Kennington Road receiving a make-over: Persian Restaurant, Papa Johns and new bike shop

So, it has been a while since I did any proper lurking.  In my absence, I note that the old Amici has turned into a rather trendy looking "Doost", a Persian Grill and Vodka(!) Bar...  And since you all asked so nicely, I've uploaded the entire menu so that you too can share the Persian goodness...

I'm afraid it doesn't quite compete, but Pizza lovers will be pleased to hear that as well as the already existing Pizza Hut Take away, Pizza Express Restaurant, Lambeth Pizza Restaurant and Dominos Takeaway, we can now add... a Papa Johns takeaway to Kennington Road, next to South London Pacific Tiki Lounge, complete with its own row of cheesy and irritating scooters.  We won't complain though, as it's great to finally have something in the gap.  It has been sitting empty for well over a year...

A few doors further up, on the other side of South Pacific, the most exciting piece of news is the opening of a new bike shop, Balfes Bikes, not another motorbike shop (of which we seem to have in abundance locally), but a real bonafide cycling shop.  Granted, I didn't see it open, and there are no signs or anything up yet, but Kennington People On Bikes has a shiny article and photo of the owners over at his blog.  I'm delighted about its arrival, being an enthusiastic amateur cyclist (the lurker owns no lycra), and I think it's in a great location, given the number of people who now cycle along both Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road.  You can find them at 338 Kennington Road.  Hurrah!

Finally, the ancient Estate Agent, Burns and Shield, that never appeared to do any business appears to have re-opened or re-imagined itself as Capital Kennington, and has received a bright blue faschia upgrade.  Can't get excited about estate agents, but who cares when we have our very own new bike shop?!

It's really good to see an influx of new businesses.  I'm still hoping the burned out sandwich shop opposite Pizza Express becomes something interesting, and if anybody is looking for a large retail outfit, the huge old St Aubyn's holistic centre unit on is Cleaver Street still empty.  Might suit another restaurant... Who knows?

Police tape around Walnut Tree Walk and Ethelred Estate

As I travelled into Kennington this evening, I noticed police tape surrounding much of Kennington Road, south of the Imperial War Museum with a policeman guarding the area.  A number of residents were denied entry to their properties in the location.  I received an email from a reader (thank you) stating that late this afternoon two muggings took place in Kennington.  (This is an unconfirmed report, and I've not yet managed to corroborate it).

The first mugging occurred in the lift between Scotson  House and Vantry House on the Ethelred Estate.  The victim was male.  The culprits were two young men who were seen wearing hoodies and face masks.  Shortly afterwards, another person was allegedly mugged on Walnut Tree Walk, although since (as of 11pm this evening), police are still at the scene, there is a possibility that the incident was more serious.

If you have any further information, please contact Kennington Police Station on 0300 123 1212.

Business closures, business openings and a potential fire

This post is a brief update with lots of bits and pieces that people send me, and questions asked.  None of it quite warrants a post of its own.

Business Closures
* St Aubyn's Holistic centre on Cleaver Street closed down (or appears to have done) in late December.

*  The antique dealer on Windmill Row (opposite Thai Ming) has sold, but construction appears to be taking place there, so that might yield something interesting.

* Finishing Touch on Kennington Lane (apparently, Kennington's longest serving hairdresser) closed on 3rd January and the building is up for sale.  (It's just on the corner of White Hart Street).

Business Openings
* The burned out old sandwich shop at 345 Kennington Road next to the Pizza Hut takeaway has a planning application on it.  According to a an email sent to me by a reader (thank you), it's been burned out for 20 years so it's about time something happened.  Unfortunately, it doesn't appear from the application 10/04211/FUL that any retail space is planned, and the proposal is for a some type of 4 room bedsit.  However, it's probably far better used for accommodation than left in its burnt out state.  It's still in the planning process so has yet to be agreed.

* A new bar has opened in Vauxhall, JD's place, at 353A Kennington Lane.  The interior is minimalist and quite funky with sprayed murals of Tower Bridge on one side and St Paul's and the city on the other.  Lunch is served from 12pm to 6pm (baguettes from £2.50) and dinner from 6pm to 10pm (burgers from £5.49), but when I popped in on Friday night, the music was so loud that I felt it was more a place to drink than a place to eat.  For pre-clubbing drinks and snacks, I can see it might be popular..

