It’s not opening any time soon. The latest rumour we’re hearing is March of next year. Here’s how it’s looking:
And here’s how it’s going to look:
Vauxhall Street Food Market
This week saw the opening of the new Vauxhall Street Food Market.
It’s an ingenious weekday use of the outside space behind Fire and The Lightbox nightclubs, hence the entrance is under a railway bridge right by Vauxhall station. You don’t normally get bouncers at street food markets, but this one was friendly:
Molly’s Pizza have the most colourful outlet:
Here’s their menu, only spoilt by the use of mushrooms. Molly’s Special is intense:
This is Seven Bridges New York Street Food Deli:
This is Ayam Happy, an Indonesian Street Food stall, and they really are happy. Plus they do a really delicious tofu with noodles which is welcome in a market that is quite meat-heavy (although there’s also a vegan cake and quiche stand):
This was the menu for Tucker’s Exotic Meat Shack when we went, although it changes regularly:
And finally, The Croque Monsieur, for all your grilled French sandwich needs:
You can eat the food in the beer garden, although sadly the beer on offer is more suited to clubbers in the early hours of the morning than discerning foodie types in the daytime (Stella and Magners rather than Kernel):
Beefeater Gin Distillery
Kennington is the Home of Gin – Burnett’s White Satin gin was made in West Kennington from 1750 onwards, and London’s last surviving gin distillery, Beefeater, has been located on Montford Place since 1958 when it left Chelsea in a bid to move upmarket.
As part of their ongoing commitment to Kennington, Beefeater recently opened a visitors’ centre, so naturally we went along for a tour.
The museum part of the tour has plenty about the dark history of gin in London, when it was known as mother’s ruin.
Here are some different eras of Beefeater bottles:
Only four people know the recipe for the Beefeater blend – the master brewer Desmond and his three stillmen, Keith, Maxim and Leeroy. They all have to have their noses insured and under no circumstances are they allowed to visit Walworth. The visitors centre are happy to tell you the flavourings anyway, and let you sniff them: Seville orange peel, lemon peel, bitter almond, liquorice, orris root, angelica seed, angelica root, coriander, and of course juniper:
Then you step through into the distillery itself:
Beefeater are aiming to make 36 million bottles this year, all of it distilled here, although then they transport the highly alcoholic distilled liquid to Scotland to mix it with water there.
Naturally the tour begins and ends in the gift shop, which plays heavily on the patriotism:
They have a new brew called London Garden which is inspired by the flower garden in Kennington Park, and is only available from the distillery.
The visitors centre is open every day except Christmas Day, and costs £12 for adults, £10.80 for concessions, and is free for under 18s, although they miss out on the free gin and tonic at the end. From mother’s ruin to kid’s day out.
BeeUrban – Kennington’s own honey brand
We’re not just saying this because it’s from Kennington, but BeeUrban’s honey is the finest we’ve ever tasted. It’s so flavoursome and lemon-y, it’s not even comparable to the bland stuff you get in supermarkets. We’d go so far as to say you haven’t really tasted honey until you’ve tasted Kennington honey.
If you’d like to pick some up, and find out more about it, then get along to one of their Keeper’s Lodge open days at the Keeper’s Lodge in the middle of Kennington Park. They’re on July 26, August 30 and September 20 from 11am to 5pm.
They’re also running an introduction to beekeeping on August 17th. This lasts from 11am to 4pm and costs £50. Go to their website for more info.
The Imperial War Museum finally re-opens today after a £40 million refit
It now features a transformed atrium space and new World War One galleries, which are trailed in this film by Aardman, the company behind Wallace & Grommit:
The current exhibition is Truth and Memory; British Art of World War One, and they’re selling a limited edition Bob & Roberta Smith print commemorating the lost artists of World War One, so they are really trying to make up for lost time with the WW1 commemorations.
The museum is open 10am to 6pm with last admission at 5.30pm. Welcome back ILM. We will be visiting soon and will report back from the recreated trenches on the new look cafe and the rest.
Kernel beer now available at your place
We love Kernel beer. It has only been around since 2009 but it has pretty much revolutionised London’s brewing scene in that time, inspiring other new breweries along the way. They mostly make pale ale, using different hops each week. And the beautifully designed label on each bottle names the hops contained within. So Kernel geeks like us end up buying the beer all year round just to find out how the Centennial hop tastes when combined with the Amarillo – very good by the way.
Check out their domination of Ratebeer’s list of the best beers brewed in England. You haven’t tried pale ale until you’ve tried Kernel.
