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Independent Christmas Shopping in Greater Kennington 2025

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From Panettone to Posh Puppy Food

Before we commence our mega mix of how you can buy gifts for people you love/put up with this Christmas, let’s think about the Greater Kenningtonians out there who are struggling to put food on the table in these difficult times. This year we’re again supporting the Secret Santa campaign run by our friends over at the Kennington Association. Last year KA raised funds to give shopping vouchers to 140 local households, with the families chosen by local early needs professionals. To find out more and to donate, click here. If you like the more hands on approach, Tesco in Kennington Lane has food and collection boxes located handily next to the exit.

FOOD AND DRINK

Italo Vauxhall and Nosh at Marcellos  (formerly Mimi’s Deli) both have a range of Italian foodie gift ideas including wines, beers, spices, panettone (that’s Italian for ‘stale cake’), oils, spirits, cheeses and even posh sauces. Mimi’s and Italo also can concoct a mean Italian lunch if you’re shopping feet get tired. Mimi’s also do custom made hampers. As you can see below, both joints are rammed with goodies.

Oval Farmer’s Market Ever thought about buying an edible Christmas gift from our own beloved country market? They stock many things that won’t perish under the tree such as chorizo, chocolates and wine. We’re also concerned that the Market is kind of dying and we need to prevent this. You have two Saturdays before Christmas! 

Beefeater Gin Distillery has a lovely but totally deserted gift shop offering unusual, limited run gins and gin accessories. You can also buy a gift voucher to tour the distillery (we can confirm it’s great fun). Perfect for your loved one who likes a nice holiday tipple or to get your annoying uncle Fred to nod off before the turkey is served. We understand Beefeater’s parent company Pernot Ricard is the opposite of independent, but it’s Christmas so don’t judge us.

Orbit Brewery is our own hidden away little gem of a brewery in Walworth. Online or in person you can buy a range of their lagers, cioders, ales, porters, and even socks. And the rumour is true, they sell tzatziki flavoured beer that we can only describe as, well, ‘adventurous’. 

Didi and Franc have gone full tilt in 2025 and are selling custom made hampers to fill with their gorgeous goods. But if, like us, you don’t fit their demographic, you can just buy one of their baskets and fill it with things from the corner shop. And while you’re there you can pick up a panettone at I due Amici next door. Panettone being of course the food that you never actually eat, but just regift at a Christmas party you’ve been invited to.

NON FOOD

The Book Elephant For those of you young enough to never buy anything in an actual shop, new kid the Book Elephant in Sayer Street can probably get a book in quicker than you can buy it online. Its also a fun place to get inspiration. Plus they also sell coffee and wine. Need we say more?

 Castle Square  When you think of Christmas shopping the first thing that springs to mind probably isn’t ‘ooh, lets go to the place behind Elephant Station where they keep the bins’. But if you venture there you’ll discover a clutch of independent shops that used to exist in the shopping centre. Great for your younger folk looking for baseball caps, hoodies, clothes, or undergarments to make your bum look either smaller or larger. While there pop over to the retro video game emporium 4 Quarters?

SoLo Craft Fair is a collective of online artists and creatives who run a bricks and mortar shop in Elephant Park. Sixty small businesses have their work shown on rotation and in 2025 they are again stocking affordable jewellery, handbags, baskets, cards, scarves, bath salts, prints and T-shirts. And as Elephant is now trendy in a non-ironic way they even sell Elephant and Castle merch.

Hound Hut  TRIGGER WARNING. If the dog in your life is vegan or interested in becoming vegan then this not the place for them. Known by us as the ‘Harrods of doggie treats’, here you can treat your pooch to doggie spag bol, camel wraps, cow hooves, snouts, and the deliciously sounding bladder twists. And they also have a lot of leads and things to throw at/to your pooch. And for those who obtained a pooch during lockdown but now find they have to be in an actual dog free office, there is doggy daycare.

Pretty Shiny Shop sits next to the Hound Hut and they swaggeringly claim to be Greater Kennington’s Christmas Shop (steady) and they stock a range or cards, houseware items, and Christmas tree goodies, and small pieces of jewellery. It’s like a giant Christmas explosion in that place. They have loads of fun, subversive Christmas cards.

Windmill Flowers stocks not just flowers but also collectables and houseware accessories and Mary is in charge to show you the way forward. Mary also has some Christmas trees and accessories for those who haven’t got their s*it together quite yet.  

Jumping Bean is another gift shop new to the 2025 Greater Kennington scene and a great place to inspect for gift inspiration. They have everything from Christmas baubles to clothes, toys, pencils, games, cards, more toys, hand cream, self heating patches, and cheesecake nail filing sets. Whew.

The Cafe @ Park College is a little known veggie lunch spot that we visited a few months ago. it resides inside Park College next to Kennington Park. The cafe is staffed by young people with additional needs such as autism, and they have an adorbs selection of homemade cards and other crafts on sale. And you only THINK you don’t need a handbag fashioned from Walkers Crisp bags. They’re also having a Winter Fair on Friday (the 12th) and we’re all invited.