* Tesco on Kennington Park Road (around the corner from Toulouse Lautrec) opened in late December.  The site goes much further than I expected, and it's not a bad size for a small store.  I spoke to the folk next door in the fantastic Old Red Lion pub who think that business has improved as a result of the new store opening (which is one good thing) and I have to admit that I prefer Tesco to the previous store that was on the site.  Tesco need somebody to manage their community notice board, so go and feel free to speak to the manager if you want to do that.  Another plus point is that they've stuck a free cash point on the front of the store, and it's not easy to get cash around those parts.

* A new Londis has opened on Kennington Park Road opposite Kennington Park.

Refurbishments
* The laundrette next to the funeral parlour on the corner of Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road is being refurbished and turned into something (not clear what yet).  That's quite positive as that row of shops looked quite drab.

* One reader tells me that the Old Amici's is alive with construction (I think this is the one on Kennington Road).  Anybody any further news?

Fire?
* One reader wonders whether anybody heard or saw anything reported in relation to Costa Coffee, as apparently, the smell of burned coffee could be detected in the area and smoke was viewed from Lambeth Walk.  (It might just be normal operation.  Who knows?)

Recladding
* The Ethelred Estate tower blocks have been reclad, and are now no longer a dingy brown colour.  They look very very good, and one of them had its scaffolding removed, only to be re-scaffolded to be cleaned when dirty streaks were revealed!  The towers are still mostly covered as we speak, but when they're finished, they're going to be impressive again.

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 :-)

Boris bikes / Ken bikes continued... or Why can't London always be this way?

So, I decided to continue my Boris bike (Ken bike) exploration today.  Somebody really needs to invent a better name for these bikes, since nobody wants to call them Barclays Cycle Hire bikes on account of our dislike of corporate sponsorship (and big banks).  To be fair, it's also rather a mouthful.  But it seems disingenuous to call them Boris bikes when they were Ken's idea.  Barc Bikes is nicely alliterative, but alludes back to Barclays again.  Anybody any better ideas?

Anyhow, I wanted to go and discover whether the Lollard Street dock and the Kennington Lane Rail Bridge dock really existed, and if they worked.  I began at my local, Kennington Road Post Office, hopped on a bike, glanced behind me and set off.  I share the view of another commentator who remarked that the gears are set too low.  My legs were spinning around, Tom and Jerry-like, and I wasn't going very far!  They're also designed only to be ridden for short distances on account of having saddles that tip you forward slightly.  I've discovered that they're much more comfortable to ride when I raise the saddle so that my toes don't touch the ground.  I don't regard myself as short by any means (I'm 5'4"), but I can't see anybody much shorter being able to ride these and still have their toes touch the ground.  The other SE11_lurker (who is 4ft 11 and three quarter inches) cannot ride them at all, so they're yet another philandrist device, designed to exclude short people!  Other than that, they're a fine specimen of transport.

My ride to Lollard Street didn't take long, but upon arrival, I was detained by an older, slightly inebriated man who wished to engage in conversation about the bikes.  That is what I really like about the scheme.  Londoners have suddenly stopped to talk to one another.  The chap wanted to know what I thought about the scheme, how you used the cycles and how much it cost.  It seems to take people a little while to get their heads around the idea that there is both an access and a usage charge.  I explained that the bikes were designed for tourists to hire all day (eg. a rip-off for long-time hire), and most people would put them back within half an hour.  He was unconvinced that they were better than his bike at home, and I had to agree, but we chatted for 10 minutes. On Friday, I was detained at the Post Office by a man from an expensive flat and a woman who lived on the local estate who both wanted the scheme explained.  On Saturday, whilst I was experiencing the yellow light-red light issue, again at the Post Office, another woman wanted to chat about them.  When I put my key in, there's usually a set of passers-by wondering how they work.  And this morning, I was chatting to some Camberwellians who had noticed my TV appearance, and wanted to know why the bikes hadn't been placed further south in London.  Well, quite.  Boris probably doesn't travel much further south than Elephant and Castle, so that might explain it.  But it has led me to wonder, "why can't London always be this way?".  I really like these conversational excursus, although one has to ensure they're held /before/ you put the key in, otherwise you'll be using up the half hour chatting to strangers!  But, why not?  I hope that people keep chatting, even when the novelty wears off.

