Celebratory Feast at Oval Famers Market and Royal Scarecrows, Peter Tatchell on Environmental Campaigning, Vauxhall Easter Egg Hunt and more...

A few diary dates... I'm trying to keep up and add them to my Lurking about S11 calendar, but I'm not brilliant so will summarise them here.  As ever, there's a lot going on...

Vauxhall Gardens Estate Residents and Tenants Association AGM
Thursday 31st March, 6:30pm - 9pm at the Carmelita Centre (corner of Jonathan St and Vauxhall Walk)

Celebratory Feast at Oval Farmer's Market
Saturday 2nd April, 10am - 3pm at Oval Farmer's Market (grounds of St Mark's church in Oval)

Unveiling of royal scarecrows at Cottington Community Gardens
Saturday 2nd April, 12 noon at Opal Street, Kennington Lane, SE11 4HZ

Peter Tatchell to be interviewed on human rights work and environmental campaigning
Tuesday 5th April, 7:45pm at Oval House Theatre

KOV Forum
Thursday 7th April, 7pm - 9pm at St Anne's Resettlement Hall, 40-46 Harleyford Road.  (Entrance in Vauxhall Grove, SW8 1TD)

East Egg Hunt in Vauxhall Park (for children aged between 1 and 10)
Saturday 9th April, 10:30am (registration) for 11am start.  The event is for children aged between 1 and 10 only.

Kennington Gardens Society Spring Show
Saturday 16th April, 9am - 3pm at St Anselm's Hall

Royal Wedding Street Party
(This one isn't certain yet, but it looks to be fun if they manage to pull it off...)
Friday 29th April (time TBA) at Tea Hosue Theatre (formerly Queen Anne pub in Spring Gardens)

Oval Farmers' Market Celebration in April: Planning Permission Granted

So, the good news for the excellent Oval Farmers' Market is that they were granted planning permission to, umm, continue!  I'm not sure how they managed to get the market started /without/ planning permission, but they did, and now it has been offically confirmed that they can stay.  Hurray!

In celebration of their successful application, Oval Farmers' Market are holding a special market on Saturday 2nd April, where there will be a "feast of local produce, plants, shrubs and locally baked and prepared foods of all kinds".  Nom, nom, nom.

I'm afraid there's no word on whether they'll be able to go ahead with their future plans, which were exhibited last year, but I'll update you all with news once it is sent to me.

Oval market is held every Saturday between 10am and 3pm, and is popular with locals.

A new civic organisation for Oval

In addition to the Kennington Association, Vauxhall Civic Society, Riverside Community Development Trust, Lady Margaret Hall Settlement, Kennington Oval Vauxhall Forum and a gazillion "Friends of" groups, please put your hands together to welcome the recently relaunched Oval Partnership.  They're focusing on developing Oval Farmers' market in the grounds of St Mark's church and have recently launched a campaign to ensure adequate green space provision around Vauxhall, considering all of the new developments.  If you're interested in joining, no doubt there must be some method, but I couldn't find contact details or a form on their website.

I reproduce text from their recent email below and note that I may have more to conribute on the matter as I hope to attend local organisation VNEB consultation this evening.

The Oval Partnership is concerned that there is a real lack of additional open green space for all the proposed developments in Vauxhall. The proposed density of building and population is not balanced by an appropriate supply of green open space.  As the proposals for Vauxhall/Nine Elms are still in the development stage, everyone concerned needs to ask their local councillors to press Lambeth to make provision for some proper green space.

The problem and green spaces promised so far: The greenery proposed to date is at best decorative and aptly called 'parsley' by ecologists. For instance, the linear 'park' in Nine Elms turns out to be no more than front gardens for the new buildings, and the Sainsbury's site's proposed open spaces are small and paved. The Bondway, Vauxhall Cross and Wyvil Road developments are not offering new green open space of any substance at all.

Why we need green open spaces neighbouring onto the new developments:  Green open spaces need to be close to the new developments, so that new residents can use them for (for instance) walking the dog, family picnics and sending children put to play football or family cricket. It is London's parks and green spaces that make this such a great city to live in, and without adequate provision of green open space Vauxhall will risk looking like Canary Wharf rather than a place designed for living.

Although Spring Gardens is being invested in, it is in practice too far from the new developments in Vauxhall for any of the activities described above.  Spring Gardens will not be the park of choice.  It is quite far to walk if you have any encumbrance or not much time. Instead, the park that will be used for family picnics, walking the dog and sending children out to play football, will be the one closest to the Vauxhall developments - Vauxhall Park. The same applies to lunch hours and office workers - of which there will also be a considerable increase in Vauxhall. This means that we are looking at standing room only on sunny weekends and busy lunch hours in the summer in Vauxhall Park.

