Property

Is Kennington Lane London’s gayest thoroughfare? Starting out from queer cabaret mecca the Royal Vauxhall Tavern (No 372; 020 7840 0596), it can certainly seem that way, with the blacked-out South Central (No 349; 020 7793 0903), home of self-explanatory nights like Chunk, and fetish haunt The Fringe (No 330) literally a block away. Even tiny local boozer the Little Apple (No 98; 020 7735 2039) flies the rainbow flag. However, anyone thinking of heading south for a life of singleton debauchery in ‘Vauxhall Village’ should be warned: one-bedroom bachelor pads in this Zone 1 enclave are expensive and hard to find. Feature continues

The area is more characterised by a mix of terraced Georgian family homes, 1930s mansion blocks (the sprawling, 34-block Vauxhall Gardens estate) and – at the Elephant & Castle end – a fairly forlorn run of ’60s council flats. Of the side roads, Tyers Street offers residents the unique sensation of walking to the tube past giant exotic breeds of rabbit as it’s home to Vauxhall City Farm. On streets south of Kennington Lane, the sights are more prosaic: two giant gasometers, the modern curves of the Oval cricket ground, and lots of light industrial units.

Like the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, the impressively austere St Peter’s Church (No 310) is blackened by traffic. Built in 1863 by John Loughborough Pearson, designer of Truro Cathedral, it originally incorporated an orphanage, clothes workshop and art school. Demonstrating similarly lofty ambitions is the relocated Lilian Baylis Technology School (No 323). Conservative front-bencher Oliver Letwin might have rather ‘begged in the gutter’ than send his children here, but in 2005 it was rated as the ‘most improved’ comprehensive in London. The only other building of any scale is a typically vulgar (but much-needed) branch of Tesco.

Most of the really characterful property is to be found halfway down the Lane, around the crossroads with Kennington Road. It’s here that the Black Prince built Kennington Palace in the fourteenth century. And though there are no signs of it today, the Duchy of Cornwall still owned 45 acres around these parts up to 1990, including the splendid cottages of Courtenay Street. With trailing ivy, arched windows and matching white, wrought iron entrances, this is the chocolate-box London of Richard Curtis films with Big Ben twinkling in the distance. The street’s proximity to Parliament gives an idea of the kind of residents it attracts, though there are some cheaper terraces further along. All the neat, adjoining Courtenay Square lacks is a pub, something that the nearby – and equally pricey – Cleaver Square can boast in the excellent Prince Of Wales (No 48; 020 7735 9916). Those seeking similar period grandeur but just the one bedroom should double back on to Kennington Lane for the Imperial Court development, carved out of the grand, pavilion-like Licensed Victuallers’ School.

The villagey feel of the squares is maintained by Windmill Row just before the crossroads, with artist Elizabeth Cope’s Open Studio striving to lend it a bohemian air, though the antiques shop next door has now closed. All around the tiny Triangle Estate the shops have colourful façades. In the summer, Thai Silk (1 Windmill Row; 020 7735 9338) grills meat and seafood in a rear courtyard and many of the houses have blooming balconies, just visible from street level.