Until recently, the only place you could buy Kernel in Kennington was Italo Deli, but now Hubbub (another of our favourite companies) have added Kernel as one of their shops. Hubbub is a food and drink delivery service like Ocado, but instead of getting all their products from supermarket warehouses, they get them from your local shops. So you can get your Kernel straight from the brewery in the same delivery as some cavolo nero from Ted’s Veg in Borough Market, some comté from Franklin’s Farm Shop in Dulwich, and some general smugness from L’Emporio Fine Foods.
Or, if you a fancy a Saturday morning excursion out of Kennington, you can visit the Kernel Brewery under a railway arch in nearby Bermondsey every Saturday from 9am to 2pm, and sample their latest brews on bierkeller-style seating. Grab a waffle from Waffle On at Maltby Street Market on your way home.
n.b. We have not been compensated for this post but we would like it to be known that we would basically do anything for a crate of Kernel – even be nice about Clapham.
Zeitgeist at the Jolly Gardeners – the only place to watch the World Cup Final
If you’re going to be in London rather than Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, there’s only one place to watch the World Cup Final – London’s premier German gastropub, Zeitgeist in North West Kennington.
Zeitgeist is located at The Jolly Gardeners pub on Black Prince Road, which has 120 years of history as a pub. In common with every Kennington pub of a certain age, Charlie Chaplin’s dad used to drink there, and scenes from the films Snatch and The Calcium Kid were shot there. Since Zeitgeist moved in, the colour theme is black, inside and out – not so jolly anymore. But the schnitzel, schweinebraten, leberkaes, and German beers like Weihenstephaner and Krombacher will soon cheer you up.
They will be showing the World Cup Final on their 4 x 3 metre screen and their 60″ TV. Pay £10 in advance and you will get guaranteed entry, a shot of Vodka Brause and a Currywurst/Bratwurst roll. More info from their black website.
Alford House Youth Club
This is Alford House Youth Club where We Are The Lambeth Boys was filmed:
It has been in Kennington since 1884, originally on Lambeth Walk:
We Are The Lambeth Boys, as sampled by Morrissey, can be viewed here.
We didn’t know Alford House existed until we read more about We Are The Lambeth Boys recently. It’s on Aveline Street which is yards from Tesco but is one of those streets you’d never walk up unless you were looking for it.
This is their programme of activities. Not bad for 25p:
It’s Kennington’s busiest week ever!
Forget Brazil, it’s all about what’s going on in Kennington for the next few days.
The Pungent Subway opens tonight in a subway underneath the North roundabout in North Kennington, organised by the team behind Save Our Subways. As part of the London Festival of Architecture, the subway passage will be filled with fragrances from herbs and flowers. It’s free, no booking required – just turn up between 6.30pm and 8.30pm today, tomorrow or Saturday.
Pullens Yard Open Studios takes place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday in East Kennington. Here’s what we wrote about it last year.
The Summer Open Studios also takes place this weekend at Make Space. It’s open from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday with a private view tonight from 6-9pm. Saturday afternoon from 3pm their “performing artists will display their skills with DJing, live musical performances and dance events”. Newnham Terrace, London SE1 7DR.
And last but not least, the ninth annual Kennington Village Fete takes place this Sunday from noon till 4pm in Cleaver Square. We’ll be there, playing the Amazing Human Fruit Machine and stocking up on local honey (you haven’t tasted honey until you’ve tasted this – it really is special).
The best breakfast in Kennington?
As regular readers of this blog will be well aware, Kennington has establishments that cater for most needs, but its one relative weak spot has been places to have breakfast or brunch.
Vergies is the nicest of a number of local cafes that offer fry ups in the greasy spoon mould (although it’s anything but greasy in there).
Toulouse Lautrec serve freshly baked French pastries, freshly squeezed orange juice, freshly pressed orange juice and the creamiest of scrambled eggs on weekends and Bank Holidays, but the service can be a little frustrating (some of the staff have limited English and speaking French to them doesn’t seem to work either).
Brunswick House do a good but short brunch menu.
Tea House Theatre’s breakfast is reviewed here.
Sally White do some breakfast options but add star anise to their granola – why why why?
So it’s with some excitement that we annouce that we now have a new candidate for the title of best breakfast in Kennington – The Tommyfield, who serve breakfast between 8.30am and 11.30am on weekends.
One of us had a homemade granola served with Greek yoghurt and a summer berry pot:
And the other had a serving of buttermilk pancakes which came with blueberry compote and mascarpone cream:
Both were excellent, but the lingering smell of drains which has percolated through the Tommyfield for a while now was more bothersome at breakfast time despite a sash window wide open next to the table.
Even if you’re not staying overnight at the Tommyfield Hotel, you can still enjoy their fragrant breakfast of a weekend, menu here.