The overall lack of additional green open space to counterbalance the proposed increase in density of building and population will have a negative impact on the Vauxhall area and its vicinity.  The purpose of allowing new development is to produce an general improvement of the area.  Without adequate green open space the hoped for improvements will not be forthcoming.

What you can do: Please can you contact your local councillors and ask them to lobby for additional and substantial green open space.  You can find your local councillors’ contact details on this link: http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/moderngov/mgMemberIndex.aspx?FN=WARD&J=3

Ghislaine Stewart, Chair The Oval Partnership

Oval Farmers Market and Future Plans for St Mark's churchyard

I skipped happily along to Oval Market this week to drink the apple juice, choose the cakes and have a crepe, so I was able to photograph the boards displaying the plans for Oval Market / St Mark's graveyard.  The new initiative appears to have been developed as a result of dicussions between Lambeth Council and the Oval Partnership.  I apologise for the quality of the shots.  They were taken on the phone camera which isn't a patch on a standard camera, and there was also a lot of pushing and shoving with lots of people trying to view the boards, so two of the photos have emerged in a pinkish hue.  Still, it's better that nothing, right?

The boards provide a little history of St Mark's Church, and the local area. Kennington Park Road, for example, still follows the old Roman route, originally named Stane Street and St Mark's was built on the site of the gallows of Kennington Common. (It looks as though the board writers cadged most of the history from the St Mark's website). In the past, I had heard it said that the burial ground was still Common land (hence being allowed to be used for the Saturday market and as a local cut-through). However, a little more digging has yielded the information that common rights over /both/ burial ground and church were extinguished by an Act of Parliament when the church was built. The church had to be conveyed from the Duchy (to whom it never belonged, on account of it being common land) across to the Church Commissioners by an Act of Parliament, which left it in the slightly odd situation that it was built, prior to gaining permission for it to be put in place!  In a twist of fate, however, the responsbiblity for management of the burial ground was handed back to Lambeth Council in 1950, so it has essentially become common land (or at least, shared space) once again.

The gist of the consultation was that the Churchyard needs some improvement on the basis that the paths are worn and become slippery, the playground requires upgrading, some of the trees are in poor health and a number of the tombstones in the grounds have been displaced and collapsed.  Additionally, there are no facilities for the use of stall-holders in the market.  The market management also wish to ensure that the market stalls are placed to ensure that the grass in the yard is not damaged.

There are two development options. 

The first is a simple plan to improve the paving around the memorial, stop people parking on the grass, replace and widen the path, install new drainage, add benches, repair the railings, plants some new trees, remove diseased trees, add a "natural play area", refurbish the playground,  add some kind of surface to reduce wear and tear under the market stalls, add electricity points for the market stalls, and install new lighting.

The second option includes all of the improvements contained in the first, but advocates the addition of an Oval shaped piece of land (which appears to be paved and is pictured with a detachable canopy) that could be used for the market as well as providing a dedicated space for other community events).

Neither option looks to be detrimental, unless one is concerned by the removal of grass that would be necessitated were option two to be adopted.

Oval Farmers Market Consultation tomorrow (3rd July)

As you can see from the poster below, there's a consultation tomorrow from 10am at Oval Farmer's Market about how the market and the churchyard could be improved.  

I can't say enough to recommend this market and all of the stallholders.  It's fantastic to have people that travel up to London each week and offer their wares.  It's great to be able to buy food straight from the farmers that grow it and the bakers that bake it, and the churchyard is a completely free public space to sit in the sun and chat to friends. 

Oval Farmers Market and the political cakes (with photos)

Popped into Oval Farmers Market this morning for one of Lara's delicious cakes from SE11 based Cakehole.  I'd heard on Twitter that she'd baked some political cakes, and I was intrigued.  Despite being reasonably early (ok, I confess that "early" on a Saturday is about 11am for me), the political cakes were very popular, and the only flavour left was in David Cameron blueberry.   I just couldn't bring myself to buy it (obviously, that's  because I'm not a blueberry fan... I wouldn't want to betray my partiality), so I went for one of those delicious looking chocolate ones.  Nom.  Nom.  Nom.  (Just noticed, but Lara was running a straw-poll on which sold first.)

The guy in the queue in front wanted of me wanted Green party cakes, which were not part of the spectrum, so perhaps in the lead-up to the General Election, we'll see an expanded range.  As Tri Porteur and companion lazed on the grass eating cake, we were surprised to be suddenly surrounded by Labour campaigning types (so, that's where they all are...) and we made our escape.

If you've not been to Oval Market, I do urge you to go.  The weather was fantastic, and there was a great range of stalls.

