Cleaver Square Fete 2010 - photos

Yesterday was  an exciting day in Kennington Village (as it was introduced at Cleaver Square fete).  (This, after all, is Old North Surrey dahling, and not South London).  Anyhow, what with the frivolities of the Cleaver Square Fete and the celebration of Portugal Day in Kennington Park (photos will go up tomorrow), it was hard to know where to go (or what to eat) first, but help was at hand:

You can't beat a good Kennington cupcake:

Apologies to the headless people, but I was focusing on the cakes:

Manning the tombola...

Did I mention that I love cake...?  

The raspberry sponges at the bottom were incredible:

I counted three cake stalls.  Yum.

(The Punch and Judy show was very good, and the adults seemed to enjoy it just as much as the children). 

That's the way to do it...

Oh, Mr Punch.  Didn't they warn you never to smile at a crocodile?

Too late.  Mr Punch was eaten for lunch :-(

Beautiful fabrics on sale, and a lovely smile:

Kate Hoey, MP, opened the fete in a rather special summer boater.   

A summer fete is just not a summer fete without a pensive looking vicar.  In the event, it didn't rain.

Special thanks should go to Winkworth, who sponsored the fete to the tune of £4000 and ran the raffle.  

Well Done chaps. 

Kate Hoey is proud to have been re-elected to serve the residents of the constituency, and here she is again, enjoying herself in style.

Kennington Tandoori (KT) cooked up some superb chicken biryani:

We were entertained by a variety of acts.  Firstly, a little light jazz...

Followed by some popular tunes...

And topped-off by this rather powerful opera singer!

The Kennington Association had a little help from their friends, the Kennington Bookshop, who kindly donated unsaleable stock, to raise money for local projects.  

This lead to a rush, as the SE11 literati mafia stormed in.  

The Kennington Association were not the only people present in spiffing outfits...

You'd never, in a million years, guess that this photo was taken in inner-city London, would you?

Another general crowd shot that demonstrates how well attended this event was...  The organisers did a fantastic job, as usual...

You guessed right.  It's another cake stall!

These chaps (working for Tomorrow's People, a charity that enables young people to find worthwhile employment) are usually present, come rain or shine, outside St Anselm's Church on a Saturday, selling flowers and plants.  Business looked brisk today...

The only summer fete in England that can boast real French lobster!

Workers and volunteers from the Parish of North Lambeth, enjoying the fete and furthering consultation on the St Anselm's project (more on that this week...)

A bee-autiful mosaic, and some Lambeth honey:

The worker bees, keeping bee-sy at the Fete...

A fantastic day that attracts people from Kennington and beyond.  It's fair to say that a good time was had by all.  (However, if you happen to see yourself (or somebody you know) in one of the photographs, and wish me to remove it, please drop me an email.)

Iknit from Bonnington Square to Lower Marsh

Not SE11 related, but we wandered out to the wonderful haven of Bonnington Square, SW8, the other day, past where the Iknit knitting shop used to be. I'm not really into knitting, but the Iknit people are, and they've made knitting into something of a social activity again, so they deserve lots of points, because that can't be such an easy feat. And also, they're a local venture which, whilst based around business, appear to have a focus upon building the old fashioned community notion of "common good". Yay for them.

I always thought that the shop suited Bonnington Square (which is a beautiful tranquil jungle in Vauxhall), but they've been so successful in promoting their business that they've upped and moved to SE1. This is entirely forgivable because they've gone to the lovely Lower Marsh, one of /the/ best shopping streets in London, where you can do things like buy real books (Crockatt and Powell), healthy food (Coopers - if you go in early enough), coffee surrounded by Vespas (Scooterworks), vintage things (Radio Days - an utterly fabulous shop), real proper menswear (Trussons - and they're not rude about selling to women) and some outrageous outfits for visiting your granny (Honor). So Iknit are there now too, and the street gets huge marks for having relatively few chain stores. (Yes, I really think Lower Marsh, Waterloo is much cooler than Oxford Street, but being that the Three Wheeled One is the exemplification of anti-cool, that's not saying much).

Being an anti-essentials-consumer (where essentials for me are basically food, books and second hand clothes), I'm happy to report that all of those shops are shops where browsing is possible and one is not pestered! And for people that really like old fusty book shops, do check out "Second hand books" in 20 Lower Marsh, where they probably win my award for the friendliest welcome in London! (Ahem)