Even estate agents and chain restaurants look nice in Kennington.
Bouquets & Beans (now called Kennington Flowers by Tomorrow’s People)
Kennington Flowers is the flower and plant stall outside St Anselm’s church in the heart of Kennington. It’s a social enterprise from Tomorrow’s People – they provide unemployed young people with paid work and work experience, and the stall provides a nice complement to what was already one of London’s most colourful areas.
The prices are low, and right now you can get a memento of BBC Television Centre – when it closed, the BBC gave Kennington Flowers hundreds of large plant pots to sell. They’re down to the last few, and they start at £5 for the small ones.
They’re open from Tuesday to Saturday so get down there today if you fancy a pot, but make sure you go towards lunchtime because they arrive late and leave early.
more evidence of Kennington’s contribution to quiet London
Kennington Road in rush hour:
Vauxhall City Farm
Vauxhall City Farm has been “putting the lamb into Lambeth” since 1976. It’s located right in the heart of West Kennington, on Spring Gardens. It’s free to visit from 10.30am to 4pm Wednesday to Sunday – perfect for kids and animal lovers, and you can head to the Tea House Theatre or the Black Dog for a drink afterwards.
The Tea House Theatre
On the edge of Spring Gardens, between the Black Dog and Vauxhall City Farm, is a unique kind of tea house. There’s a huge range of loose leaf teas, but be prepared to pay Mayfair prices for the specialty teas, or plump for a mug of Tetley for £1. They’re so militant about their tea that they make a point of not serving coffee, but they do have a big choice of cakes, plus breakfasts and lunches. There are board games. And yes, sometimes there is theatre, not to mention film screenings, a knitting club, chess club, and a debating society (more like a Radio 4 panel game). It’s also exceptionally baby friendly – sometimes it feels like the babies outnumber the adults.
If you’re wondering why there are stacks of The Dangerous Book for Boys around the place, one of its authors Hal Iggulden is director of the Tea House Theatre.
has anyone been to Emanuel Peruvian Restaurant on Amelia Street?
Peruvian restaurants are a relatively new phenomenon in London so it’s exciting to see one on the Kennington side of Walworth Road. We haven’t been yet but the reviews online are promising. Another benefit of North Kennington’s status as London’s Latin Quarter (St Mary’s Churchyard also hosted the Azucar Flower Festival last weekend).
Quiet London
We were recently given the book Quiet London by Siobhan Wall, which features “over 140 quiet places to meet, drink, eat, sleep, read or browse”.
Nine of them are in Kennington:
* The Cuming Museum which is currently closed due to fire, but their events programme continues
* Bonnington Square Garden, a magical place which we will write about another time
* Italo Delicatessen on Bonnington Square
* The Tibetan Peace Garden in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, which also deserves its own entry here, being one of London’s nicest and quietest parks
* G Baldwin & Co., a health food shop and apothecary on Walworth Road, which according to Siobhan has “probably the largest selection of essential oils you can find anywhere in England”. Entering the apothecary side of the shop does feel like stepping back in time (it has been open since 1844).
* Danielle Arnaud Gallery – another of Kennington’s art galleries. It is based in one of the lovely Georgian houses on Kennington Road and we can testify as to how quiet it is – when we went we were the only visitors.
* The Ragged Canteen at Beaconsfield
Quiet London by Siobhan Wall
The Kennington Oval cricket ground
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:
Even if you never go inside The Oval, you can still appreciate the vegetation growing all over its perimeter:
(Pictures are from today’s opening day of the fifth Ashes test between England and Australia.)
Beaconsfield Art Gallery and the Ragged Canteen
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.
Dirty Burger opened in West Kennington tonight with half price food
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:
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:
And for the actual vegetarian, there are always chips:
There are stools inside, or four small tables on the roadside:
