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!

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)

Jean Vanier at Meadow Road, Vauxhall Society Remembrance Night, Cinema Museum celebrate Spain NOW and Kennington Gardens Scoiety AGM

You'll notice I've added a calendar to the right hand side of site.  Do email me if you wish to submit or publicise an event in SE11 (or on the borders).  At the moment, I'm just adding events as I happen to spot them from Twitter or receive emails from people etc. but I'd like to list a good selection of plays, concerts, community events, classes, quiz nights etc.
I wanted to write a quick post re. interesting events that will be taking place in the area.  Most of them are local and either very cheap, or require only a donation, so beat those autumn blues and meet some of the fantastic community members in Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall.

Firstly, the Cinema Museum, (as part of Spain NOW! 2010), is hosting a film and music night on Friday 5th November from 7pm - 12pm.  The Cinema Museum is at 2 Dugard Way, SE11 4TH.  The event is free, but a donation to The Cinema Museum is encouraged.  It's a bit difficult to tell what the event will involve, despite having read the poster a few times.  (I'm obviously getting old, as I've no idea what a "participatory interactive happening" might involve!)  More info here.

Secondly, the Kennington Gardens Society AGM is taking place on Thursday 11th November 2010 at 7.30pm at Roots and Shoots, Walnut Tree Walk, SE11.  It will be followed by a talk by Lizzie Moore on Christmas Floral Decorations (£2 fee).  Refreshments available.

Thirdly, and also on Thursday 11th November 2010, but at 7pm, the Vauxhall Civic Society are holding a Remembrance Evening for Armistice Day at Brunswick House, (Lassco), 30 Wandsworth Road, Vauxhall, SW8 2LG.  It's free, but donations to the Vauxhall Civic Society are welcome.  Feel free to bring along, and read a favourite remembrance poem, and you'll also hear poems and stories related to Vauxhall from  Naomi Lourie Klein (the famous author of Stockwell News), Philippa Owen and Ross Davies (local authors). Refreshments available.

Finally, on Wednesday 24 November, at 19:15, Jean Vanier is visiting Lambeth to deliver a talk entitled 'To be human is to be vulnerable".  Jean Vanier is the founder of the L'Arche communities in which people with learning disabilities and those that assist them create homes together to share their gifts.  There are a remarkable 137 communities, and he's a remarkable man.  There's a L'Arche community in West Norwood (perhaps why he's visiting locally) and he'll deliver his lecture at the Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, Meadow Road, SW8 1QH (the same venue as September's Papal visit).  The event is run by Westminster Cathedral's Young Friends, and I've been asked to note that the talk is principally aimed at young people.  More info here.

Riverside Community Development Trust and Lady Margaret Hall Settlement (LMHS) to form joint board

I know that Lurking about SE11 can sometimes appear rather whingy, so I've decided to share some interesting local news.  The RCDT (Riverside Community Development Trust) and LMHS (Lady Margaret Hall Settlement) have formed a joint committee for the running of their operations.  This looks to be a positive development as it allows them to share buildings, resources and expertise.  Whilst the two organisations will remain separate on paper, they will share the same board members.  The LMHS appear to have rewritten their website, and in a nod of gratitude towards our forebears, (as with the Vauxhall Civic Society website), we'll receive additional access to history and imagery from the LMHS archives in the months to come.

So, what are they up to at the moment?  20 Newburn Street has been leased to Real World UK for the provision of free computer training.  This is a an important project, and (for those with long memories) is how the centre was used when it first opened back in 2003.  I'm a firm believer in digital literacy because without being online, a great many people in our society are simply cut off from information about services (benefits information, train/tube times, community initiatives, bus route changes, holiday deals, money saving deals, council services etc).  The aim of this project is to open the world of employment and training to people who are not confident using the internet or computers.  Once I find out a little more about when they'll be up and running, I'll post the times of the free classes here.

I fear that we're about to enter a challenging time in the UK's history, but I hope we've developed local friendships that might see us through.  We've the Kennington Oval Vauxhall forum to form an umbrella which should feed views from all local organisations to Lambeth Council.  There's the new Vauxhall Civic Society (who cover the entire Vauxhall constituency down to Brixton and Clapham), the stalwart Kennington Association (open to anybody who might claim to living anywhere near Kennington), the combined RCDT/LMHS, more friends groups than you could wave a stick at eg. Friends of Kennington Cross, Friends of Kennington Park etc.  I've counted 11 local "friends of" groups.  See if you can identify anybody that I've missed (I've updated a "friends of" post made in September 2008).  Additionally, there's the Kennington Gardens Society (now with a new section on their site so that you can ask them questions), the Onion Shed folk, intent on greening North Lambeth, the Kennington People on Bikes (KPOB) keeping an eye out on cycling and safety in the area...  What more could we want? 

