pack lunch as you might get lost and hungry’ huge and is set over four floors of their atmospheric Georgian buildings.

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The MA degree show showcases the work of 31 artists and is staged across the school. The artists embrace mediums from oils and acrylics to applied art, sculpture, textiles, and even, err….pickled things. Most of the artists are present to explain their work and, failing that, there are useful viewing notes that describe their sometimes curious approach to their craft. And     most of the work on display is also for sale.

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It’s difficult to ascertain an overall theme to this year’s show, but recurrent themes seem to be about isolation, technology and alienation. Having said that, there is a pervasive theme of playfulness and frivolity in many of the works. If you want to encounter real, hands on work in progress there is an artist creating textiles and is happy to discuss her work with you. Also, in the ‘historic carving’ area you can have a chat with Taku Obata and watch him hard at work creating sculptures in wood. And this might be your only chance in life to meet a Japanese sculptor/break dancer/hip hop artist.

 

Top tip – If your other half is looking puzzled at any point and says ‘what the hell am I looking at’, look them square in the face and say ‘It’s about IDENTITY’. If they reply ‘no it isn’t’, then say ‘it’s about MEMORY’. It works every time.

City and Guilds is on Kennington Park Road and the entrance is on the side next to Cleaver Square. The hours are

Tuesday, 10 Sept  to Sunday, 15 September    12 – 5.

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A Celebration of the Gasholders at Oval

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As regular readers to the Runoff are aware, the iconic gasholders at Oval will soon become past tense, with the exception of the possibly least attractive one (Gasholder 1,below, in a photo from 1957) closest to Montford place which will have it’s middle filled in by flats. The others are to be taken down and replaced by mixed use flats and shops constructed by Berkeley homes. This little missive is not to open the Medusa like can of worms that surrounds the judgement of this decision, but rather a celebration of our soon to be extinct wrought  iron friends.

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Our gasholders are symbols of a bygone age of belching factory chimneys, pea soup fogs and mass manufacturing in London. They stored gas and moved up and down depending on the time of day the gas was needed by industry and residents. When regulators in homes and factories became more robust, however, this became less essential .The paired green gasholders closest to Vauxhall street were erected in 1874 and 1876 in a neo classical style and have Tuscan columns. These would have originally held gas used to service industries at Vauxhall Bridge, and later to homes in Oval, Vauxhall and Kennington. After quite a bit of disagreement in Lambeth these structures were not granted Grade 2 listed status, but given a ‘local listing’, which ultimately sealed their fate.

The iconic Gasholder 1 was constructed in 1877 and at the time was the largest such structure in the world. It was designed by Frank and George Livesey and these two factors, combined with it’s very fortunate location overlooking the cricket ground, saved it’s hollowed and hallowed skin. In a similar note, after being behind hoardings since the dawn  of time the sketchy Cricketers pub at the base of the holder seems to now have a new lease on life, risen like the phoenix from the ashes as depicted on our soon to be removed gasholder 4.

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Bee Urban, People!

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A few days ago we had a stroll through Kennington Park to check out the new pizza joint ‘Collective’ (which we will review, but we’re busy at KR towers) and encountered a gaggle of folk apparently in haz mat suits. We instantly thought ‘FINALLY a team has assembled to grapple with the great pong of the Kennington tube platform. As it turns out they we had stumbled upon ‘Bee Urban’, a secret garden and bee sanctuary on the Walworth side of Kennington Common.

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After becoming slightly obsessed with bees following our discovery of an apiary at Walworth Garden Farm, we totted along to Bee Urban and had a conversation with manager Barnaby to find our more about their good deeds. Bee Urban is a bee centric social enterprise with a goal of promoting positive, ecologically sound gardening and greening with a focus on faming and the preservation of our buzzy friends. They are particularly skilled in offering courses and training for vulnerable people and kids.

Based in the Old Keeper’s Lodge behind the café, Bee Urban is not only a lovely refuge from our urban lives but also a place to stroll, contemplate, and to purchase honey and other accessories associated with bees. There are also many ways to get involved for both adults and kids, from making (and buying) honey to courses dedicated community gardening and biodiversity.  We only have a few days of warmth and greenery lefty folks, so check it out!

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