Also, I'm very pleased to see that the Council have got the fountains (I never realised that's what they were) working again on that piece of no-man's land in between Kennington Park Road and the junction to Brixton Rd/Camberwell New Road.  I do think though, that that whole patch could be grassed over and cleared up.  With very little investment, it wouldn't be a bad spot for a small cafe/ice-cream seller, but right now, it just looks rather cluttered with a kind of abandoned bandstand/circular bench thing and a lot of concrete bollards and pieces of hedge:

One reader tells me that the fountains represent the site of public hangings.  More on Wikipedia.  The 1984 Oval Fountains were apparently designed by architect Georgina Livingstone.

Oval Farmers Market and SE11 and SW9 wander

A late start to the day meant that by the time I arrived at Oval Farmers Market, much of the cake from Cakehole London had been magicked away. I'm quite excited by the fact that we have an SE11 cake business and shall therefore return at an earlier time to take a photo of the stall with its cakey goodies (they do take orders if you need cakes locally). I can recommend the blueberry apple crumble cake. Yumm.

After that, we had a wander around the top of Brixton Road. The delicatessen on the corner (number 2, I think), near the market is closing, but is being replaced by another one. See pics below:





I didn't realise there were so many good restaurants at the top of the road at the edge of SW9. Adulis (an Eritrean one) looks particularly good, and so does the Oval Tandoori (Indian).

One of my favourite adverts is at the top of Brixton Road... if you look carefully, it encourages you to smoke (for the sake of your throat), a legacy of times past:



After that, we went for a quick coffee at the Kennington Park cafe (it's worth a visit as the coffee is excellent, and the staff are very friendly). I took a picture of the underside of the helium balloon, currently advertising to everybody watching cricket at the Ashes:

Ashes cricket reminder to SE11

Due to the this weekend's (22nd - 23rd August) closure of Vauxhall tube and the cricket Ashes to be held at the Oval, it's likely that Kennington and Oval tubes will be deluged with people trying to get to the Oval.

Oh, I also saw a sign at Kennington tube today to say that Kings Cross St Pancras is not open to trains on the Northern line this weekend either.

So, SE11 people, it might be time for a weekend away (obviously, after you've visited the Oval Farmers market on Saturday morning)... I'm hoping to go and visit the cake stand this week where there are rumours that extra cakes are being baked!

US Embassy and Regeneration of New Covent Garden Market

All of the local area blogs have recently been buzzing with the news of the relocation of the US embassy to a yet unknown site in the Nine Elms quarter of Vauxhall. Although I say, "yet unknown", a story on the "bd architect's website" refers to the embassy location as the "2ha site" that is "close to Terry Farrell’s high-security MI6 building and the proposed Battersea Power Station development".

However, a piece of news, just spotted in the Evening Standard, indicates that the New Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market is about to receive funding for redevelopment. So now we'll have lots of US embassy employees munching apples wandering about the area. I've never been to New Covent Garden Market but they have a snazzy looking website. In the redevelopment section, they suggest the redevelopment will provide:

an invitation to the private sector to innovate on how the site could be more than just a market - becoming a focus for food and indeed flowers for London

I /like/ the idea of having an entire "focus" for food and flowers in this part of South London. I just hope that Borough market, and East St market, and Oval Farmers market can all keep flourishing at the same time...

Now, regarding the US embassy, it's obviously quite exciting that a major "player" wants to move to the area, but I'm more convinced that the embassy is moving for security reasons, than that they're moving primarily to be a part of the development of the South Bank! I figure that they want to be on the Thames so that they can use motor boats to get away if there's a terrorist attack. I'm vaguely concerned about traffic/planning/nuisance implications of the new US embassy in the area because I know what Mayfair residents have had to put up with, due to the recent installation of tank traps around the current embassy site. Also, I wonder whether it's sensible to have so many "target" buildings eg. MI6 and US embassy and Parliament all so close to one another...

The developments are all just outside the SE11 area, but if it all comes to fruition, I imagine our area will see development (good or bad, I know not) as a result of general investment. I wonder if there's something that they know that we don't, ie. whether anybody is about to enhance the transport infrastructure or go ahead with proposed public transport ideas, such as the Cross River Tram (hint, hint) to cope with all of the new developments.

Farmers Market & Photos

Because it was such a sunny day, we decided to visit the Farmers' Market in Oval. I've added the photos to the map, and included them here too:





We managed to find some purple sprouting broccoli (a favourite food of the SE11 lurker's partner) for £1, which was great value considering that it was a huge bag. In addition, I shall definitely be returning for freshly squeezed apple (and pear) juice, and some goats cheese. If we'd arrived earlier, I imagine that we might have purchased some bread - all of the bread stalls looked rather empty (which is definitely a good sign!)

We only visited briefly, but the market is open from 10am until 3pm every Saturday. Expect more on this, as we're definitely going back.

In other news, I've also started adding some of the other Kennington photos that I've taken. After the market, the next photo I've added is one of The Ship pub. Adding the photos takes a while, as I'm just sorting out universal formatting ideas. I've photos to add of some of the green squares, and a few shops, and a rather nice one of Durning Library. Watch this space.