Kennington Runoff Eats a Sandwich

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

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.

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).

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.

City and Guilds MA Show

Posted on September 8, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

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.

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.

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

Posted on September 3, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

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.

Bee Urban, People!

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

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.

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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RVT/GMFA Sports Day

Posted on August 24, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Who needs to slog all the way to Notting Hill when we have our own carnival right here in greater Kennington? Just substitute Calypso with a handbag toss and move Soca aside for a drag relay and you have one of the most enjoyable days at KR towers. It’s all happening on Monday, and please let us explain.

Every year in Spring Gardens the Royal Vauxhall Tavern hosts a sports day for Gay Men Fighting Aids. GMFA is a charity that uses the Sports Day as a key part of its fundraising season. The event is free and volunteers are all about the place with buckets for contributions. It usually draws a sizeable and has been around for aeons.

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The sports day is composed of 10 or so teams, usually dressed up and with great names. As you can imagine, there is a definite comedy element to the proceedings and it is MC’ed by the hilarious Timberlina (plus some real BBC sports reporters as some people take the events very seriously). The various tasks (egg and spoon, the 50 metre mince, tug of war, etc) are constructed in a knockout format with the winning team being crowned at about 5.

The day is certainly not limited to a specific demographic and there are a number of families there with kids, older folks, and an overall sense of mirth abounds. There are bars, music and once in a while the critters from Vauxhall City Farm even come for a visit. My suggestion is to grab a blanket and some food and make a picnic out of it. The website indicates a kickoff at 1, but is usually about 1:30.

RVT Sports Day – Monday 26 August, 1 -5.

Taro Time

Posted on August 21, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

As most of you are aware we’ve had a lovely, much overdue Japanese joint on our doorstep for nine months now and we recently checked it out (ok, we’ve actually been about eight times). We have to confess to a slight bias as we’ve been going to Taro’s Soho outlet for about 16 years and it’s great to see a Soho venue in our area, but without the rickshaws, sick and stag ‘dos. This was one of our predecessors’ top 10 earlier this year, but will it make the cut again?

We were in Japan earlier this year and went to Taro with our friend Mark, who actually lived in Japan for years and acted as our cultural attaché. We had sushi (both tempura-maki and other maki) which was fresh and generous on the fish side. We also had fried chicken (below), 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.

Taro is honest, authentic ‘Izakaya’, (roughly meaning ‘pub food’) very similar to the food you get in Japan and is good value for money. While this is the best Japanese in the Runoff catchment area and it’s environs, we have to concede that *dodges brick* if you want the real deal there are more authentic Japanese places in London. So, if you like your sushi made in right in front of you by grumpy chefs, you might try venturing to Eat Tokyo. However, if you want to keep it local Taro is a firm choice, but do reserve as a few weeks ago we couldn’t get our hands on a table!

For the curious, apparently Taro roughly means ‘dude’ in Japanese and on most nights Taro himself is on the premises (his round face is the logo). He likes to talk about his lovely farming family who’s picture graces the back wall, so pick his brain.

Eleanor Coade and the Code of her Stone

Posted on August 16, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

We’re going slightly off grid here to take you up to the Kennington suburb of Waterloo. If you’ve ever had the misfortunate of being trapped in a srcum of people trying to make their way into ‘Shrek’s Adventure London’ you might have noticed a remarkably pristine and proud lion on the southern end of Westminster Bridge, guarding the entrance in Lambeth. The lion was created by William Woodington but was cast in a remarkable stone invented by local resident and female pioneer Eleanor Coade and is called ‘The Coadestone Lion’.

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Our feline friend was created in 1837 to dangle at the pinnacle of the Lion Brewery. The building was pulled down in 1949 to make way for the Royal Festival Hall and the poor beast then suffered a number of indignities including having a time capsule stuck up his bum, being painted red, and then getting dropped. After a brief stint outside Waterloo station his destiny was preserved at the bridge in 1966 and afterwards he achieved a Grade II listing (talk about hard work). His noble and pristine appearance has endured due to Eleanor’s invention of a highly durable, frost and freeze proof artificial stone, which is actually a kind of ceramic. The formula was created in our backyard by Eleanor at the cusp of the 18^thand 19^thcentury. Eleanor is said to have taken the formula to her grave when she died in 1821, and it has since been lost.

