Mansion House Pub seeks seven day opening until 4am

You'll all be pleased to hear that a new pub is to open in Kennington (or, perhaps I should more accurately say, Newington, but more on that later) just next door to the Old Red Lion.   Mansion House Pub (46 - 48 Kennington Park Road) is to re-open (allegedly some time in May, although they'll need to get a move-on if the scaffolding is anything to go by).  Theoretically, it's good news.  The pub plans to specialise in Real Ale and "pan-Asian cuisine" (I confess I'm a tad sceptical about the cuisine... would you ever visit Toulouse Lautrec if they said they offered pan-European food?  Possibly not.)  But a new pub/restaurant beats an empty building, and new jobs are good for the area so you might tell me to quit whinging.  You all miss my whinging, right?

I predicted some time ago when the Old Red Lion were opening that two pubs would be unfeasible on account of the fact that the Public House business has become mired in regulation (smoking ban) and taxation (on just about bogging everything), and a lot of people (judging by the top deck of my bus) prefer to drink straight from a can of Tesco's lager...  Also, Kennington is stuffed full of pubs at present, and it's hardly THAT far to walk between the Old Red Lion and the White Bear Theatre Pub, is it?  Sid Boggle (a reader here at Lurking) has heard heard that the pub might be named Oaka, presumably because the company that owns it is named Oakham Ales.  How original.  Let's hope they change their mind... 

The local SE11 public might rather hope they'll change their mind about something else too.  That is, the opening hours.  If you go and take a look at the hoarding outside, and you happen to be 8 feet tall (I am not joking), you will see that the Oaka or Mansion House or whatever it's called is applying for licencing hours from 7am to 4am.  What, just on Saturday nights?  Umm, nope.  That would be EVERY NIGHT.  If you don't believe me, you can go and read the Licencing Application on the Lambeth website.  And if that wasn't enough (because, arguably, people that drink until 4am are known for their quiet comportment), they've applied for live music licence from 10am until 3am!  Oh dear.  Clearly somebody didn't do their research.  Remember the hubub when the White Hart/Tommyfield threatened to try and open until 1am.  The Cleaver Square residents got their way, I believe.  Gosh, it would be great if a modern, suave, inner-city, urban-priest would show up at this point to protect our poor "run down" Kennington and save the day...  I wonder whether there might be the odd loose canon in the area who could lend a hand?

Fortunately, some rather tall soul has noticed this attempt to ruin our quiet residential area (ignoring the double red-route main road that never sleeps) and has scrawled in GREAT BIG letters on the hoarding "4am", so I spotted it as I strolled around the area.  Surely it's illegal to place a licencing notice so high up that nobody can actually read it?  Already a concerned reader and local resident emailed me to ask for support.  So, here is some support:

46 Kennington Park Road is in Princes Ward.  Cllr Stephen Morgan (our resident enthusiastic emailer), Cllr Mark Harrison and Cllr Lorna Campbell will no doubt only be too pleased to hear from you.  They have actually posted the news on their own blog, but judging from lack of comments, nobody is reading!  Just click on their names, and you can send them an email!  Why not email them all for good measure?  There's more information about Making A Representation re. licencing here.

I'm rather late off the mark, so you'll need to send in a response by 27th April 2012.  Be quick, and can somebody tell the Kennington Association et al?

Beyond Kennington: A roundup of rioting

A quick roundup for posterity.... This morning, I along with hosts of other Londoners, are rubbing bleary eyes and wondering how to make sense of it all. Kennington was mostly clear of violence, but due to the difficulty of accurately naming places in London, you'd not have believed it from reading Twitter.

A cleanup of Walworth Road is being organised (is underway), although one report suggests there's not as much to do as was previously imagined.  If you're nearer somewhere else and you have some free time, you can take a look at your nearest cleanup from the cleanup map here.

I was first aware of trouble last night when I was driving through the Walworth area at approximately 18:55.  As I pulled out of Manor Place and into Browning Street, I saw hordes of people running north up Walworth Road towards Elephant and then more scared people running up Browning Street.  I turned the car around further up the steet as I was trying to get down Walworth Road, only to see the flimsy orange police barrier knocked to the ground, and a number of police on Walworth Road milling around.  I decided not to stay around and gawk so I have no photos, and I headed back to SE11.