I made a bit of a mistake with Lollard Street.  It's one of those "out of the way" bike docks, and the bikes have been placed just outside of the former Lilian Baylis School.  There were plenty there, but it turned out that I'd hired one of those over-tightened back wheel affairs.  I realised within 15 seconds, but decided to plough on.  Phewww.  Exhausting.  I cycled as far as the Embankment, and went to see whether  the Fire Brigade Pier docking station exists.  It doesn't.  Do beware of that.  Whilst it seems to appear on some of the maps, I arrived at the place where it should have been, only to be greeted by a blank section of pavement and no electrical points here:

The bike had become seriously hard work by this point, but I pioneered on, heading for Vauxhall.  However, a little further up, I spotted the Albert Embankment dock.  I thought they weren't operative, so I zoomed to the right to chat to the chap in the yellow jacket.  He noted that I could choose to dock the bike and that I should press the red "fault" button, but that if I did so, I'd be unable to take out another bike.  Oh dear!  Here's the Albert Embankment dock (including some tourists looking curious):

I elected to cycle on to Vauxhall, hoping to find the Kennington Lane Rail Bridge dock.  I'd not spotted it before, because it's actually under the bridge (it's the tunnel just next to the Vauxhall Tavern).  I docked the bike, but completely forgot about pressing the fault button and by the time I'd remembered, 10 seconds had more than expired.  I turned the saddle around (like the French do) to indicate a fault, and hoped that some of the Serco chaps would spot it.  Here's the dock... (Photo quality is due to iphone camera):

At that point, things took a turn for the worse.  I decided to print out my journey thus far, and headed to the computer:

I went to try the screen on the other side.  Incidentally, I'm not fond of this particular spot.  Hanging around for 5 minutes inside a tunnel makes one look rather seedy.  Unfortunately, the back of the terminal was no better:

Whilst I was waiting, I spotted one of those rather curious poems/anecdotes pinned to the side of the tunnel (see below). So I waited for what seemed like five minutes and reinserted the key.  Oh no!  The yellow light-red light fault had recurred.  I was certain that I'd definitely got the green light when redocking, so waited a few more minutes to try again.  No luck.  Happily, I remembered that Kennington Tesco should have some bikes, and it's only a quick walk down the road.

Full of the joy of "I'm a friendly Londoner spirit", I very nearly stopped a man wearing a "Sex, bugs and rock and roll" T-shirt to admire it, but then I realised that I'd not got a cycle hire bike with me, and he might think I were mad.  I thought better of the decision to stop and chat!

I quickly arrived at Tesco to find another chap in a yellow vest who advised that there were no known problems at his terminal, so I tried the key again, attained the green light and hoiked out a bike.  From there, I just cut across Tesco car park, and zoomed back to the Post Office to re-dock.  As easy as pie!  It's fantastic.  And well done to TFL for ensuring that there are plenty of personnel on hand to explain how the scheme works.  Just one quick plea to Londoners... please don't stop talking to strangers!

Unconfirmed cycle and motorcycle accidents today in Kennington

The stats. and Twitter are indicating that there have been one or maybe two traffic accidents in Kennington today after 9am.

It seems that there was one accident involving a cyclist at the junction of Kennington Park Road and Kennington Lane on Newington Butts.

It now looks as though there might have been a different accident involving a motorcycle near the junction at Kennington tube station.

These two separate reports might of course have been conflated.  I hope that nobody is badly hurt.  Does anybody have any more info?  I'm very concerned, with the imminent implementation of the CS7 cycle superhighway, that TFL examine the incidence of traffic/cycle accidents around rush hour, and maybe consider some traffic calming measures.

I didn't report it, but there was also a cyclist death (Everton Smith, 48) on Vauxhall Bridge Road (the north side) on 22nd May.  If you were unfortunate enough to be passing through the area (a 436 bus was nearby), please contact the police as they're looking for witnesses.

216 Kennington Road, planning permission refused

I've just heard that despite the fact that the officers approved the application to extend the range of uses for the building underneath 216 Kennington Road, the council actually refused permission.

I made a post last week in which I mistakenly noted that permission had been granted, so I ought to state very clearly that 216 Kennington Road does not have planning permission for retail usage.

Watch this space. I wonder if the decision will be challenged.

216 Kennington Road and 38-46 Albert Embankment planning

I've edited the post below slightly in light of Cllr Mark Harrison's comment that the council haven't granted planning permission re. 216. Instead, their officers have indicated that they are in favour of approval. It remains to be seen whether approval is granted.

You might recall from this post back in May that planning permission had been sought for 216 Kennington Road. I was against the request since I was hoping the site might be put to use for some kind of community facility.

It seems that the council have granted permission the council officers have recommended that permission will be granted to allow a retail unit to be put in place (the rumour is Tesco, but nobody knows for sure). The new shop will presumably service everybody who has purchased a flat in the oddly named Kennington Park Square (it's not very near the park!) just behind the site and those in 216 Kennington Road itself (a large residential development) and a number of residents on Kennington Park Road. Even I have to concede that it's better to have something in there than for it to remain empty.

