Living in Kennington

Kennington is central London that behaves like a residential neighbourhood. Westminster and the South Bank are a walk away, yet the streets behind Kennington Road are Georgian and early-Victorian terraces with little through traffic, and Cleaver Square, with its single pub and gravel pétanque ground, feels a long way from the river.

The Oval cricket ground dominates the south end of the area, and on match days the streets around Oval station fill with spectators; otherwise it is a quiet presence. Kennington Park provides the main green space, with a café, sports courts and a flower garden, and the Imperial War Museum sits in its own park on the northern edge, towards Lambeth North.

On the Northern line, Kennington is where the Charing Cross and Bank branches meet and where the extension to Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station begins. That gives residents a choice of routes into the West End or the City, though it also means the station is a place people change trains, and the platforms can be busy. Buses up Kennington Road reach Waterloo in minutes.

The housing stock is split between those period terraces, many of them listed and expensive, and substantial council estates, which is why the area feels mixed rather than exclusive. The practical limitations are shops and food: there is no single high street, so most weekly shopping means Elephant and Castle, Vauxhall or an online order. People move here for the location and the quiet streets, not for things to do on the doorstep.