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There were a number of potteries and ceramics factories experimenting with artificial stone in Vauxhall at the time and perhaps Eleanor chose to ply her trade in our area in order to capitalise on the industry. In spite of stiff competition, Coade’s stone proved very popular and was commissioned for use in Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery, and the Royal Opera House. If you would like to see specimens of her craft but are afraid you might turn to stone yourself if you leave greater Kennington, check out Captain Bligh’s tomb at the Gardening Museum, the porch at the main entrance of Brunswick House, or the lovely gargoyles above the windows at 57 South Lambeth Road next to the ‘opposite of lovely’ Travis Perkins. After 1840 her formula was lost and has never been recreated.

Have a nice weekend and enjoy exploring….

Roots and Shoots

Posted on August 12, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Having just spent the past week dodging raindrops in Scotland, we fully appreciate that summer is a fleeting thing. So without further adieu we would like to make you aware, or remind you of, a wonderful little green space in our not very green patch of earth.

Roots and Shoots is a registered charity and vocational hub dedicated to educating disaffected young people aged 16 -25 in Lambeth and Southwark and preparing them for the world of work through one year internships in areas such as horticulture and retail. It’s also a green space for urban biodiversity and is frequently visited by school groups eager to learn more about plants and how much of our food is grown.

The roughly half acre around Roots and Shoots is quite a unique space and presents itself less as a garden and more as an active, urban farm and space for insects and urban animals to grow and thrive. On our visit we saw tomatoes, marrows and blackberries ready to be harvested in addition to loads of veg which we had never heard of. Unlike Walworth Garden (which we wrote about in June) Roots and Shoots does not provide a wealth of places to sit and ponder but loads of space to wander and ponder and is open to the public daily.

If you’re keen to get involved in Roots and Shoots you can attend one of their ‘Magpie Kitchen’ pop up dinner nights or hire a room for an event. They also have a fun ‘apple day’ in early October where you can learn about apples, buy apple juice, and maybe even throw apples if the mood takes you there….

Culture Under Attack at IWM

Posted on August 2, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

As busy Kenningtonians we sometimes forget that we have a massive, world class museum on our doorstep. To address this we recently decided to take a moment out of our exhausting cycle of ~~Murder She Wrote repeats~~ deadlines to pop along to the Imperial War Museum to see their latest show ‘Culture Under Attack’,

Culture Under Attack is set over three gallery spaces and grapples with the distinct ways in which our cultural lives are compromised during conflict. We spent the most time in ‘Rebel Sounds’, an immersive exhibition which deals with music censorship in four vastly different eras and cultures; Nazi Germany, northern Mali, Northern Ireland in the ‘70’s, and Serbia in the 90’s. The theme is how specific people or institutions sought to rebel against censorship and prevail. The Northern Irish story is told by record store owner Terri Hooley. The northern Mali story is told by the band Songhoy Blues, who now perform their music as exiles in the south of the country.

A second exhibtion is called ‘What Remains’, and focuses on how war kills not just the ones we love but also the cultural symbols which help make up our identity. The exhibit moves in time from the physical destruction of Hiroshima to the very conscious destruction of icons and art by ISIS only a few years ago. In each of these exhibitions you are invited to take a quiz about the importance of culture, censorship, and the protection of buildings.

The third exhibition is called ‘Art in Exile’ and it focuses on attempts by the IWM and other galleries to safeguard their works of art during WW2, and how at times these attempts failed. This exhibit also details the heroic and altruistic methods employed to protect other forms of material culture in times of conflict by undertaking activites such as concerts and plays. It poses several intriguing questions such as ‘to what lengths do we go to preserve culture’.

Culture Under Attack is free to all of us and open until 5 January. Get your good selves along this weekend as it’s a hell a of a lot better than thinking about Brexit or climate change.

Daebak – A Korean Worth Visiting

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

A few days ago we popped our sweaty selves to Vauxhall to revisit a delightful Korean friend called ‘Daebak’. It is a small, delightful restaurant not to be confused with the not so charming ‘Jihwaja’ across the road. Well, unless your idea of charming involves hen do’s, stale kimchee and blaring K-Pop. And if it does then this website might not be for you…..

For our meal the three of us ordered soy garlic chicken (a speciality, below), spicy bibimbap, Katsu curry, crispy tofu, and gyoza. Let me tell you, reader, we were rolling out of there by the end of it. We could have easily dropped one of the main courses as they were huge. We highly recommend the various kinds of fried chicken on order (crunchy, subtle) and the Bibimbap is delicious and comes with two veg. options. I would also experiment with a starter like octopus balls. Great food, and pretty kind on the pocket. If you are going on a weekend it might be a good idea to book, as last time we couldn’t get in we had to go across the street and it wasn’t pretty.

Daebak is at 316-318 Kennington Lane

Pros – It has wide open doors overlooking Vauxhall

Cons – It has wide open doors overlooking Vauxhall