I spent much of last night on Twitter, trying to establish where/if we had any trouble spots.  The problem with Twitter is that completely untrue rumours spread very quickly, so much time was spent reassuring people that there were no real problems in Kennington.  On the whole, that's correct, although there's an area to the east of Kennington tube station slightly south of Walworth Road which some people call Kennington.  I've no idea what it's called, but some trouble over there gave the impression that we were over-run with rioters, when that was not the case.

After I returned home, the first Tweet I saw at 19:13 was:

At 19:32, @meccleshall Tweeted from Tesco on Kennington Lane to say that it was closing early and that shoppers had been asked to pay and leave.  At 19:33, @Nooskibooski noted that they'd seen two masked teenagers loading a TV into a black BMW in Kennington, but I was unable to discover which road. 

At 19:47, we saw a worrying Tweet about youths with ammunition in Kennington, but you'll note they were headed to Walworth Road, so can only assume that this was east of Kennington tube station.  Nobody else corroborated:

At 19:49, somebody Tweeted to say that Argos in Kennington was being looted.  I informed them that there was no Argos in Kennington, but from that we assumed that the Argos in Walworth Road was being raided.  Of course, that and other Tweets just sparked off more tweets about trouble in Kennington which various people disputed.  Kennington Park Road (A3) was said to be running smoothly with no traffic or queues.

At 20:06, we learned that "they" were now in Kennington, but since I couldn't get information on any given road, it was unclear to discern precisely where.  However, some Tweets at 20:07 and 20:10 re. Kennington tube station cleared up any misunderstanding.  I can only presume that trouble briefly escaped into Kennington Park Road because these were the only tweets about any issues escaping from Southwark over the Lambeth border (in Kennington) all night.  I retweeted to say that the tube station was closed:

But at 20:18, @Slicktony3000 (who was very helpful with information last night) reassured everybody that the only people he could see on Kennington Park Road were joggers!  So you can see that it was very difficult to determine whether any trouble was occurring at all (in the meantime, lots of panicky Tweets were all saying that trouble had reached Kennington).

At 20:31, after my request that people specify road names when they claimed problems in Kenington, @acediscovery said it was quiet in Alberta Street (just north of Kennington tube).  But at exactly the same time, @MsWildThyme tweeted to say that 8 riot vans and black armoured vehicles had been seen headed down Penton Place.  Other than that, it was quiet around the Pullens Estate.

I believe that's probably what generated these somewhat bizarre videos of riot vans on Walworth Road.  What on earth were they doing??

Another video was available here with some very scary screaming.  The video looked as though it had been taken from within the riot, with a voice asking the officers to "please calm down".  Unsurprisingly, it has now been removed. 

I kept Tweeting that we were experiencing no issues in Kennington, and that problems were acknowledged in Walworth Road when I caught a Tweet saying a stabbing had been reported on Kennington Park Road.  This turned out to be untrue and unfounded.  At 20:39, @msraddi said that riot police were running down Manor Place.  More messages were received to say that Kennington Cross, Kennington Road and Kennington Lane were fine (as they were all night).

At 21:11, @gilboise tweeted to say that Kennington tube was open, but at 21:13, @igster noted "kids in hoodies" screaming past Kennington tube.  At 21:34, @TheRealJimShady said that he'd driven from Clapham South to Kennington and noted no problems.  Was just breathing a sigh of relief, and wondering if there was time to take a break for dinner when alarming reports of a shooting appeared at 21:41:

Established that an exchange of gunfire was taking place somewhere on the Alberta Estate.  Various Tweets were flying around which generally corroborated problems in the area.  At 22:18, @Deskibel said a friend had heard gunshots on or around Alberta Street.

At 22:26, the Guardian issued more detailed reports about what had happened on Walworth Road.

At 22:54, Cllr Mark Harrison (@SE11) Tweeted that we should strongly support our emergency services at times like this.  I agreed, and re-tweeted. @Uber0ut noted that pedestrians were back on Walworth Road.  From there on in, we started to hear reports that Walworth Road had been entirely trashed.  Tweets came in suggesting that both Stockwell and Camberwell had escaped any trouble bar an attempted-car jack on Coldharbour Lane.  (Although this may nto be true because there appears to be a cleanup taking place in Camberwell this morning).  At 23:27, @JustinPDJ reported large numbers of police headed from Kennington towards Clapham (the rest we know about from the TV).  For the rest of the night, Kennington (which houses large numbers of police buildings and vehicles) was sirens as usual.

