Kennington: One In, One Out..?

The saga that is the Mansion House appears to be reaching a climax, with talk in the trade of an opening later this week, and some kind of smoke signal appearing on the horizon on Oaka's London website.

I'll believe it when I see the doors open and beer on the bar. Many Oakham fans can tell you the year they were first offered free beer vouchers at an Oakham bar at a fest - GBBF, Peterborough - and the excitement of this time last year was a bit of a false dawn.

Delayed licence application, then a revised application submitted a month after they finally got approval, which seemed to test the patience of Lambeth Council's Licensing Sub-Committee; the sale of the posh flats over the pub, with one prospective occupant posting on a local blog that he'd been assured of 11pm weeknight closing, even as Oaka were asking for a 7-day, 4am licence! Cheeky sods. They've been through meetings with Guinness Trust, the Kennington Association (though we on the nearest council estate weren't deemed worthy of any special consultation).

My gut feeling (and it's an impressive gut) is that they won't open this week. Hoarding is still up, no sign of activity in the bar space, no external decs completed. Still, I hear there are ten beer engines going in, so some guest beers should be on offer alongside the usual Oakham suspects.

The other local news is that their next door neighbour, the Antic-operated Old Red Lion, is suddenly apparently boarded up and on the market. A subsidiary of the Antic PubCo, Antic Ltd, has been in administration for some weeks, and while the administrators were quoted as saying they felt the business might be disposed of as a going concern, and there had been some interest, in the meantime it looks like some Antic pubs will go to the wall. A google search of the Old Red Lion shows a link to the Antic Ltd site but the pub no longer appears on the page which loads.

It was quite a nice pub with a friendly manager, but I won't be shedding any tears. The Antic pubs I've been in are OK, but not craft enough for my tastes. Sort of like hipster Wetherspoons'. I am wondering if the administrators looked next door and perhaps took the view that The Mansion House would see the Old Red Lion off. Who knows? (see below) Sad, but hopefully the pub won't be lost as an amenity. I also find myself wondering about the future of the Camberwell brewery Antic were building. I heard at Xmas that they'd decided to buy an all-new plant, rather than go with the old kit they acquired from Meantime. What will happen to that?

So, it's now up to The Mansion House to try and keep me on the manor for a pint. More news once the place is open...

Boggle Out.

UPDATE: Who knows, indeed? Not me or my source. After the first comment was posted, I checked myself and the sale board is for a small retail premises which sits between the Old Red Lion and Mansion House. It looks like part of the pub, and I can't ever remember it being in use. So, anonymous commenter, thanks for the info, and sorry to the Old Red Lion. Reports of your demise were greatly exaggerated...

Oh, and it seems my Gut of Fate is right. Latest is that the Mansion House will open on March 1. A bloke was up a ladder working on the facade earlier today.

Mansion House - Oakham Splits The Difference

Oakham finally got their licence for The Mansion House on Kennington Park Road, but they had to concede some of their original application wish list during the licensing sub-committee hearing, and there's a high level of assurance being loaded on the operator in order to assuage residents.

Local middle-class busybodies, The Kennington Association (KA), presented evidence indicating the late licence was out of step with all other local pubs and bars, and it transpired that there is no proper licence for street drinking or dining, meaning the outside dining/drinking and accompanying music has gone. Oaka didn't contest the assertion that street drinkers from Vauxhall were migrating to Kennington as a result of street clean-up work in the former neighbourhood, so stringent controls on late-night access and noise are also a part of their licence.

The biggest cause of uproar, the proposed opening hours, have been constrained to those in force the last time the pub was licensed, in 2008. So, from Sunday to Wednesday the pub will have to close at 12.30am, and they'll get an hour extra at weekends, to 1.30am.

There are some other snippets of info about the new place. This made me grin...

Off sales of alcohol were being sought in order that sealed 3-4 pint jugs of real ales could be sold to members of Camra

So, if there's any street drinking problems around Kennington Park Road, it'll be down to Kevin. At least, according to the KA. I wonder if buyers will have to produce their membership card to get a jug?

Sadly, the pub will be family-friendly, so I expect there'll be occasions when the place is filled with the grizzling of brats off the leash. I remember The Florence hosting a yummy mummies' coffee morning during one visit. Strollers and buggies in a pub is just wrong.

Apparently the refurb is almost complete, though you'd never know it from the outside, so at last, a decent destination pub in Kennington.

The full minutes of the meeting are here.

Drops Of Beer

Some recent beer experiences.

PLIP! Sainsbury's at Nine Elms. At the checkout. I'm wearing a Moonlight Brewing 'Death & Taxes' tee shirt. The old(ish) dear on the checkout notices the shirt and asks what it means. It's an American brewery, I inform her. "American? Have you had that Goose Green beer?" Would that be Goose Island, I venture. Her face lights up. "That's it! I don't usually like beer, but I like the flavour of that one!"

See? Craft beer isn't just for da kidz. And I bet my checkout operator didn't have to spend £13 for it. I don't know where the lady got hers - I haven't seen it in Sainsbury's, though Tesco's lists it, along with the other 2 members of the US Craft Trinity of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Brooklyn Lager (I'm overlooking Blue Moon on purpose, before you comment). I wonder how long it will be before interesting UK beers in bottles start showing up in supermarkets, and yes, I'm also overlooking BrewDog. But they have the right idea, seems to me.