I have a theory that people committed to the community attract more people committed to the community.  That we've so many local groups demonstrates the commitment of south east Londoners to look out for one another.  Such networking and community spirit will be essential over the next few years (and are arguably at the root of maintaining anything that might be described as "civic" society). There is (as far as I know) nothing in the rest of the London blogosphere comparable with the network forged by bloggers in South East London.  Last night's Battle of the Blogs being one such demonstration).  The world will look considerably different after PE (Public Expenditure?  Physical Education? Punishing England?) Day on the 20th October.  That's the day the government will outline their cuts. I think we'll need all of our community groups (and more) to coalesce to ensure that the vulnerable on all of our patches still receive some semblance of service.  If the Big Society / Co-Op vision ever comes to fruition, we'll need our friends and neighbours more than ever, because I don't see the State popping in to visit us when we're sick or ensure that our bins are emptied regularly or that we maintain a commitment to recycling and re-use.

Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall are all great areas to move to if you're looking to be involved locally, be that in committee work, gardening, bike projects or Tai Chi.  I often complain that central London can be an isolating place, but the people that runs the committees, hold the meetings and get their hands dirty all help to build the links we need to make us a community and not just another Zone 2 location.

Kennington Gardens Society - 12th August - Guerrilla Gardening Talk

Just a quick post to note that on Thursday 12th August (this week) at 7:30pm, Kennington Gardens Society are hosting a talk from Richard Reynolds, who is a local founder of the Guerrilla Gardening movement.  There's a £2 fee on the door and the venue is Roots and Shoots on Walnut Tree Walk (see poster below)

I've been to KGS talks in the past, and they usually prove fascinating, even if your garden is only as extensive as a patio.  I'm definitely attending this one, since I'd be interested in hearing whether there might be local sites that could benefit from beautification.

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

Kennington Gardens Society Spring Show 20th March

Spring is in the air.  I smelt it this morning, even despite London's fetid and filthy air, and the fact that the Nitrogen levels on Brixton Road are rather scary.

That means it's time for Kennington Gardens Society Spring Show, at St Anselm's Church Hall, Kennington, SE11 on Saturday.  Entry is 50p, and the show opens from 14:30.  There will be plants for sale, plants for viewing, tea, cakes and a raffle.

SE11 goes green for the summer

Vauxhall City Farm

I'd just like to draw people's attention to the fact that Vauxhall City Farm now have a new website. Also, somebody from the farm emailed me to say:

We do a few new things - we have a new baby anglo-Nubian goat who lives with Lulu the lamb and a gosling, called Norman all very cute and occasionally bottle fed...

We also have a sheep and wool day on the 27th of June which is part of the Love London festival and there should be some shearing among other activities!

Roots and Shoots

Stockwell News have posted information about the Roots and Shoots Open Days which will take place this weekend (6th and 7th June). Saturday is the garden open day and Sunday is the childrens' day (with bee keeping demos).

I've been before and will try to go again because there is usually a plant sale. Last year we bought an oxalis triangularis which I thought we'd killed over winter but surprised us by re-emerging a few weeks ago. It looks like this, but without the flowers yet:



It's summer now, so SE11 is a hive of activity and Roots and Shoots have finally posted to their blog... It's good news and the bee population at Roots and Shoots is stronger than in previous years.

I've also spotted a number of bees (sometimes three at a time) taking the pollen from some of the flowers I've gown, which I'm very pleased about. I know the bee population is under threat in the UK so bee keepers are doing a fabulous environmental duty. I need to try to get around to getting a bee box (a sort of place for bees to rest) and would be interested to hear whether these are advisable for people who live in a flat or whether they're more appropriate for gardens.

Kennington Garden Society

On 11th June at 7.30, Kennington Garden Society have the television gardener, Gay Search, coming to do a demonstration on planting window boxes and containers. Kennington News blog has more information for anybody interested in attending. It promises to be quite an exciting night!

Various Kennington bits and pieces

The cafe that was formerly Jado's, formerly Dippy Egg has now been painted dark green and has a large sign on the front proclaiming "Vergie's Cafe" (thanks to readers for spotting it). The Lurking About blog has been getting quite a few clicks from people searching for more information, but unfortunately, the place hasn't opened yet (at least, not of a few days ago) so there's nothing new to add yet.

Residents who have been in the area for some time might remember that there used to be a Labour party "office front" in the Wincott Parade row of shops. Fortunately, Google Street view has immortalised the image (along with that of the local postie). However, within the last month or so that shop front has been replaced with a new shop named "Red Madder", which I finally managed to visit on Saturday. The shop sells some lovely pots and statues for gardens, but is mainly a web based operation. Their website is here and the man that runs the shop is happy to enter into discussions about reducing the postage if you want to order online and pick up locally in Kennington.

On a related note, of interest to local gardeners might be Kennington Gardens Society yearly programme.

Roots and Shoots

I visited Kennington yesterday for a presentation (with lots of good slides) on small gardens, organised by the Kennington Garden Society, and given by Virginia Kennedy. The event was held at Roots and Shoots, the wildlife garden / training centre in Walnut Tree Walk. The organisation have a fabulous building, but due to the talk, I didn't get to go and have a proper look around the garden. That is definitely a trip for another day. In the meantime, I've added the Roots and Shoots blog to the Blog-roll at the side.

On the way over, I walked from Vauxhall station, where I noticed Kennington Lane Cafe, which I'd never spotted before. I didn't have time to peer in, or look at menus, so that will need to be reviewed at a later stage. It is on the map now.

Also, I finally finished adding all of the estate agents! Yay.