At 00:14, BT issued a Tweet only to call 999 in an absolute emergency due to immense pressure on the number.  We learned that a few riot police were guarding the remains of the looted shops in Walworth Road. 

Finally, I received alarming reports at about 01:02 from @SW8guy and @CarolineFW that there was a fire at Southbank club on Wandsworth Road.  There was a lot of smoke, but no flames visible.  The Fire Brigade were able to bring it under control. 

Robbery on Kennington Park Road on 27th February - appeal for witnesses

Lambeth Police are appealing for witnesses to a robbery that occurred last Sunday (27 February) at 1am on Kennington Park Road. 

A white man in his thirties (6'2" in height, bald head, large build, wearing a navy blue top) attacked a couple who were on their way home from a glam rock fancy dress party.  The female member of the couple was knocked to the ground, and her male partner fought off the attacker who fled the area.

At that point, the couple were confronted by four black men (in their twenties) who demanded a mobile phone.  The male victim defended himself again and fought with one of the men who he managed to chase away.  At the same time, another one of the attackers took the bag of the female victim which had fallen to the floor in the earlier attack.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call DC Michael Quinlan of Lambeth Borough police who is investigating this case on 020 8649 2478. Alternatively you can report information anonymously to Crime stoppers on 0800 555 111. 

The police appeal can be found here.

Another accident on Kennington Park Road and accident on Camberwell New Road. Traffic chaos.

There was another accident this evening on Kennington Park Road (just opposite Kennington tube station) at about 19:40, involving three cars, a Volvo, a Renault and another unidentified car.  The driver of the Volvo had to be cut out of the car, and the roof was removed (similar to the accident last week on 30th September).  There were no fatalities, but the accident in SE11 was serious.

Another accident also occurred at some time this evening (approx.18:00) on Camberwell New Road near to Taximedia and the southern entrance of Kennington Business Centre between a motorcyclist and a small car.  A neighbour reported that the motorcyclist flew across a car and on to the pavement.  Unfortunately, the motorcyclist was killed and the fatality has been confirmed by police.  A witness photographed the police's arrival.

Due to the above accidents and another unconfirmed accident in Peckham (possibly this was the one on Albany Road / Urlwin Street), and the earlier accidents in Elephant and Castle (at least one motorcyclist fatality on New Kent Road), buses were diverted and traffic chaos began at 16:00 (estimated time of New Kent Road accident) and is still ongoing late this evening.  There was also a person under a train at Charing Cross, which closed off the Bakerloo line during rush hour, and a gas leak on Kennington Park Road near to Magee Street.  The traffic chaos that ensued caused much of South London to come to a halt.

If you have further information about any of the accidents, please feel free to comment.

The standard of driving in South London is atrocious, but four accidents

Accident on Kennington Park Road near Kennington Park Place

An accident occurred at approximately 6:30am this morning causing commuter chaos in Kennington.  The accident occurred on Kennington Park Road (the A3) at the junction between Ravensdon Street and Kennington Park Place and appears to have been between two cars (a mini-style vehicle and a range-rover style vehicle).  The collision looks to have been head-on and one witness reports seeing ten men removing the roof of the smaller vehicle to rescue one man from the wreckage.  The injured man was reportedly not unconscious at the time of rescue, so we're hoping there have been no fatalities.  The smaller car looked to have been entirely decimated, and large amounts of plastic/metal debris are strewn across the road and pavement.

Large sections of Kennington Park Road were closed off (between Braganza Street and Kennington Road), causing the surrounding roads to be flooded with traffic.  The police expected the road to be closed for a couple of hours whilst the aftermath of the accident was cleared, and I noted about 15 police personnel at the scene. 

Quite a few people seem to have googled the incident this morning looking for more details, as is always the case when there's a road accident.  If you have more details eg. you witnessed the accident, or you know the outcome of any of the people involved in the accident, and wish to confirm their condition, feel free to leave a comment.

New Pier at St George Wharf Vauxhall and new shops in Kennington Road / Kennington Park Road

(Image taken from Lambeth Planning database and Copyright 2010 Beckett Rankine on behalf of St George).

