2011 Summer fetes and festivals around Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall

Last year I wrote a post about summer fetes, festivals and bazaars in Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall, which proved quite popular and may help you to plan what you'd like to attend...  I always recommend North Lambeth Parish Fete as it's a great opportunity to look around Lambeth Palace.  Anyhow, in chronological order, here goes:

Albert Square and St Stephen's Association Summer Fete - Saturday June 5th.  
Oops...  I missed this one (sorry!!) as it was last week, but hope they had a good time anyway.  Also, I sadly seem to have missed a Roots and Shoots June Open Day, last Saturday too.  It seems they're not taking part in "Open Garden Squares" this year so I hope they'll do another open day later in the year.  Obviously summer arrived, and I failed to notice...

Portugal Day - Sunday June 12th - 11:00 - 18:45
Kennington Park (Yay... It's back.  This was lots of fun last year, and open to absolutely everybody for free).

Harleyford Gardens Open Day (part of open Gardens weekend) - Sunday 12th June - 14:00 - 17:00
Entrance from 37 Bonnington Square/Harleyford Road, SW8 1TF


Friends of Vauxhall Park Summer Fair - Sunday June 19th - 14:00 - 17:00
Vauxhall Park

North Lambeth Parish Fete - Saturday June 25th - 14:00 - 17:00
Lambeth Palace Garden (Entry £3.00, concessions £2, families £6)

Kennington Association Table Top Sale - Saturday 2nd July - 10:00 - 13:00
Outside of the Doghouse Pub (This replaces a summer bazaar and should complement the KGS Summer Show)

Kennington Gardens Society Summer Show - Saturday July 2nd - 09:00 - 15:30
Roots & Shoots, Walnut Tree Walk, SE11 (Plant/flower entry fee at £0.50 per entry with cap of £3)

Cleaver Square Fete - Sunday July 10th - 12:30 - 16:00 (approx. times only, taken from last year)
Cleaver Square, SE11

Lambeth Country Show - Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th July - 11:00 - 19:00
Brockwell Park, SE24 0NG

GMFA / Royal Vauxhall Tavern Sports Day (or Gay games) - Usually held on August Bank Holiday, but not yet announced so don't know if it's happening this year.  Will amend this if more details emerge.

Zippo's Circus (opens spreadsheet) - Thursday 1st September - Tuesday 6th September 12:00 - 21:00
Kennington Park

Kennington Association Charity Art Auction - Thursday 22nd Sept - 18:30 - 20:30
City & Guilds of London Art School, 124 Kennington Park Road
(Sponsored by Kennington Estate Agents, Winkworth)

You can see from the above that it would be possible to spend your entire summer in and around Kennington / Vauxhall, having a perfectly wonderful time, sipping wine and eating cake.  

I'll be at some of these events, but do feel free to email me your best photos from Portugal Day, as I'm not sure I can make it, and the costumes are something to behold!

Diary dates: Kennington and Vauxhall summer fetes, fairs, garden shows and auctions

The summer season is about to begin here in South London (or Old North Surrey, if you prefer).  That means Pimms, scones and more tea vicar, in some rather attractive squares and gardens. 

I particularly recommend the North Lambeth Parish fete because the parish has been given permission by the Arcbishop of Canterbury to hold it in the Palace grounds, which are beautiful and not usually open to the public.

Kennington Gardens Society Summer Show - Saturday June 12th - 09:30 - 15:30
Roots & Shoots, Walnut Tree Walk, SE11 (Plant/flower entry fee at £0.50 per entry with cap of £3)

Albert Square and St Stephen's Association Summer Fete - Saturday June 12th
Albert Square (A bit out of SE11, but is always well attended).

Cleaver Square Fete - Sunday June 13th - 12:30 - 16:00
Cleaver Square

Open Garden Squares at Roots and Shoots - Sunday June 13th
Roots and Shoots, Walnut Tree Walk, SE11
(Entry £7.50 in advance and £9 on the weekend to see all of the open garden venues)

Portugal Day - Sunday June 13th - 11:00 - 17:00
Kennington Park

Friends of Vauxhall Park Summer Fair - Sunday June 20th - 14:00 - 17:00
Vauxhall Park

North Lambeth Parish Fete - Saturday June 26th - 14:00 - 17:00
Lambeth Palace Garden (Entry £3.00, concessions £2, families £5)

Kennington Association Bazaar - Saturday 17th July - 11:00 - 13:00
St Anselm's Church Hall

Lambeth Country Show - Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th July - 11:00 - 19:00
Brockwell Park

Kennington Association Charity Art Auction - Thursday 16th Sept (early viewing on Wednesday 15th Sept)
City & Guilds of London Art School

Dog snatching, Kennington fete, a new SE11 blog and former Lilian Baylis...

