Farewell Kudu

 So it appears that the South African restaurant on Nunhead Lane, Kudu, has closed.  We found out about it from the Guardian, because - it seems - they are closing their eateries in Peckham to be able to launch a swanky new place in Marylebone.  Grace Dent has reviewed the latter.

We were never that attracted to Kudu, to be fair, despite the fact that they seemed to have a good reputation amongst foodies.  It seemed very meat- and - barbecue- oriented, and for a long time the non-meat options weren't enticing.  That did change before the end, but it is too late now...

So, farewell Kudu.

To be totally honest, we felt the loss of the wonderful Babette's from the same physical building far more.  That was a joyous, quirky and eclectic French bar/restaurant, with a rich and enjoyable range of food and drinks, presided over by the eponymous Ms B.  And they did very good work to support the local community over the pandemic lockdown. 

We were very, very sad when they closed down.

However, it is probably worth remembering that the site - at 57 Nunhead Lane - has taken on many other guises over the years.

And as we asked before, what next?


 

Farewell: No Fireworks

 Fifteen or so years ago we wrote about the Pyrotechnists' Arms.  It was never our favourite watering hole, but it had a great name and a fine and quirky history.  Albeit a mildly contested one.

Sadly, however, it is now shuttered and closed. 

Whether or not it is a loss as a pub, we can mourn the  loss of the name....

The Pubs Around Nunhead 25: Top 10!

A month or two after publication, but we at thr Trees thought it was worth sharing.

The otherwise perfidious Time Out magazine has published a list of the Top 50 pubs in London.

The #1, two of the top 10, and four of the top 25 are local to Nunhead/Peckham.

The top 10 are:

1. Skehans, Nunhead

2. The Southampton Arms, Gospel Oak

3. The Coach & Horses, Soho

4. The Duke, Bloomsbury

5. The Chesham Arms, Hackney

6. The Tavern on the Hill, Walthamstow 

7. The Blythe Hill Tavern, Catford 

8. The Cow, Notting Hill

9. The Salisbury Hotel, Harringay 

10. The Ivy House, Nunhead. 

The Prince of Peckham is at #19 and The Gowlett #23.

Other pubs of note are the Mayflower in Rotherhithe (#35), the RVT (#44) and the Camberwell Arms (#46).     

To be fair, we have only visited 8 or so of them.   

Work to do!

The Pubs Around Nunhead: 24 - Pubs Under Pressure

It is well known that the hospitality sector is suffering badly at the moment.  And we fear that, as we're treating the virus with some seriousness, and shielding, we personally are not helping.  Although, it is probably quite a good thing for our liver and mental health.

Anyway, when chef Tom Kerridge included a piece on a Nunhead pub in his recent series on "Saving Britain's Pubs," we at the Trees had to watch.  So which of the various local hostelries we have discussed over the last many years would he visit?  The Rye, The Nuns?  The Pyro or The Man of Kent?  

No, he went to chat to the owner of a pub we have barely mentioned in all this time - the Golden Anchor on Evelina Road.  We did mention it in passing, just the once, in 2012, during the first of this brief series.  But that is all.  And we have never crossed the threshold. 

To be fair, it was an interesting programme, about how such business might survive repeated lockdowns and restrictions.  Then Tom - in his role of avuncular expert sorting out her business - took the landlady to have a look at another nearby pub, that is doing quite well, given the circumstances.   Well, a lot to choose from, still, we thought, so surely now we will see something familiar?

Nope.  The Prince of Peckham.  Not even in Nunhead. 

Never been in there either.

Oh well.

The Last Few Weeks in Pictures

We are all currently in social distancing, sensible lockdown.  A lot has been happening.  In no particular order, here are some of the events here at Trees, in the last few weeks, in pictures.

Welcome to my world...

Rainbow Table

Nunhead Community Centre Review

From the Guardian.

