from the soon-to-be relaunched Lambeth Archives website
The Roebuck, 1972, now The Dog House
The King’s Arms, 1972
The White Hart, 1972, now the Tommyfield
The Cricketers, Kennington Park Road, 1945
the derelict Lamb & Hare public house, 41 Kennington Lane, 1950
The Black Prince, 1974
The Tankard, 1880
The Horns Tavern, which stood on the corner of Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road until 1965
from the soon-to-be relaunched Lambeth Archives website
The Old Red Lion in the late 1930s
Kilner House protest squat, Clayton Street – more info here – plus ca change
Methley Street, 1975 – nothing has changed except the cars
Kennington Road, 1950
Cleaver Street, 1975 – bit of a different vibe from today
‘Reclining Figure’ by James Butler A.R.A. – bring this back to Cleaver Square please!
Brook Drive, 1985 – looks tranquil right?
Bonnington Square, 1981 – the year the squatters moved in
More soon.
The Boule-In is sadly missed in Kennington – we used to buy most of our presents there. But their original Suffolk business was proving such a success that they chose to focus on that, and hand their Kennington site over to the next generation – Brocket Gallery who were previously in their basement are now upstairs too.
The original Brocket was purely an art gallery but as you can see from the above, they’ve now added concept store, consultation and lifestyle to the mix, which means we can once again buy presents from there, if we’re feeling flush with cash.
Artworks are on display both upstairs and downstairs. We enjoyed this recent exhibition by Cat Roissetter:
They’re open Wednesday to Saturday, 12 to 6pm.
Address: Brocket Gallery, 16 Windmill Row, London SE11 5DW.
The best thing about Cupcakes & Shhht is that they made the brave move to go totally vegan – the first such cafe/restaurant in the area – and they do great brunches and meat alternatives as well as cupcakes, so you won’t miss the meat or dairy.
This is their chicken burger – it’s not really chicken but it tastes pretty close:
These are blueberry pancakes, topped with banana and cinnamon and drenched in syrup and Oatly cream:
You can eat in, but this being Artworks, there isn’t loads of space inside:
In better weather you can sit outside:
Or you can take away or get Deliveroo, but bear in mind brunches don’t travel particularly well.
The worst thing about Cupcakes & Shhht is the name. It’s confusing – they are about so much more than cupcakes – and cringeworthy. It won’t stop us going along but it does make it harder to recommend it to people.
They’re open every day 9am to 5pm except Sunday 10am to 5pm.
Address: Unit 10, The Artworks, Elephant Road, Elephant and Castle SE17 1AY.
Spring keeps threatening to spring so we’ve been stocking up on plants from Spring Gardens Nursery at the junction of Black Prince Road and Newport Street, to the side of Beaconsfield Gallery.
Andy and Alan will give you detailed, friendly advice about which plants to buy (maybe a bit too detailed – we were overwhelmed with choice so gave up and let our toddler choose loads of random flowers), and they may well give you a little freebie if you spend enough. They grow a lot of their own plants, their stock seems to be growing all the time and their prices are very reasonable.
It’s open daily including Sundays from 10am to 6pm.
Shank’s Pony Nursery was previously on the same site and this article links them to some of the lovely plants you can see in beds around West and North West Kennington.
The Hangout cafe was the previous occupant of this site (on Kennington Green at 344 Kennington Road, next to Papa John’s), which was derelict for years prior to that. Although The Hangout seemed fairly popular, we weren’t entirely surprised when it closed down as the manager and the chef were having a stand-up row throughout our visit, and when our food eventually arrived, we could understand why.
The new arrival is Rare Burger Co. which very much looks like a chain-in-waiting in the vein of Honest Burger et al. But haven’t we already passed peak gourmet burger in London? Quite possibly, but whether Rare Burger Co. turns into a successful chain or not, we’re tipping the Kennington branch to last a good while.
First of all, there’s nothing like this in the area – Dirty Burger is the closest thing, but that’s more of a shack in the middle of a gyratory, and we think we’re right in saying that Black Acorn at Artworks is no more.
Rare Burger’s proprietor is friendly and modest, telling us they want to perfect what they do before doing any marketing. They’ve done a good job on the interior and branding.
Most importantly their burgers are great. The shrimp burger was seriously indulgent for £8.80, and this beetroot burger (£7) was delicious and moist.