Also, if you read the post I wrote back in June when I was trying to keep up with the number of nasty high rises on our horizon, it is worth noting that we've had an appeal (against the refusal of planning permission) withdrawn on item number 3 (38-46 Albert Embankment) which is on the site of the Texaco garage. That leaves one less ball in the air in terms of pending sites.

In addition, I nearly forgot... I raised the matter some time ago that TFL (despite local objections) had applied for planning permission for one of its excellent cycle scheme pods in Windmill Row (a very bad location due to overcrowding of pedestrians and traffic). The council sensibly overturned the request so that's good news.

I'm sorry it has all gone so quiet... It's silly season in Kennington and what with swine flu and holidays etc. there's not so much to report.

216 Kennington Road

It appears that planning consent is being sought (as from yesterday) for change of use on the ground floor of 216 Kennington Road from D1 (Assembly and leisure use) to Classes A1/A2/B1/D1 (retail or financial and professional services or business, office or community). Do look up reference 09/01201/FUL on Lambeth Council Planning database.

Additionally, permission is requested to build eight flats (and two new windows) on the first and second floors.

I don't think additional flats are necessarily contentious (although I'd be grateful for comments), but local residents have many times made clear that they do not support the ground floor being used for non D1 purposes (most notably retail purposes). Originally, I understand that the ground floor was intended for community use under an old Section 106, but I think that may now be lost to history.

I was emailed about this planning request by an informant (who I shall refrain from naming) who also adds: "Most interesting is that application is made by Gallaghers but these are acting on behalf of TESCOs so presumably they are intending Tesco express or Metro - so impact on local retailers won't be good"

I don't know how the information that Gallaghers are acting on behalf of Tesco emerged, so I shall have to leave that as merely hearsay for now, although I have no reason to doubt its veracity.

So, it's time for the people of SE11 to unite again... You know what you have to do. Click here to comment on the proposal and submit your objections. I see no reason to object to the housing (it's in keeping), but only to the change of use requested for the ground floor. However, if somebody leaves a comment with a good reason to object to the proposed housing, I'm happy to consider it and amend this post.

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!

Lambeth Housing Audit - Conservatives drop bombshell

Personally, I'm not convinced that there's as much Conservative support in Princes ward as the number of blue/green boards in Kennington Road would have you believe. I think that the residents are highly likely to be local Tory MPs who have their London residences in the road. However, if the boards are representative, then Labour, Lib Dems and Green are going to have to work their socks off in the election to compete, as I've not seen as much visible signage anywhere else! Has anybody got reports of Labour/Lib Dem/Green signs up anywhere?

In the meantime, somebody from the Lambeth Tories has, according to Twitter, managed to get hold of a report from the Audit Commission, damning Lambeth Living (the organisation that manages Lambeth's Social Housing). It's an Arms Length Management Organisation, for those who like the lingo. Apparently, the Audit Commission has said that every single area audited within the Lambeth Living organisation is "weak". More information about this matter is on the Lambeth Conservative website.

And what's more, due to the fact that the Auditor's report is currently being witheld, the Tories say they're prepared to publish the document on the Lambeth Conservative website for everyone to read... Looks like red hot stuff to me. I hope they have good lawyers!

Traffic accident in Elephant and Castle and accident in Kennington

Post edited to reflect new information as of 9/4/2009:

I've had quite a few hits on my blog today and last night from people searching for the phrase "accident in Kennington".

I assumed at first that people were looking for information about the accident which occurred on the Elephant and Castle roundabout, and in which, tragically, a female cyclist was killed. London-SE1 has an article on that accident, and police are asking for witnesses. The Evening Standard has a more detailed report, which gives witness reports that the cyclist was trapped between an articulated lorry and iron railings.

However, it seems that there were two accidents on 8th April in the area, and (according to Twitter), a second accident occurred in SE11, on Kennington Road just in front of the Texaco garage at about 17:30. The accident in Kennington Road /also/ required an air ambulance and a commentator today noted that the helicopter landed on Lambeth Walk Open Space. Stockwell News has noted reports in the South London Press that the victim was a 14 year old male cyclist.

This is probably why reports of traffic chaos around Kennington/Elephant today were prolific.

Amici Takeover

I have it from a good source that:

1. Amici restaurant (currently at 305-307, Kennington Road) but will move across to the old Franklins site (205 - 209, Kennington Lane).

2. 305-307 Kennington Road will stay in the same hands, but will become a steak and burger bar.