Heads up to Vauxhall Society for mentioning a new pier at St George Wharf, Vauxhall.  Due to the vagaries of the Lambeth Council planning system, I don't get an auto alert for every new development / shrub pruning etc. taking place in SE11.  It's particularly difficult when this Lambeth patch is split into Princes, Oval and Bishops wards, and sometimes developments of local interest to residents are proposed for the Albert Embankment or down even as far as Vassall ward.  Parts of SE11 are even under the remit of Southwark Council, so tracking it all is tricky.  Consequently, I missed (and I'm sorry I did so) the planning application for a taxi pier at St George Wharf.  It's presumably another transport method to serve the new tower, but it should provide a fantastic service for local residents too.  It turns Vauxhall into a mega 5 pronged transport hub (train station, tube station, bus station, Boris Bike station and river service station).  I'm a huge supporter of the idea, and would have promoted it thoroughly here had I happened to notice it earlier (the consultation is now over).  Anyhow, take a look at the application on the Lambeth Planning database here here - 10/02300/FUL.

As you may remember from my "whatever happened to Vauxhall pier?"  post several months ago, I could never understand why this wasn't built when the main section of St George Wharf was constructed, but I'm delighted to see it might arrive (depending on outcome of Lambeth Planning Committee).  It appears that would be partly located on St George Wharf land, but only the edge.  The rest of it floats in the Thames:

In other news, a new Londis shop (if the banner is anything to go by) is to be opened at 228 Kennington Park Road and somebody has applied (10/02931/ADV) to put an illuminated sign outside of 220 Kennington Park Road (which has been a very sad and sorry looking empty laundrette for some time).  I need to check I've got this in the correct order as I'm not 100% sure that the Londis sign isn't in 220 Kennington Park Road.  Can anybody confirm? 

236 Kennington Park Road (the old Corine's Cafe) was meant to be turning into a chiropractic practice, but I've not seen any sign of it yet.

I noticed a man (on Sunday) busy refurbishing what was formerly Supreme Motorbikes at 113 Kennington Road next to the Grand Union bar.  I received an email from a reader to say that the unit will be taken over by Chas Bikes, a firm that is currently based at Great Suffolk Street in SE1 and which has been providing service there for 20 years.  If the testimonies on his website are anything to go by, he'll be a fantastic asset to the area for local bikers.

And finally, as one Tweeter noticed, the Kennington Road tattoo parlour (Tattoo end) has opened (after a ridiculous debarcle, involving somebody objecting and pretending to be Gary Phillips, the Lilian Baylis head teacher, reported by the SLP).   The tattoo parlour should fit in just nicely with the estate agents, but be careful not to go to the wrong place after visiting a local pub.  It might be difficult to get the "For sale" tattoo removed in a falling London housing market :-)

Brand new Tesco due to arrive at 38 - 40 Kennington Park Road

Further to my speculative posts, here and here, I can definitely announce the arrival of a brand new Tesco at 38-40 Kennington Park Road.  Tesco have taken a 15 year lease on the building from 19th April 2010 so I imagine that they'll open it as soon as the refurbishment is finished.  Tesco do not own the freehold.  I'm afraid I don't know whether Shakra services will remain (maybe someone else has more info.), but I suspect not.  Considering that we're now nearly 5 months into a relatively short lease, I imagine Tesco will be trying to open it ASAP.  Oddly, (but this is probably what attracted Tesco), it looks as though the land also has a right of way (including vehicles) over Opal Street.  That means (I suspect) that delivery to the building will take place at the back (which may well disturb residents of Opal Street) and it's close to a children's ball court.  What I'm not clear is whether the Opal Street residents will be able to enter the supermarket from their street or whether they'll just face the inconvenience of extra traffic without being able to gain easy access.

If Tesco manaage to open the proposed 216 Kennington Road branch, that will make 3 Tescos in SE11, which must be something of a monopoly, considering that we're a tiny postcode.  Still, Tesco is one of those shops that everybody likes to complain about and then inevitably ends up purchasing from.  It should benefit local residents at the north end of the road, and there's a dearth of shops in SE17 near Penrose Street, so I'm sure they'll receive plenty of custom.  Perhaps it will increase business at the Old Red Lion too, and I'm hopeful that Mansion House pub might be either re-opened or used by another business.

There's a huge amount of local news and goings on at the moment.  Expect further updates soon.

Update (1/10/2010) - as well as the signage application (see comments below), there's now an application (10/03220/FUL) for installation of air conditioning and fridges etc. so it's moving forward slowly.