PLOP! Smart Phones. A lot of people have 'em. Not me - I'm habitually 3 or 4 generations behind the current technology. I'm That Bloke who bought a netbook. Anyway, Smart Phones are the thing. And the 'apps' that stamp your personality on them.

At The Harp at the weekend, somebody shows me a beer app. It's called YourRound, and it's a database that allows the drinker to search beers, pubs and even festivals. Say your favourite beer is Dark Star APA. You can search your locale to see who is selling it. Or you can check in at your local to see what they have. The app relies on brewers and pubs to sign up and keep the database current, but Binnie's son Alan was enthusiastic about it being quick and simple for staff to change the listing at the pub when they change a barrel, and if a fast-turnover pub like The Harp can do it...

You also get tasting notes and info on the brewery. I believe other apps are available that do similar things, and it seemed a clever way to simplify finding the beer you want. And it would save the pub or bar having to take to social media every time they change their beers. I think the YourRound app is free to download at the moment.

PLAP! I'm not sure if anybody else picked up on this in the Independent in mid-June. Beer is on the verge of a breakthrough in India, with a tiny but fast-growing brewpub niche. Another sign of the global reach of craft beer? How long before they have tickers and spoogebeerians? Hopefully they're a long way from that.

PLOOP! The Mansion House licence application is up before the Lambeth Licensing Sub-Committee on 17th July. The application doesn't appear to have been modified, so they still seem to be asking for that 24/7 4am closing.

Oakham In Kennington? Not Just Yet...

London Borough of Lambeth has published the minutes of the most recent licensing sub-committee meeting. Therein we find

THE MANSION HOUSE, 48 KENNINGTON PARK ROAD,
LONDON SE11 4RS (PRINCE'S WARD)
This application was deferred to a future meeting at the request of the applicant’s representative.

They don't say why, but I can imagine somebody at Oaka got jittery, considering the depth of opposition to their proposed opening hours.

In the meantime, the pub remains a building site. I'll keep an eye on future meetings for updates.

Oakham In Kennington: Licence Application Decision This Week

In the last gripping instalment, Lambeth Council had put the Mansion House licence application out for consultation, with the local scuttlebutt revealing public nuisance concerns which could delay opening.

The licensing sub-committee will be considering the application from OAKA on Wednesday of this coming week, with 27 representations dealing with public nuisance to consider, including one with 12 signatories from the Guinness Trust estate across Kennington Park Road. The local Police Licensing Team have also made representation on similar grounds.

I had a chat with John, who manages the Antic-operated Old Red Lion next door, and he appeared unfazed by the likely craft beer competition. His licence is 9 to 12 but weeknight closing is 11pm, and he thought OAKA might get a 1am finish at weekends, which he said would suit him as he would be able to close on time.

In the meantime, the Mansion House is still a building site, so if they are refused a licence this time around, I don't suppose there'll be a problem with loss of trade.

I'll update this post after Wednesday's meeting, once decision is made public.

Oakham In Kennington: More News...

It's been a couple of months since I wrote anything - life intrudes. The last thing I blogged about is the next, and it concerns the new Oakham pub in Kennington.

I contacted Oakham, who told me that their pubs are actually operated by a sister business, the Oaka Group. Oaka never got back to me with any info about opening etc. I wasn't asking for anything confidential - after all, there's a ten foot banner on the hoarding outside the building site that will eventually reveal, chrysalis-like, their pub. However, I did uncover a weird quirk which suggests that Oakham won't directly supply their pub. Instead, the lovely beer will come via Borough market's Utobeer.

Then I saw that their licence application to Lambeth Council had gone in. It appears as if the pub name will remain as The Mansion House, and that they are asking for a late licence to 4am. The offer will be real ale with pan-Asian cuisine and a range of entertainment, including dancing, film shows, live and piped music. They intend to have pavement seating as well.

My council insider said that some misgivings had already been expressed over the late licence, which could delay the application. This bit of Kennington has the tube station, but you need to walk 10 minutes towards the river to get to what would be the town centre, so it's possible the council would consider a 4am licence in a mostly residential part of the neighbourhood to be too much. I don't know what time Antic's Old Red Lion are licenced until, but their latest closing time is midnight. I'll keep my ear to the ground.

In the meantime, there's no sign of work being completed, so the May opening doesn't look likely right now.

Update: Neighbourhood blogger Lurking About SE11 has also picked up on the story. He notes a previous attempt to get late opening in a pub on Kennington Cross fell to opposition from locals. Lurking's call to action might be a bit too late (deadline for representations closed yesterday), but this one may run a while.

Oakaly Doakaly!

Back in 2010, when I was wandering around my home patch of Kennington in South London investigating the beer, I noted the old Mansion House pub on Kennington Park Road. Talk was Oakham had taken it and it was to be named OAKA.

Well, almost two years on, and the first Oakham pub in London is imminent. The old pub has been taken back to facade so flats can be built over the bar, and last week a banner appeared on the hoarding...

Oakham's website doesn't seem to have been updated for a while, so there's no info on there. I don't know exactly when 'soon' is, or whether the pub will still be called OAKA. I do know that a pub like this is great news for Kennington. It'll bring new business into the area - the pub itself is right on top of Kennington tube and on several bus routes - and hopefully encourage some of the lazy pubs on Kennington Cross to up their game. I'll be interested to see how it affects the Antic pub next door. The Old Red Lion appears to have upped their game in terms of beer - I saw Dark Star stuff being delivered there a month or so back.

I've asked Oakham for more info, which I'll share on here.