OK, I admit it, I went on holiday for a week, away from SE11 to paddle in the seas of the South West. And I didn't log on to a computer or blog or touch Twitter for any of that time! Obviously, it has been a busy week for SE11 lurkers... Here is a quick summary, for regular readers who failed to notice local things over the past week:

1. The Metropolitan Police conducted a puppy/dog grab from a residence in Renfrew Road, Kennington, where they discovered 6 pit bull puppies and 2 dangerous adult dogs. Kennington Association news blog have a link to the Evening Standard item here. It seems that the police seized about 20 dogs overall, but implies that these were from various South London addresses, rather than one address... Even still, I wouldn't be surprised if the neighbours complained about the noise from 8 dogs!

2. Kennington fete. I hope everybody had a lovely day and enjoyed the weather at Kennington fete in Cleaver Square. I really wish I hadn't missed that, but hopefully there will be another next year. Twitter user El_Nacnud has some photos, of the type that I would have taken had I been there. Please leave some comments with more links.

3. In less than the blink of an eye, somebody has formed another SE11 blog! There's always room for more local bloggers, and the new blog can be found at SE11life.com It comes from the keyboard of the esteemed MayorWatch blog and is written by Martin Hoscik (I'm presuming he is also quite local).

4. And for really dull hyperlocal news, (only relevant to 34082342 commuters, after all), there are some Twittery rumours floating around that lift number 2 at Kennington tube has broken (only about 2 weeks after the six month refurb). I notice that somebody finally had the presence of mind to stick a piece of paper over the sign that says that the stairs are to be used "only in an emergency".

Anything else??? Oh yes.

I'm not too sure what happened at the Special Council Meeting earlier in the week, re. all of the leaseholder issues. More info would be appreciated so please leave a comment re. the council's handling of the matter... What is due to happen next?

It appears that Viva Vauxhall had their meeting and have come out as opposed to the Bondway tower (there's a surprise!), but there's more here about that with further contact details if you want to be involved.

A certain amount of friction appears to have been generated re. the former Lilian Baylis site between ward councillors, various local resident groups and other interested parties. I'm not at liberty to paste every piece of correspondence I receive, but I am particularly interested in hearing from anybody at Lambeth Council who might be able to comment more fully on the future of the site, rather than issuing rather wishy washy leaflets without consultation dates or any mention of governance. I think the initial community consultation on the future of the site was rather weak (perhaps it was conducted at a time when residents were less vociferous), but we're now mid-recession, so perhaps the possibilities for ongoing usage might have changed. I rather get the impression that the discussions are behind closed doors, and there is no longer any room for community input, but watch this space...

Very exciting - Google Streetview is live for London

I'm very excited... I've been waiting for this day for a few months. Google have finally gone live with their Streetview facility for London. I think that the SE11 photos were taken around July/August 2008. Let's take a quick tour around SE11:

Firstly, the assault course on Kennington Park on a lovely sunny day;



A trip to Cleaver Square. No boules as I presume it's midday on a weekday:



A quick visit to St Peter's church:



Before we nip into Chariots!:



Phhew, thirsty work! Time to visit the Dog House:



Let's go and get some exercise on Lambeth Walk Open Space:



And finally, how about doing the Lambeth Walk?



Sadly, there are a few "strategically" placed buses (I'm presuming accidentally, but who knows?) which means that a number of views around SE11 are missed. However, I've managed to find one of the slipway ramp next to MI6 that the photographers were caught on during (mentioned yesterday):



Fantastic!

Kennington Fete

There is lots of SE11 related news to post today... First up, the three wheeled pleb visited Kennington Fete, held in Cleaver Square. This is only the second fete that has been held in recent years, to my knowledge. Not having been able to be there last year, I can't make any comparisons, but it was very well attended this year. The day was warm, but grey, which probably helped.

Stalls included numerous general bric-a-brac and a plant stall whose attendant grew a rather large selection of plants in his own garden. There was a book stall, a flower stall, a steel band from the Archbishop Sumner Primary School and a human fruit machine (which I didn't see in operation, but consisted of a large cardboard structure with children in it). Also, there were food stalls provided by the Lobster Pot (the prawn cocktail, I'm told, was delicious) and Kennington Tandoori. A stall by Franklins displayed some exquisitely decorated fairy cakes. There were about 20 people doing a Tai Chi demonstration at one end (presumably the Tai Chi in the park people, who I've not yet blogged about), a Punch and Judy show / balloon modelling man near the other end, and lots and lots of happy looking people. I don't know if they were resident SE11-ites, or Kennington-ites, or outsiders, but there seemed to be a rather large contingent of the comfortably well-to-do (not surprising considering the location). The whole thing was sponsored by Winkworth, who are to be commended for their contribution to the local area.

I've put the photos up above. I'm afraid I failed to get a picture of the, ahem, attractive lamp shade that two men running one of the bric-a-brack stalls attempted to sell me, but that's not necessarily a bad thing! I took general shots, as I rather sought to avoid photographing anybody in particular, but that's somewhat impossible at a fete! Needless to say, if anybody spots themselves and would rather not be in the photo(s), I'm happy to either blur you out or remove the photo from the blog and map completely.