Red Lion pub to become Old Grey Lion and more on new Tesco

It seems as though there are some rather slow changes afoot on the northern section of Kennington Park Road. Perhaps this is spurred by the road's proximity to the long-awaited Elephant and Castle social-engineering project regeneration.

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.

Hazel Blears in Imperial Court wheeze - *yawn*

User Kennington on Twitter posted a link from the Daily Fail to suggest that Hazel Blears is in trouble for not paying tax on a flat that she sold in Imperial Court. I'm bored by the whole MPs expenses row now so I'm not going to say any more except that I think that MPs' wages should stay in line with those of their Civil Service counterparts. There are some MPs who work jolly hard for their constituents, and who can be admired by all irrespective of their political party eg. the totally fabulous, very hard working and thoroughly independent Kate Hoey! Anyhow, raising MP salaries would allow the property allowances system to be tightened up so that the rules could not be bent in such a ridiculous fashion.

If you came here looking for information about Hazel Blears' Imperial Court property, you might be interested in a post I wrote about Alisdair Darling's Imperial Court flat and the reason that I don't think the flats are what I'd describe as "luxury" by any means...

The point of real interest in the Daily Fail article is the part that states "a source close to [Blears]insisted the sale was not to do with making money, but because the flat stood on a busy road and the ‘sirens at night were keeping her awake’." I'm not concerned with whether or not the sirens were the reason for the property sale. In any case, Blears is rather fortunate to be privileged enough just to "move" due to the property being too noisy. The frequency and noise levels of emergency sirens (mostly police, but some ambulances) on Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road is frequently noted by residents. Obviously living in the middle of a busy capital city, one should expect some noise, but because of where Kennington is situated between Kennington Road, Brixton and Walworth police stations, we do get more than our fair share of siren noise. Is it really necessary to have sirens on late at night when the roads tend to be empty? I'd encourage more MPs to actually work to resolve the noise issue as far as possible (particularly at night) than move house.

Does anybody else find the noise disturbing in SE11? I imagine that residents who live in SE1 near to the SE11 border on Albert Embankment must suffer from ambulance noise as well.

Apologies, I'm a bit over-active at the moment with so much SE11 news, so anybody that has signed up to the email list will receive a rather large bumper crop of posts today!

Braganza Street / Kennington Park Road

There are currently 5 police cars and a police van with assorted police presence around Kennington tube station. The station is still open and the area into Braganza St from Kennington Park Road is cordoned off. The police will only report that there's been a road traffic accident, but it must have been a serious accident for such a heavy police presence.

The cafe formerly known as Dippy Egg, formerly known as Jado, Kennington

The cafe formerly known as The Dippy Egg, formerly known as Jado in Kennington Road near Kennington Cross appears to have been leased. It is, at least, being refurbished and the counter/internal furnishings have all been removed. I saw workmen in there on Saturday as I peered through the gaps in the whitewashed window. I don't know what it's going to be!

Also, the launderette at 220 Kennington Park Road next to the funeral director on the corner has been gutted (all the washing machines have gone). I'm not sure whether it will come back, but it must be something of a blow for people without washing machines. There were quite often people in there.

Finally, I've had a spate of Googlings looking for an SE11 sex shop. I couldn't think what they might be referring to, until it occurred to me that they might be referring to the new place(Master U) on Kennington Lane. It technically sells leather bondage gear rather than being a sex shop (I'm sure you all wanted to know that), and I'm kind of assuming that it caters for local clientele :)

Peluqueria, Kennington Park Road and the credit crunch

I've made a few changes and additions to the map. It seems somewhat peculiar, but despite travelling past certain locations daily, I can't remember what's where.



One piece of interesting news is that Peluqueria, the small Spanish-speaking ex-hairdressers, ex-video shop, ex-internet cafe (see above) is to become something else. It's currently undergoing refurbishment in order to become.... possibly, a cafe. I popped in a day or so to check it wasn't disappearing completely, but they were reticent to say much except for "cafe". It sounds promising.

One piece of sad news is that I have heard that H Morrell & Sons (the attractive shop near to Kennington Library on Kennington Lane) will be closing down. As a building supplies firm, I imagine that they've been driven to the edge by the credit crunch. They now have "closing down" notices plastered over the shop.

