Kennington Park

I visited Kennington Park (and also the Imperial War Museum Park in SE1) on Saturday, and consequently was able to go and have a wander in the small parade of shops up there.

It looks as though the pub on the corner, which I think was formerly "The Tankard", is nearing the end of a comprehensive refurbishment. Definitely looks as though it will be worth trying when it's finished as it has a great upstairs outdoor terrace area.

There's not a great deal more of note around there... Another dry cleaner, another Fish and chip shop (making a total of 6 in SE11), except for a motorbike shop. It hadn't occured before, but I think SE11 is an area where possible motorbike enthusiasts gather, especially considering that there's another shop on Kennington Road that repairs motorbikes, and one of the Vauxhall arches is a huge supplier. I've seen people taking motorbike lessons on Saturday mornings near Vauxhall Street and around the back of the railway arches.

Anyhow, I managed to take some fabulous pictures in a brief visit to Kennington Park, which I've added both here and on the map:

Surestart Children's Centres and the last of the blasted dry cleaners.

I'm afraid I added some of the more interesting bits of SE11 before I started the blog, so now all I have to add are the dull sections!

The last dry cleaner (the one named Ascot in Dryden Court) is, apparently according to a random website (linked on the map), the dry cleaner for Buckingham Palace. Not sure whether or not to believe that. Also, Google has never heard of "Dryden Court", although it does know Renfrew Rd. That reminds me... I must see if I can write to the relevant Google bods to mention to them that a search for "SE11" should not reveal "Kennington, Surrey". I'm not sure that by even an extreme stretch of the imagination, SE11 could be counted as Surrey.

In addition, I've added three Children's Centres (formerly Surestart Centres). That, of course, prompted a Google search which revealed another five unknown nurseries. Argh! I expect tomorrow will cause me to search further and find even more! The really odd thing about Kennington is that it doesn't seem to be bulging with young children. I suppose it's just one of those sad facts of life that if one does not move in the sphere of people who have young children, one doesn't bump into them in London very much. It's even more tricky with nurseries to find out if they still exist - at least with shop fronts, one can walk past. With nuseries, I can hardly knock on the door of a private looking house and explain I need to know whether they contain children, for the purposes of drawing up a map! Also, like any of these things (it will no doubt be a problem with the non-establishment churches, and underground hippy movements), if they're not linked very well through Google, one has no idea if one is referencing the same thing on multiple occasions, or indeed, even referencing organisations that have ceased to exist.

Oh, and finally, I've launched an Adword campaign to attempt to boost comments and viewings of this blog. I've had 1 click from 34294249742472 page viewings (well, it's not quite that bad), so that hasn't worked so far!