We didn’t stay for dessert but people on Facebook are raving about their cheesecake (£3.50). We’ll be back there soon to give it a try.
They also serve brunch options like avocado on sourdough and various eggs options.
Address: Rare Burger Co, 344 Kennington Road, London SE11 4LD.
Eritrea used to be part of Ethiopia and we haven’t yet been able to discern any differences in the two countries’ cuisines, although they are completely unlike any other cuisine we’ve tried. So when friends raved about an Ethiopian restaurant on Camberwell Road, we got confused, Googled an Eritrean restaurant on Camberwell Road and found Red Sea.
We felt something might be amiss when we turned up to find they didn’t have any other customers when we arrived on a Friday evening, they don’t take cards, but they do have a TV in the restaurant. The sign above said “under new management” so perhaps that was why, we thought. Four customers did come in later, plus quite a few people seemed to be heading to the club downstairs (we’re always curious about those clubs downstairs on Walworth Road and Camberwell Road but haven’t plucked up the courage to visit one for many years, and anyway suspect they don’t get going until after our bedtime).
We had no complaints once the food arrived – the vegetarian platter on injera was as good as in the three other Ethiopean or Eritrean restaurants we’ve tried in the area (Adulis, Bar 48 and Harar), and tasted very fresh despite the lack of customers. Very reasonably priced too.
The restaurant our friends actually recommended? Zeret Kitchen of course – we’ll visit there soon. There’s also an Ethiopean restaurant at Artworks which we need to try – Beza. How wonderful that the Greater Kennington area supports six Ethiopean or Eritrean restaurants.
Like Cottons, Mother Kelly’s is another independent retailer-turned-chain who recently arrived in West Kennington (they were already in Bethnal Green, Homerton, Stoke Newington and Portlandia).
In fact the Vauxhall branch is their biggest, with a bottle shop on Albert Embankment, outside seating facing Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (above), and a massive tap room with 33 different beers on tap under the railway arch in between:
Great news for lovers of craft beers like us, but it’s not cheap. The first we heard of Mother Kelly’s coming to Vauxhall was this tweet:
https://twitter.com/fionamacmac/status/898606567871832065
Craft beer for people who live in towerblocks designed by Versace, you might think. But the beers were great and the atmosphere was welcoming so we’ll be back.
Here’s the bottle shop:
They also sell Mother Kelly’s merch:
When we were there, their food offering was meat boards (£10), veg boards (£7.50), cheese boards (£9.50), chocolate boards (£6.50), olives and bread, and sandwiches, but they also host food trucks.
Mother Kelly’s, 76 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP
+44 (0) 20 7091 9779
Cottons started as a long-running and popular Caribbean restaurant in Camden. Now the Cottons chain is in all four corners of London, with branches in Notting Hill, Shoreditch and West Kennington – they’ve taken over the riverside site at St George Wharf that was previously occupied by the Moroccan restaurant Souk River Lounge.
It’s hard to imbue St George Wharf with character but Cottons have given it a fair shot with this colourful wall mural:
The centre piece of the restaurant is the bar, with many different rums on offer:
This seafood platter with rice & peas, plantain and jerk sauce was top notch, as you’d hope for £18.50. In true Kennington Runoff tradition, we enjoyed it so much we tucked in before taking the photo:
Less successful was this order of vegetable coconut rundown for £12 – basically just some veg in an over-flavoured sauce. They should really add a vegetarian jerk option to the menu.
We went along on a Friday night and they were playing the greatest hits of dancehall too loudly for our middle-aged tastes, but the restaurant certainly has a party atmosphere you won’t find elsewhere in the area, except perhaps on Walworth Road late at night.
They do a daily happy hour on cocktails (£6), wine and beer (Carib for £3.50 a bottle) from 5pm-9pm and a bottomless brunch from 11am-5pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday which we plan to try soon.
Cottons Vauxhall. Unit 12 Flagstaff House, St George Wharf, Vauxhall, London SW8 2LE
T: 0207 091 0793
Read more about the threat to Bonnington Cafe and sign a petition here.
Read more about the threat to the Cinema Museum and sign a petition here.
Both of these institutions are magical, unique and irreplaceable. The area will be much worse off without them.
See our original piece about the Bonnington Cafe here.
See our original piece about the Cinema Museum here.