I will have to walk up Kennington Park Road to check whether I've got some of the other locations on the map quite right. I've added Dominos Pizza Takeaway. I've also marked on the map properly that Mansion House pub seems to have been closed down. (I'm not clear whether the building will form part of the new flats planned for that area of Newington Butts).

Kennington Park Road accident

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A friend told me yesterday that there had been a serious traffic accident at Kennington Park Road, near to Kennington Park Place at around 13.30 yesterday. Details are sketchy, but it might have involved a motorbike. It definitely involved the air ambulance. Does anybody know anything? Was the injured person (people) ok? What happened?

One of the odd things about local news blogging is the realisation that there's a lot that happens at a sub-regional level that doesn't even hit the radar of the newspapers or blogs. Obviously, every minor road skirmish doesn't make interesting news, but I wonder how the right balance is struck. Perhaps we're all so busy watching the banks crash and burn that we're not noticing what's happening under our noses in our local area. Anyhow, I only found out because it popped up in my Google search results as something that somebody had searched Google for yesterday, which prompted me to ask some questions. But how many other newsworthy items do we fail to hear about?

My personal quest to make SE11 a bit greener

Following on from a recent article in the East London advertiser that suggested that Vauxhall Cross and Brixton Road are within the top 10 most air-polluted roads in London, perhaps it's time that car drivers other than trades related people or minicab drivers start to reduce their car use. Some of Vauxhall Cross is included in the SE11 area, and I was surprised that one neither Kennington Road, Kennington Lane nor Kennington Park Road were included in the top 10 list, especially considering their proximity to Brixton Road and Vauxhall Cross.

Current petrol prices might encourage the trend to abandon cars in favour of other methods of transport. (C'mon, the Cross River Tram would be a real asset...) I imagine a move from petrol to LPG powered vehicles might help the cause... But best of all, it would be really exciting if London could become more cycle friendly. I was reading an article in the Independent by James Daley who has changed his cycling route from being based around the quiet back streets of Stockwell to a new busy route along the Thames Embankment. Having seen Clapham Road/Kennington Park Road also become a route for cyclist anarchy, I'm not surprised that he notes

"much of my route seems to turn into a cycle racetrack"

I try and cycle responsibly (not going through red traffic lights, sporting bike lights at night etc.) but I hope the trend towards cycling will lead to some form of stiffer penalty for cyclists that break the rules in a dangerous manner. As a driver, cyclist and pedestrian, it's fairly clear to me that cyclists are the worst transgressors of the highway code (especially couriers). On the other hand, there's nothing more frustrating than facing red light after red light when on a bike, because the traffic lights are phased for motorists. Obviously, I'm not suggesting changing all of the lights in favour of cyclists, but some innovative thinking re. roads that could be "cycle only" or more cycle paths (preferably not on pavements) might mean that cyclists could ride around more safely.

Once the move has taken place, I hope to get the trusty old bike out again (am a bit worried about the level of bike theft, so a folding bike might be a better option), and cycle to work where possible. That will probably turn Lurking about SE11 into a list of traffic violation grievances, but hopefully it will also help SE11 go green!

Natasha Panas puts Kennington on (or possibly off) the map!

Thank you to the commentator of the last post who pointed out that a pop singer; Natasha Panas, has just released a single named after our lovely SE11 locale "Kennington".

I did download to Itunes for a quick listen, but found that I could have listened and watched the video for free by following this link from Music Remedy. It must be noted however, that the Itunes file was of a much better quality...

That being said, I'm not quite sure what the single is about. It lacks depth and profundity. Natasha appears either to be entreating that her audience emerge from the tube station and meet her somewhere down Brangaza Street, Kennington Park Place, or indeed, possibly at 41 Kennington Park Road. I was hoping it might sound a little like "I left my heart in San Francisco" or even "24 hours from Tulsa" or possibly "Baker Street" in terms of celebrating places, but I'm afraid that it only mentions Kennington once at the beginning of the song. It then mostly repeats itself about having been much too long since she last saw somebody.

Maybe I wasn't thrilled because pop is not quite my genre, and my inate "I was born 40 years old feeling" means that I can't appreciate new music, but I think not... In lyrics, it lacks imagination, and the tune is rather bland. But, what can I say? It does, after all, mention Kennington.

[Please do feel free to comment if I've been desperately unfair! This blog welcomes disagreement.]