I mentioned yesterday that I'd heard a rumour about a proposed new Tesco on Kennington Park Road. I was getting confused, and thinking that this referred to the store opposite to the tube at 62 Kennington Park Road. That's the current site of Payless Food & Wine, who appear to be thriving as a result of not quite living up their name. However, upon further investigation and a helpful tip from a reader, it seems that the shop that has closed/is closing is actually at 38-40 Kennington Park Road (Right Price Food & Wine). I've walked past the site, and it hardly strikes me as large enough for a Tesco, even a Metro-sized one, but perhaps it goes back further than I remember.
Even more intriguing is a pub related piece of news that I learned of only in the past few days. Apparently the adequate, large, but somewhat characterless Red Lion pub (42 Kennington Park Road) is to become The Old Grey Lion! It has been purchased by Antic-Ltd who have it listed on their site here. No more info. about that refurbishment at present, but you'll read it here first (hopefully)!
Confusingly, there is another pub, named The Mansion House (46-48 Kennington Park Road) to the South of the Red Lion/Old Grey Lion that has been closed and derelict for some time. I'd like to know what's happening with that, because in the current climate, I doubt the road can sustain two pubs next door to one another! And just because I like to highlight small and under-publicised services in SE11, you might also be interested to know that to the right of Priceright / proposed Tesco is a small gateway that leads through to an organisation named Shaka Services who work mainly with London's African, Carribean and Asian population to provide sexual health / AIDS / social care, housing and immigration services. As far as I know, they're still operative, but I can't find any recent information confirming their status. 38-40 Kennington Park Road is also listed as a needle-exchange. I hope the rumoured Tesco proposal won't jeopardise such vital services.
Posts
1 comment:
The Mansion House has for some years been rumoured to have been taken over by Northants brewer Oakham. They announced plans for the pub (to be named OAKA) in 2006 - indeed, they even gave out discount vouchers for a cheap pint at the place during the Great British Beer Fest.
Since then - nuffink. A shame, since Kennington doesn't have any pubs for decent beer, and a destination pub would birng some extra footfall into the area (although along KPR, there isn't much else to visit)
Post a Comment