Vanilla Black in addition to books also has some nice gift ideas such as cards and stockings and a few food items. We think VB secretly hate us but we’ve moved on with our lives and are plugging them anyway because this is the time for charity. Or something.

QueArts is a sterling little arts and crafts store across from Kennington Park and they also undertake framing. Great for your creative or just bored friends. 

Bee Urban is bee based charity in the middle of Kennington Park (behind the cafe) selling all sorts of honey and honey related things such as candles, fragrances, soaps and even cards. An interesting place to check out even if you don’t buy anything. And they sell Kennington honey!

Walworth Garden and Urban Botanica While perhaps not the easiest thing to wrap, have you ever considered the gift of houseplants? The charity and juggernaut of horticulture, Walworth Garden are selling cacti, cards and other things in their geodesic dome. While over in Kennington Cross, UB is one of the few places on earth where you can sip your Minor Figures chai latte while browsing Boston ferns.

Umber Works We’ve never seen an actual human being inside Umber Works in Kennington Park Road, but accordingly to their website they run a range of pottery workshops and offer gift vouchers. Of course, the downside of this is that you might be getting useless ceramic ashtrays for the next five years.

 

Italo Vauxhall

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Located in the subtropical oasis of Bonnington Square with a looming backdrop of Vauxhall skyscrapers, we recently paid a visit to Italo Vauxhall. We were joined by Karen from Finance, who helpfully informed us that we hadn’t been in five years. We suspect that she was actually fishing for a free meal, but voicing this would just make us look, well, cynical.

From the outset, Italo feels quirky and homespun, and has been going strong since 2008. The menu changes daily but to give you an essence, your scribe had a sandwich served on Focaccia and stuffed with roast chicken, lemon and dill yoghurt, spiced harissa cucumber, sumac and plenty of lettuce. The offering was so stuffed that pieces of it were falling on the table. The bread gave it a salty kick with the chicken (it appeared to be thigh), roasted to perfection. Stuffed and gorgeous.

Karen chose the plate of the day: braised haricots blancs with honey roasted shallots, parmesan, chives and sourdough toast.  She must have missed the memo directing guests to not spend more than the host, and in a moment of frenzy she added chorizo, putting £1.50 on the bill. What arrived was a generous portion of butter beans in a creamy sauce that leaned heavily on the parmesan and chives (no bad thing). Nestling in amongst were some banana shallots made sweeter with honey, alongside a few slices of that pricey chorizo. With two pieces of sourdough atop, it felt quite decadent. It’s a rich dish and Karen felt happily full after picking up her plate and drinking every last drop.

Inside the shop there’s a small range of high quality dried pastas, sauces, bottles and jars, olive oil, spirits, beans and suchlike. They also make some excellent Italian coffee. And it certainly speaks to quality ingredients being used in what they serve up and, on our lunchtime visit, this proved popular with locals. At this point you’re probably thinking ‘whats not to love’? Well dear reader, there is always something to not love and in this case it’s the price. The sandwich was £11 and the beans with aforementioned chorizo being £12. So not an every day lunch destination.

To slightly justify the price, the owners of Italo are part of a small gastronomic dynasty. Parent to one owner is the legendary food writer Arabella Boxer. The son of both is the brains behind our top ten© winning restaurant at Brunswick House in Vauxhall Cross, Henri in Covent Garden, and some ‘caff at Selfridges. And in the hours when he’s not scrubbing plates he manages to be a part time model, as you do. Here’s a story about him growing up in a foodie family. And no, Jackson, we do not want your life as we are content sitting in a cubicle digging food particles out of our keyboard with a paperclip.

If you’re new to the area or just don’t get out of the house much, Bonnington Square has a fascinating history that we wrote about a few years ago, and a fine place to stroll.

Christmas Fun in Bonnington Square

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Yes, dear readers, we are notifying you of two Christmassy happenings in a row. We only have the press release to go by, but we are all invited to ‘Christmas at Italo’, a celebration sponsored by Italo Vauxhall in Bonnington Square. For those not in the know, Italo is a locally owned, pint sized delight of a deli, sandwich and Italian food shop. On Wednesday it will be open until 20:00.

From Italo – 

‘On Wednesday 21st December, Winter Solstice, there is a big local party. Starting at 4pm with country dancing in St Annes Hall, on the corner of Vauxhall Grove and Harleyford Road, 2 minutes walk from the shop. Then there will be the usual solstice pagan carols outside the shop, officiated by our local pagan priest David Spofforth, from 6.30… with mulled wine. Then there is a ‘Bring Food (Vegan and Vegetarian only) and Drinks to share” community party in the Bonnington Centre. Then upstairs at the Bonnington Centre. And everyone is very welcome to come, and bring many family and friends…’

We’re acutely aware of the renegade tendency of Runoff readers, so we implore you to respect the solstice, pagan and vegetarian nature of this event. To put it bluntly,  don’t pitch up in a nun’s habit with a giant gravy double bucket from the new KFC in Vauxhall.   We will certainly plan to abide by this.