3. R Due Amici (310-312 Kennington Road) is unaffected and run by the same party!

There's still no news on the cafe formerly known as The Dippy Egg, formerly known as Jado, but they're painting it a lovely green colour inside and giving it a very thorough refit.

Local area Tip Offs

I've received a number of comments on this journal recently which seem to give some local tip offs about various developments in the area:

a. Apparently Amici, which owns two restaurants in Kennington (confusingly known as "Amici" and "R Due Amici", has apparently leased/bought the now shutdown Franklins and will open a third restaurant. This tip-off is from an anonymous commentator who advised that the lady next door at Thai Ming (previously Thai Silk) mentioned it.

b. Commentator "John" asks whether anybody has tried Grand Union (burger pub/club) on Kennington Road (near the Imperial War Museum)? It has changed 2 or 3 times in the past few years. I haven't, but am contemplating visiting it at the weekend.

c. A number of people have commented favourably on Toulouse Lautrec restaurant (both on this blog, on London SE1 and in real life), but also noted that it's expensive. It probably isn't that expensive compared with its sister restaurant, The Lobster Pot, and also compared with central London restaurant prices. It is expensive compared with some of the other offerings in the SE11 area. However, to combat the expense (in these credit crunch times), we opted for a large Sunday morning brunch (croissants, french bread, scrambled eggs and salmon) as well as the very good French hot chocolate and excellent coffee (£14.00 total). I recommend it.

Does anybody else have any news on the cafe that was formerly Dippy Egg, formerly Jado?

Car accident - Kennington

There's more trouble in the Kennington area tonight, as somebody (a male?) appears to have slammed a car into the side of a building in Stannary Street (just off Kenington Road). According to various onlookers, he(?) was still conscious when removed from the car, but if the damage to the building is anything to go by, he must have either been being chased or have been an appalling driver as I think the vehicle must have been doing some speed to make such a tremendous impact.

I just nipped across the road for some late night chocolate and discovered a fire engine, ambulance, police vehicles, and a very large hole in the side of the first building on the end of Stannary Street!

I presume the ambulance will take him off to hospital, and I hope he's ok!

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!

More Dippy Egg Cafe goodness

You'll recall about a month ago I made a post with some photos about the opening of the new Dippy Egg Cafe on Kennington Road. Oddly, since that day, I've found that one person (or I'm presuming one person) searches this blog (often several times a week) using the Google search term "dippy egg cafe" "opening times". I don't know who they are or whether it's a web-crawler thing, or quite what, but here is the answer...

I have been informed today, through a reliable source, that the promoter of the Dippy Egg Cafe is now extending its opening hours. In addition, there is currently a summer offer running, as follows:

Mon- Fri: 7am - 10pm (Except Monday evenings)
Saturday: 8am - 10pm
Sunday : 9am - 3pm

Apparently, the cafe also offers free wifi, and there is currently a special summer offer which means a free glass of wine with evening meals is available. Also, it's now possible to bring your own bottle.

How exciting!

Dippy Egg Cafe

The third new event of interest (I hoped to blog about this a week ago) was the opening of the Dippy Egg cafe. Dippy Egg has taken over where Jado left off. Jado was a fairly standard workers cafe on Kennington Road that closed at about 3pm every day, and sold a combination of fried breakfasts and sandwiches. Within the last month, we went there on June 1st, it has been painted bright green, named Dippy Egg and gained new management.

The new manager, named Gill, has lots of very exciting plans for the venue, and it is due to be re-painted and have some groovy lighting put in. There are other plans, but I'll wait to see what happens before blogging further. Originally, we had intended to try Franklins, but we gave up due to the length of wait, and went and had a roast dinner at the Dippy Egg. The roast potatoes are as good as any home made potatoes I've tasted, and the rest of the meal was excellent - nothing tasted over or under cooked, which is always a risk with roast dinners. It was all very reasonably priced. Service was superb, and we felt happily greeted. The downstairs (which I've never visited before) is now covered with campy bright patterned table cloths, and various event posters adorn the walls. The manager has various links with the Vauxhall Tavern, so that is a repeating theme. I'm hoping it's going to become a quieter, more homely VT, with food. Right now, it has a feel that I've termed Retro-camp.

We'll definitely be going back. In the meantime, I managed to grab a few photos of the "before" deco. just as a number of customers left, and the next lot hadn't arrived. I'll also try to post "after" pictures when all the decorating has been done. Take a look at the fabulous window sill:











Edit: They also have a website: http://thedippyeggcafe.com/