Including:-


The thing about public architecture is not only that it is public but also that it is architecture. That is, as well as housing facilities that everyone can use, it arranges them in spaces and with materials that enhance and sustain these uses, and makes connections between the elements and their surroundings that enrich the social experience of being there, rather than simply arranging the functions in a series of task-fulfilling cells. In which it helps that the Green is not considered on its own, but as part of a wider plan that includes Nunhead Green (Pevsner: “a pathetic scrap of grass and asphalt”), an open space that has been renovated to the designs of AOC. The whole project is paid for by new houses for private sale, not yet built, designed by the same architects.

Externally, AOC saw their job as pulling together the multifarious surroundings: a Tudorbethan pub, terraced houses of Georgian proportions. There are the almshouses built in 1852 by the Metropolitan Beer and Wine Trade Society, whose “yellow-brick gothic front of some character” and “oddly angled chimneys” were for Pevsner Nunhead Green’s only redeeming feature. The new building – brick, gabled – has something in common with all of these. It is house-like, but also has a massy, slightly pugnacious quality that comes from making the mortar the same colour as the reddish brick (it makes the building seem hewn from one mass), and has a “lantern”, a projection at the peak of the gable containing high-level windows, that is intended to announce the presence of a public place. A pattern of herringbone bricks borrowed from the pub, but blown up in scale and realised in bas-relief, enliven one wall. The row of new houses alongside, banded and gabled and with a Dutch-Danish flavour, are designed to ease the transition in scale from four storeys on one side of the green to two on the other.
Find the whole thing here....

The comments at the bottom contain a more critical view. Including:-

I've read a lot about this building and no one seems to have noticed or mentioned that the height of the building is excessive. Being on the west side of the green, 'The Green' blocks out the evening sun from the front seating area of the Nun's Head pub, which used to be absolutely lovely until 9pm. 

Now you lose the direct sunlight and the warmth from about 7pm onwards. Clearly nobody involved in the design ever considered that, or they did but didn't care. It's a shame. 

I appreciate it is a wonderful centre in terms of use and community but the unpopular fact I mention above has been swept away and ignored because of that

They're Back!!

We sat in The Old Nun's Head Waiting.  The atmosphere was electric...

... and then they arrived! 

There were lots of people, including several famous Nunheadonians...

The Nunhead Community Choir let rip...

...Locals indulged themselves...

(...we noticed a new fashion in Nunhead-themed bags...)

..and the ukeleleista started up again (and as we write, I suspect they haven't stopped).

So, all in all, I think we can safely say that Nunhead's Bounds have been well and truly Beaten.

Beating the Bounds of Nunhead

The great Lewis Schaffer tells us that he is organising "Nunhead Beats the Bounds" - on Sat 20 July 2pm to 4pm.

He's distributing flyers like billy-oh - do meet up with him in the Old Nun's Head, on Sat 13th at 1pm, to help him organise!

Pope

Best joke I heard last week, from the Old Nun's Head:-

Q: "What will they call the Pope when he's retired?"







A: "Ex-Benedict"

Wandering 2

And so for the second half of my wander, I headed for the beating concrete heart of Durham student life - Dunelm House and Kingsgate Bridge.  Very concretey...

Mind you, the view from the bridge is quite pleasant...

... and we discovered later that there was a punk concert in Dunelm that night, which explained the large numbers of Mohicans and pierced noses roaming the city.

Anyway I went on to the real heart of Durham, the peninsula, with its long...

So these next few offer a far more traditional view.

I only ever climbed the cathedral tower once.  The view was of course stunning (from what I can recall), but I was terrified and never went up it again.

Leaving the Cathedral, I strolled down Saddler St.  Some places seemed wholly unchanged since the '70s.  Certainly Mugwump was - by memory - just as annoying a shop then as it seemed to be now.  Full of new age crystals  - I was incensed (joke). 

And I was never really a fan of the Shakespeare - too much Northumbrian fiddle for my taste.

Other places on Saddler were newer, if equally unpreposessing to my taste:

...but I always loved this view down Elvet Bridge...

... and this restaurant also seems to have been there for ever... although it may have had another name then?

And finally the view from Framwellgate Bridge

So the only one of the old bridges I missed was Prebends.  Never mind, maybe next time...