A celebration of Kennington pubs

Do you remember a halcyon time when we could go to a place and have a drink with people we didn’t live with? Well those days will be upon us again in some kind of fashion on 4 July. Some of these pubs are gone forever, some others rebuilt, and few looking amazingly familiar. We could stare at the pictures all day, and enjoy….

The Victorian Elephant and Castle pub in Vauxhall, 1970. Same building, but now ‘Starbucks’.
The King’s Arms pub, Chester Way and Kennington Lane, 1880. Destroyed in WW2, rebuilt 1946.
The Horns Tavern, Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road., 1910. A local institution damaged in WW2 and never really recovered. That and a dislike of Victorian architecture meant its demise in 1965. Now JobCentre Plus and Nisa Foods.
The Roebuck pub, 1972. Still very much there and known as The Dog House.
The Cricketers pub in the Oval standing proudly on game day, 1957. Closed for aeons, but the building is still there.

The Tankard pub, Kennington Road, 1880. Altered through time, but looking amazingly familiar.
The Vauxhall Tavern, 1950. The RVT had shops on either side of it and a thriving community behind until cleared for Spring Gardens in the late 1960’s.
The Prince of Wales, Cleaver Square, 1973. The only thing different is the cars (and the house prices).

wonderful old photos of Kennington pubs

from the soon-to-be relaunched Lambeth Archives website

The Roebuck, 1972, now The Dog House

The Roebuck, 1972, now The Dog House

The King's Arms, 1972

The King’s Arms, 1972

The White Hart, 1972, now the Tommyfield

The White Hart, 1972, now the Tommyfield

The Cricketers, Kennington Park Road, 1945

The Cricketers, Kennington Park Road, 1945

the derelict Lamb & Hare public house, 41 Kennington Lane, 1950

the derelict Lamb & Hare public house, 41 Kennington Lane, 1950

The Black Prince, 1974

The Black Prince, 1974

The Tankard, 1880

The Tankard, 1880

The Horns Tavern, which stood on the corner of Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road until 1965

The Horns Tavern, which stood on the corner of Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road until 1965

The Tankard

This pub used to be the Grand Union, and before that it was Bar Room Bar, but is now under new ownership – The Draft House – and has reverted to its original 1825 name of The Tankard – bravo.

The Tankard exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

It was always a great site – at the junction of Brook Drive and Kennington Road, the other side of Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park from The Three Stags, which is invariably busy. Bar Room Bar’s stock-in-trade was opening late night on weekends (rather unusual up this end of Kennington), and the later it got, the dodgier the crowd got. But its greatest asset has always been its terrace, once used as a viewing platform for the curious to observe patients in the grounds of the original “Bedlam” next door, now the Imperial War Museum. And, in common with every other old pub in Kennington, Charlie Chaplin and his dad used to hang out there.

So what have Draft House done with it? Well, for one they’ve built roofing on the terrace – great for a summer’s day, even if rain is threatened:

The Tankard roof terrace - kenningtonrunoff.com

Downstairs the layout is the same but there’s lots of pale wood and bright red paint:

The Tankard main room - kenningtonrunoff.com

They have a big selection of craft beer in bottles and on tap, the latter of which can be bought in paddles (a little flat when we tried their three bitters – teething troubles no doubt – they’d only just opened after a super quick refurb):

Beer paddle at The Tankard - kenningtonrunoff.com

And for the teetotallers they do Brewdog’s Nanny State:

Brewdog Nanny State at The Tankard - kenningtonrunoff.com

We’d described the food as “comfort gastro”, heavy on grease, salt and beige colouring. This was beer battered cod and chips (you can see the salt):

Beer battered cod, fat chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce at The Tankard - kenningtonrunoff.com

This was buffalo cauliflower (go easy on the Frank’s hot sauce):

Buffalo cauliflower and Frank's Hot Sauce at The Tankard - kenningtonrunoff.com

Chicken schnitzel – no complaints here:

Chicken schnitzel, buttered new potatoes and rocket salad at The Tankard - kenningtonrunoff.com

They do a good veggie burger with smoked cheddar:

Veggie burger, smoked cheddar and fries at The Tankard - kenningtonrunoff.com

We’d like to see them add a few more green items to their menu, but they do do veggie scotch eggs, moist on the inside:

Veggie scotch eggs at The Tankard - kenningtonrunoff.com

As you can see from the above, the pub was packed and noisy when we were there, so we’re optimistic that The Tankard and The Draft House will be in Kennington for a long time to come.