The Kennington Oval cricket ground

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Even if you’re not a big cricket fan, you should spend a day at the Kennington Oval (so called because it is oval shaped, and in Kennington). Relative to other sports, cricket fans are a friendly, civilised bunch. Rivalry between supporters is good humoured, with fans of both teams intermingled throughout the ground. You will most likely end up in conversation with the stranger sat next to you. They may even collect your discarded beer glasses before passing them to a steward. There’s live music galore around the ground. The quality of food and drink puts even the most upmarket football ground to shame. In short, you will have a great day out regardless of what’s happening on the pitch.

If you are a cricket fan you will already know that The Kennington Oval is one of the world’s great cricket grounds in terms of the pitch, the facilities, and the historic games that have been played there. It also looks great:

The Kennington Oval panorama - kenningtonrunoff.com

Even if you never go inside The Oval, you can still appreciate the vegetation growing all over its perimeter:

The Kennington Oval vegitation - kenningtonrunoff.com queues outside the Kennington Oval - kenningtonrunoff.com(Pictures are from today’s opening day of the fifth Ashes test between England and Australia.)

Beaconsfield Art Gallery and the Ragged Canteen

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Beaconsfield, based in a former Victorian Ragged School, is the biggest and architecturally most impressive of the surprisingly large number of art galleries in Kennington, although it’s likely to be trumped by Damien Hirst’s new gallery which is due to open just up the road in 2014.

Art at Beaconsfield tends towards the modern and the conceptual, and they are funded by the Arts Council.

On weekday lunchtimes their Ragged Canteen serves really great vegetarian food (at other times they serve drinks and cakes). In an area with various good veggie cafes in surprising places – see also The Garden Museum and the Jamyang Buddhist Centre – The Ragged Canteen is the best. If only it were open more often and for longer.

The door is permanently locked – ring the bell to get in.

Beaconsfield and The Ragged Canteen - kenningtonrunoff.com

Dirty Burger opened in West Kennington tonight with half price food

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Dirty Burger is a burger joint from the Soho House Group and its second branch opened tonight in West Kennington under a railway arch right by Vauxhall station (the first was in Kentish Town).

It won’t take you long to work your way through the menu, especially if you’re a vegetarian:

Dirtyburger Vauxhall menu - kenningtonrunoff.com

Let me guess, you chose the cheese burger? Good choice – juicy and tasty – even the aspiring vegetarian in our party enjoyed it. Here it is:

Dirty Burger Vauxhall wrapping - kenningtonrunoff.comDirty Burger burger - kenningtonrunoff.com

And for the actual vegetarian, there are always chips:

Dirty Burger chips - kenningtonrunoff.com

There are stools inside, or four small tables on the roadside:Dirty Burger - kenningtonrunoff.com

The Garden Museum

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[Update July 2017: The Garden Museum and Cafe have been redeveloped since this post]

The Garden Museum (formerly the Museum of Garden History) is in the deconsecrated St Mary’s church next to Lambeth Palace in North West Kennington. Even if you’re not interested in gardening, it’s worth a visit for the good quality vegetarian cafe and the lovely garden (there’s a charge to enter the museum but not the shop, cafe or garden).

The Garden Museum exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

The knot garden with the walls of Lambeth Palace in the background:

The garden of The Garden Museum - kenningtonrunoff.com

William Bligh lived in Kennington, on Lambeth Road in a house that is now a B&B, and was buried at St Mary’s. Appropriately enough for a site that was to become a garden museum, his grave features the breadfruit plant which he discovered and brought back to England. Presumably whoever designed his grave was hoping he would be remembered for this, rather than for being the ship’s captain who inspired the Mutiny on the Bounty.

The grave of William Bligh, The Garden Museum garden (formerly St Mary's) - kenningtonrunoff.com

The well-stocked shop featuring gifts for gardeners and books:

The Garden Museum shop - kenningtonrunoff.com

The interior of the museum:

The Garden museum interior - kenningtonrunoff.com

Kennington: celebrity party zone with Cara Delevingne and Rita Ora

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We may be a little late in covering the #DKNYArtworks party that took place at the old Lambeth Fire Station on Whitgift Street earlier this summer, but we have good reason: we pride ourselves on lack of hype here, and we wanted to make sure that when we said that Kennington hosted this summer’s hottest party, nothing was going to trump that. Now in mid-August, it’s safe to say that SE11 can take the crown, after a night that featured Cara Delevingne stagebombing Rita Ora’s set (attempting a duet and showing off her very own take on the twerk), and appearances from an array of London’s bright youngish things including Eliza Doolittle, Henry Holland, Nick Grimshaw, Professor Green, Millie Mackintosh, and Bella Freud.

DKNY Artworks Launch, London, Britain - 12 Jun 2013

The old Lambeth Fire Station is part of an historically important fire brigade complex, sitting just behind a fire practice tower, and the more architecturally remarkable art deco moderne London Fire Brigade Headquarters on the Albert Embankment.

The Old Fire Station - kenningtonrunoff.com

Cycle PS

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The Kennington branch of Cycle PS has now closed, but they do have branches in Camberwell and Battersea, and Kennington still has Balfe’s Bikes and ReCycling.

Cycle PS is a stylish new cycle shop and cafe bar at the top of Kennington Park Road, which is London’s second biggest street for cycling. On Friday nights Cycle PS stay open late – ideal for a drink before heading to the Lobster Pot.

Exterior:

Cycle PS exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

Interior:

Cycle PS tools - kenningtonrunoff.com

Kennington architecture in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition

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This week is the last week of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Its architecture section features the design of the new building where the Florence Nightingale pub and concrete monstrosity York House used to be on the roundabout at the bottom of Westminster Bridge. What’s being built in their place is a “glistening, crystalline 18-storey landmark office building” in an area already ripe with redevelopment – there are three relatively new Park Plaza hotels nearby including two on the roundabout, plus Foster & Partners’ new towers on Albert Embankment.

In the Summer Exhibition you can also see some of the alternative designs that were considered for York House, but this was the chosen design:

York House by Sheppard Robson in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition - kenningtonrunoff.com