Hello beloved Kennington – and an article about toilets

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Hello Kennington, I am _______ and have just taken over the reigns of KR. The new KR towers are about 500 feet (kid you not) from the old KR towers, so expect your usual helping of restaurant fails and loves, vintage photos, secret discoveries, and hopefully contributions from readers in suburban Kennington. We’ve lived here for 13 years, just long enough to remember La Finca (say what?), now the Tommyfield.

Right, habitués of Central Kennington might be familiar with the former public toilet in the middle, which then became the former ArtsLav and now is the current home of weeds. My predecessor wrote about it in October, 2014. Well it apparently is now destined to be a bar, and the planning application can be found here . One thing is sure, people can’t say ‘where’s the loo’.

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who’s next?

Posted on March 3, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Would you like to run Kennington by taking over this blog, plus its Instagram and Twitter feeds? We’re open to offers of cash and/or diligence in service of the area. Contact kenningtonrunoff@gmail.com

We’re also selling our secretive HQ at the true beating heart of Kennington, which doubles up as one of the most spacious and unique houses in the area. WITH A STEAM ROOM (and you thought you had to go to The Locker Room for one of those). Check it out here from KFH or here from Winkworth (naturally we wanted to try as many local estate agents as possible – maybe we’ll write a comparative review once we’ve sold the house).

Kennington Lane hall

Some readers have asked who we are, and we promise to reveal all… to whoever takes over the blog and indeed the house. A bit like when Carly Simon told the winner of a charity auction who You’re So Vain was about, but without the charity, or the auction.

farewell beloved Kennington, and thank-you

Posted on February 27, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

We have moved away from Kennington – very reluctantly as we will love it 4eva.

Before bowing out we wanted to shout out some of our favourite Kennington people and places, including some we’ve neglected to mention previously. These people not only provided a great service but made us feel at home.

Belle from Yogabelle, who is everything a yogi should be, and teaches at the very special Siobhan Davies Centre.

Abraham from Bouquets & Beans or Bouquets & Babyccinos as it will always be to us.

John the Kennington Baker – thanks for all the home deliveries and the exquisite bread and buns.

Everyone at the Kennington Coffee Shop, 3 Wincott St – truly the friendliest, most community-minded establishment we’ve been to in London.

William at Oxymoron at the Royal Oak – shine on you crazy beachcomber.

Sally, Mark and everyone at Sally White for the best brownies in the world, and for making Kennington even nicer.

Everyone at Vanilla Black and also Veronique for the awesome French singing classes (now at the Duchy Arms).

Andrew at Millars General Store – thanks for all the granola, Kernel and information.

Awesome hairdresser Fabian at Haus of Hair – one of the establishments we may have to travel back to Kennington to frequent.

Everyone at the Hub Coffee House, our favourite friendly place to work from, even though we are atheists.

Vivien and all the team at Toad Hall Montessori Nursery School – a home from home that we’d recommend to any parent (Florence Welch is an alumna).

All our lovely neighbours on Kennington Lane including everyone at Express Superstore, the family shop.

Thanks to Lady C from the Earl of Bedlam – our no. 1 source of local intel – and to everyone else who wrote us an email or tweet or Insta comment. We wouldn’t have done it without you.

Thanks to the surrounding areas for agreeing to being co-opted into Kennington, except Walworth who were weirdly humourless about it. And finally, thanks to Kennington for being an awesome place to live.

map of Kennington

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 1 – The Garden Café at the Garden Museum

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: This is simply one of our favourite ever London restaurants. The seasonal menu changes every day and has never let us down. Hearty, flavoursome, unfussy food, just brilliantly executed.

The Garden Museum cafe interior - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: Their only evening openings are Tuesdays and Fridays. They’re not particularly flexible with substitutions and such like, but only because they take such pride in their plates. The food is expensive but totally worth it. As for the building, we can’t still can’t believe the Garden Museum destroyed their beautiful, tranquil knot garden as part of the development that led to the new Garden Café. If this restaurant had been able to serve diners in the old knot garden on a summer evening, it would have been unbeatable.

Pappardelle, courgettes and parmesan at The Garden Cafe Museum - kenningtonrunoff.com

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 2 – Louie Louie

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: Most well-off residents of East Kennington have probably experienced Louie Louie by now, as a daytime brunch spot or nighttime bar or party venue. But have you eaten there in the evenings? They host residencies from up-and-coming chefs and they must choose well because we’ve never had a meal there that was anything but great. They serve real ale from the nearby Orbit brewery, and the co-owner Chris is lovely.

