Morrells, or Morrell and Sons is going to become....

One of the Lurking commentators asked whether I know what is happening to Morrell and Sons (or Morrell's as it's known locally) builders' merchants.

I feared for weeks that it might become another Estate Agent, but fortunately, the economic climate is preventing further expansion in that sector. I've no issue with Estate Agents, but the proliferation in SE11 was starting to become tedious.

I have it on good authority that Morrell's is now occupied by a firm that intend to turn it into a Plumbers Merchant/bathroom shop, and they are currently selling off the remaining old stock in preparation to replace it with plumbing merchandise.

We'll have to wait and see... I'm quite impressed that certain empty retail units in Kennington are being replaced quite so quickly. The shop fronts are being occupied at a time of immense economic instability, so clearly the foot fall around Kennington Cross makes it desirable. There are still a few too many empties opposite Kennington park, between Kennington and Oval tubes. I don't think there's any more space for a convenience store (there are already three within spitting distance). I'd like to see a cafe in the empty laundrette next to the funeral directors, but again, the area has quite a lot of Greasy Spoons, the best, in my humble opinion, being the fabulously friendly Parma Cafe.

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!

Vauxhall Park - wandering out of SE11

Last week, we went for a brief visit outside of SE11. We just about missed the Vauxhall Park fete - I had forgotten it was on, and we were looking for somewhere warm and sunny to go and relax. We were pondering the green space outside of the Vauxhall Tavern, but it was absolutely packed with sun worshippers already, so settled on Vauxhall Park. That's when I remembered the fete, but we arrived just as everybody was taking down the stalls. Still, there were quite a few people milling about, and we really really liked the green space. There was very little traffic noise from within the park, considering that we were parallel with the Nine Elms Intersection (in this respect, it seems better than Kennington Park)! I never realised that Vauxhall Park is so peaceful, nor so pretty. I haven't got any pictures of the main green space as it was cluttered with things and vehicles being removed. However, there's a big field of lavender that it's possible to relax in, and a well-grown pergola nearby which you can see below. Everybody was enjoying the sun... Excitingly, a new cafe is to open in Vauxhall Park. It hasn't been completely finished yet, but I imagine it should be complete within the next week or so. The picture I took doesn't really do it justice.


The pergola:




The field of lavender:



The new cafe:

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/

Franklins - renovated and re-opened

The second exciting piece of SE11 news for the day is that Franklins has re-opened. I haven't blogged about this before, but they re-opened in a renovated state at the beginning of May 2008.

Rather than just being a restaurant, it's now a food emporium / deli / cafe / restaurant. I hesitate with the "cafe" part, but it's much better placed for people to drop in for a quick bite to eat. I think the layout is much improved.

It was the three wheeled pleb's plan to go for breakfast, but after the visit to the fete, we ended up there at about three o'clock. It was absolutely packed with people, and whilst we wandered in and found a table, the service was slow. When I finally caught somebody, I was told that the food would take some time as they were busy (probably fair enough, since many of their staff appeared to be at the fete). We decided, once we'd seen the prices (I think we'd missed the breakfast) and waited around, that we'd go back another day.

On the positive side, they're still sourcing all of their food from local growers etc., making them very green. Unfortunately, It's still fantastically expensive - only £6.99 for a jar of lemon bonbons! Still, the place is absolutely packed out with well-off looking mothers and their children!

It was too busy (and I'm a little broke at the moment) to stop and eat today, but I'll try and do a fuller review at a later stage.