Louie Louie - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: The gentrification of Walworth and Elephant & Castle has rightly been controversial and Louie Louie could be seen as a symbol of that, but it’s a genuine local business. Let’s hope Louie Louie can continue to thrive alongside the likes of the Red Lion (the massive old Irish pub) and Oli Food Centre (the Turkish 24 hour food shop opposite with the insanely delicious and cheap pide bread and dozens of different kinds of feta).

Louie Louie bar - kenningtonrunoff.com

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 3 – Brunswick House

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: Brunswick House has an utterly unique and magical interior, courtesy of LASSCO the architectural reclaim shop, and the building it takes its name from, a Georgian mansion with a colourful history. The atmosphere is always good, the food is inventive and seasonal, and the clientele is cultured – when Florence Welch wants to meet Lena Dunham for dinner, this is where they go.

Brunswick House restaurant - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: Since founder Jackson Boxer, a Kennington resident, started opening hot new restaurants outside of Kennington and became a cover star (and what a dashing one too), we have to say the food is not quite as great as it was, and still expensive. So we’re not the regular visitors we once were – but if you’ve never been, you really should…

Salsify, cauliflower and olive at Brunswick House – kenningtonrunoff.com

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 4 – Bonnington Café

Posted on February 23, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: We were recently asked to recommend places for a group of Spanish art students to go when visiting London and Bonnington Café was the only place on our list. It’s off Bonnington Square, a magical, unique place which is surely the crowning achievement of the squatting movement in London (the café was originally a communal kitchen for the squatters, many of whom didn’t have functioning kitchens of their own). The food is crazy cheap and it’s BYOB. It has always been vegetarian and nowadays seems to be vegan as well. Best of all is the atmosphere – never not joyous.

Bonnington Square Cafe - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: The chefs and waiters are keen amateurs on a rota so don’t expect fine dining, but do expect wholesome, tasty vegan food, generally served very quickly if rather eccentrically at times. The café was briefly “threatened with closure” but like 6 Music, this only served to make it stronger. Viva Bonnington Café!

The fifth best restaurant in Kennington – you decided it’s 24 The Oval!

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Marcel & Sons was our fifth favourite restaurant in Kennington but then it closed along with the rest of Artworks. We are gutted, but hopefully they’ll be back before long.

So we made a list of all the restaurants we didn’t include in our top ten and let you vote for your favourite. 24 The Oval was the winnner, narrowly beating Theo’s Pizzeria. A fair result as both restaurants might have made it into our top ten if we were meat and dairy eaters. Amici and Kennington Tandoori – two other restaurants we frequent – tied for third place.

24 The Oval exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

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The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 6 – Doost Persian Grill

Posted on February 21, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: About 65% of our Kennington takeaways over the years have been from Doost. The food is simply delicious. The chelo kabab koobideh (lamb kebab) is one of the things we miss most from our meat eating days, although their veggie kebab is great too. We’ve never had a bad dish there. Even their rice is next level.

Doost Persian Grill & Vodka Bar

Negatives: We just can’t understand why it isn’t full all the time!

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 7 – Adulis

Posted on February 20, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: Kennington and surrounding areas are blessed with an extraordinary number of Eritrean and Ethiopean restaurants – Red Sea on Walworth Road, the ever-popular Zeret Kitchen on Camberwell Road, St Gabriel Cafe on that sketchy little alley between Kennington Park Road and Kennington Lane, Harar on South Lambeth Road, ~~Beza in Artworks~~ (Artworks has now closed permanently), plus Bar 48 on Brixton Road only recently closed… we even bought some Eritrean food at the Archbishop Sumner school fete once. The pick of the bunch for us is Adulis on Brixton Road – great atmosphere, nice African decorations, Ethiopean lager, and the crazy odour of the coffee ceremony…

Adulis Eritrean Restaurant - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: Every Ethiopean or Eritrean meal we’ve had has basically been the same but that suits us just fine – the food is always delicious and fun if not too photogenic:

Adulis platter - kenningtonrunoff.com

The Kennington Observer (formerly Kennington Runoff)

Surreptitiously observing Kennington, including the suburbs Vauxhall, Oval, Walworth, and Elephant since 2012